One week after Charles Leclerc’s victory at the 2026 British Grand Prix delivered Ferrari’s landmark 250th Formula 1 win, Formula 1’s official website has looked back at the ten most iconic victories in the history of the Prancing Horse. From legendary performances to unforgettable championship triumphs, here are the Grands Prix chosen by F1’s editorial team.
Victory #1 – González writes Ferrari history
1951 British Grand Prix
At Silverstone, José Froilán González secured pole position and battled the Alfa Romeos for victory while making just a single pit stop for fuel. That strategy allowed the Argentine to build a comfortable advantage over his rivals.
González crossed the finish line almost a minute clear of the chasing pack, claiming his maiden Formula 1 victory and delivering Ferrari’s very first World Championship success.
Victory #50 – Lauda’s first Ferrari triumph
1974 Spanish Grand Prix
Niki Lauda’s determination to reach Formula 1 unexpectedly brought him to Ferrari, even though the Scuderia was enduring one of the least competitive periods in its history, having gone through the entire 1973 season without a victory.
At Jarama, Lauda claimed pole position before losing several places during the early laps of a race held in mixed conditions. After switching to slick tyres during his pit stop, he fought his way back into the lead and remained there until the chequered flag. It was the Austrian’s maiden Formula 1 victory, Ferrari’s first win in two years, and the 50th triumph in the team’s Formula 1 history.
Between 1974 and 1977, Lauda added another 15 victories with Ferrari, making him the Scuderia’s second most successful driver of all time.
Victory #81 – Villeneuve’s heroic defensive masterclass
1981 Spanish Grand Prix
By the early 1980s, Jarama was approaching the end of its Formula 1 era, but its final World Championship race produced one of Gilles Villeneuve’s finest performances.
The Ferrari 126 CK was notoriously difficult to drive and seemed far from an ideal contender on the tight and twisting Spanish circuit. Nevertheless, Villeneuve qualified seventh, climbed to third at the start, and then overtook Carlos Reutemann to move into second place.
An error from Alan Jones handed the Canadian the lead, but he immediately found himself under relentless pressure from four rivals driving cars that appeared significantly quicker. Lap after lap, Villeneuve used the Ferrari’s superior straight-line speed to defend brilliantly.
After 80 laps, he crossed the finish line just two tenths of a second ahead of Jacques Laffite, with the top five drivers separated by only 1.2 seconds.
Victory #94 – Berger ends McLaren’s dominance
1988 Italian Grand Prix
McLaren had dominated the 1988 Formula 1 season with the legendary MP4/4, leaving very little for the rest of the field.
The Italian Grand Prix took place just weeks after the death of Enzo Ferrari, with the Maranello cars lining up on the second row of the grid. As expected, the McLarens immediately took control of the race, but Alain Prost retired with an ignition problem. Then, with just two laps remaining, race leader Ayrton Senna became stranded in the gravel after colliding with Jean-Louis Schlesser’s Williams while lapping the Frenchman.
Gerhard Berger and Michele Alboreto inherited first and second place, sealing a memorable Ferrari one-two finish in front of the passionate Monza crowd.
Victory #95 – Mansell’s surprise success
1989 Brazilian Grand Prix
Nigel Mansell joined Ferrari for the 1989 season after coming close to winning the World Championship with Williams.
Ferrari’s innovative 640, featuring a revolutionary semi-automatic gearbox, had suffered major reliability problems during pre-season testing. Combined with McLaren’s overwhelming dominance the previous year, expectations were understandably modest. Mansell qualified sixth at Jacarepaguá but stayed out of trouble while taking advantage of the misfortune of others to claim a remarkable victory. True to his reputation, there was even an unusual moment after the race, as he managed to cut his hands on the winner’s trophy.
Reliability, however, remained Ferrari’s biggest weakness. The Briton failed to finish the next four Grands Prix and added only two more victories before returning to Williams in 1991.
