Let’s retrace the history of Carlos Sainz’s race number, never “worn” by a Maranello car. In the history of the Formula 1 championship it was used between 1950 and 1978.
As he has always done since he made his debut in Formula 1 in 2015 with Toro Rosso, this year Carlos Sainz will race with 55. A number never used by the 95 drivers who from 1950 to 2020 alternated at the wheel of a Ferrari car. In the history of Formula 1 there are just 10 drivers who took to the track at least once with this number.
THE FIRST WAS RUTTMAN
The first to use it was Troy Ruttman at the Indianapolis 500 in 1950 which at the time was part of the F1 calendar: the American qualified with the 24th time with a Lesovsky powered by an Offenhauser engine one second and two tenths from Walt Faulkner’s pole. In the race, however, he finished in 15th place, with 130 laps completed, 8 less than the winner Johnnie Parsons. The 55 was used on the Indiana oval 7 more times in the 1950s: the only one to use it twice was Eddie Russo, but it did not bring him good luck because in 1957 he failed to qualify while the following year he started but did not even complete the first lap due to an accident.
WITHDRAWALS
Several drivers suffered retirements with number 55 in Indianapolis, in the 11 editions (1950-1960) in which F1 competed, including Bobby Ball in 1952 (gearbox failure) and Jerry Hoyt in 1953 (overheating). Instead Jim Packard in 1959, at the wheel of a Kuzma, was unable to qualify. Best of all, so to speak, Al Keller went in 1956 with a Kurtis Kraft and the Offenhauser engine: 14th, 5 laps behind the winner, Pat Flaherty. Throughout the 1960s, no one used the number 55.
ANDRETTI BREAKS THE SERIES – The series was interrupted by Mario Andretti in 1974 with the rookie Parnelli VPJ4 and the Ford Cosworth engine. The Italian-American had left F1 in 1972 after a couple of years with Ferrari. He returned for the Canadian GP, taking an encouraging 16th place in qualifying, one second and 7 tenths behind Emerson Fittipaldi, ahead of 14 other single-seaters. In the race Piedone took no risks and took 7th place home one lap behind the winner. At the time, however, only the first 6 got points. Two weeks later Andretti even lined up on the second row at Watkins Glen, after setting the best time on the first day of practice and 3rd in the final session, 231 thousandths behind Carlos Reutemann. But the car had problems with the injection which led to the intervention of the mechanics with the car already lined up.
TWO RACES OF JARIER – Four years after Andretti, Jean-Pierre Jarier also used the 55 for two races, also in North America, but with Lotus: in the US East GP he set the best lap with even a second and a half advantage over the second best time of the day but ran out of gas with 3 laps to go and had to retire when he was third. In the following race, he took pole in Montreal and remained in the lead for 49 laps when he had to raise the white flag due to an oil leak. That day Gilles Villeneuve won, with his first success in F1.
THE 27 CHOICE – For 37 years the number 55 disappeared from F1, thanks to a numbering that for several decades favored the usual numbers, at least until 2014 when the drivers were allowed to choose an independent number from those attributed to the various teams. And so the red cars took to the track with the 7 (Kimi Raikkonen), the 14 (Fernando Alonso), the 5 (Sebastian Vettel) and the 16 (Charles Leclerc) while the historic 27, long associated with the Cavallino, became the trademark of Nico Hulkenberg. A choice that did not bring luck to the German since not even one of the 124 times he used did he manage to get on the podium.
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