Victory #105 – Finally, Alesi
1995 Canadian Grand Prix
Jean Alesi had impressed from the very beginning of his Formula 1 career, but he arrived at Ferrari during one of the team’s most difficult eras, when McLaren, Williams and Benetton dominated the championship.
Between 1990 and the start of the 1995 season, he collected 15 podium finishes while repeatedly coming close to victory, including his heartbreaking retirement from the lead of the 1994 Italian Grand Prix. The breakthrough finally came in Montréal in 1995, on his 31st birthday. After inheriting the lead when Michael Schumacher was forced into the pits with technical problems, Alesi secured his long-awaited first Formula 1 victory.
It would also prove to be the only win of his Formula 1 career. Although he claimed another 16 podium finishes afterwards, he never again stood on the top step of the podium.
Victory #106 – Schumacher dominates in the rain
1996 Spanish Grand Prix
Ferrari signed reigning World Champion Michael Schumacher to bring championship glory back to Maranello, but the 1996 F310 was still an immature and extremely challenging car to drive.
Williams controlled the championship, but after missing a golden opportunity in the rain at Monaco, Schumacher found redemption in the torrential conditions at Barcelona. After a poor start, he quickly fought his way to the front and began lapping several seconds faster than the rest of the field. In a race where only six drivers reached the finish, just two rivals completed the event on the same lap as the German, who won by an astonishing 45 seconds.
Victory #134 – The World Championship finally returns
2000 Japanese Grand Prix
Michael Schumacher went on to claim 72 victories with Ferrari, making him the most successful driver in the Scuderia’s history.
Although Ferrari dominated Formula 1 between 2000 and 2004, perhaps no victory carried more symbolic importance than the one achieved at Suzuka in 2000. After the heartbreak of 1997, 1998 and 1999, the World Championship once again came down to the final stages of the season.
Schumacher and Mika Häkkinen produced an unforgettable battle in both qualifying and the race. The German extended his second stint, emerged from the pits ahead of the Finn, and turned that strategic decision into the victory that secured his third World Championship and ended Ferrari’s 21-year wait for the Drivers’ title.
The two crossed the finish line separated by just two seconds, almost a full minute ahead of the rest of the field.
Victory #237 – Leclerc conquers Monza
2019 Italian Grand Prix
Charles Leclerc had seen his first Ferrari victory slip away in Bahrain because of an engine problem. During the 2019 season, Mercedes also remained the benchmark team.
The Monegasque finally broke through at Spa-Francorchamps, during an emotional weekend overshadowed by the tragic death of Anthoine Hubert in the Formula 2 feature race. One week later came Monza. Leclerc claimed pole position and then successfully defended against relentless attacks from Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas throughout the race.
He crossed the finish line just eight tenths of a second ahead of the Finn, sending the Monza crowd into celebration as Ferrari secured its first home victory since Fernando Alonso’s triumph in 2010.
Victory #249 – Hamilton’s first win in Ferrari red
2026 Spanish Grand Prix
The partnership between Formula 1’s most successful driver and the sport’s most successful team represented one of the biggest transfers in the history of the championship. However, the 2025 season proved deeply disappointing.
Ferrari was simply not competitive enough, and Lewis Hamilton needed time to adapt to his new environment, even reaching the point where he questioned his own performances.
In 2026, the SF-26 emerged as a much stronger contender, although it still trailed the Mercedes W17 in outright pace. After finishing second in both Canada and Monaco, Hamilton finally took the decisive step forward in Barcelona. Ferrari opted for an aggressive three-stop strategy on one of the toughest circuits of the season for tyre degradation. The race initially appeared destined to become a straight fight against the Mercedes drivers, but a perfectly timed Virtual Safety Car worked in the Briton’s favour, allowing him to secure his maiden Ferrari victory.
Lewis Hamilton had already won 105 Formula 1 Grands Prix, while Ferrari had previously claimed 248 victories. Yet this was the first time the two celebrated a Formula 1 triumph together.
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