For people who love fast cars and tight corners, Formula 1 is one of the most exciting sports in the world. Like how the Patriots dominate football, one team dominates Formula 1. Scuderia Ferrari, Ferrari’s Formula 1 racing team, dominates the sport and have won the most championships of any other team. Here’s a brief look at Ferrari and how it became so dominant.

Ferrari’s passion

Enzo Ferrari, the founder of Ferrari, had always had a passion for racing. Before Formula 1 was called Formula 1, Ferrari raced his cars against Alfa Romeos, but in those days, Alfa Romeos dominated the track. Ferrari didn’t give up, however. Soon he developed a car and found a driver he believed could defeat Alfa Romeo. 

That car was the Ferrari 375 F1 and that driver was Jose Frolian Gonzales. Gonzales had immigrated to Europe to help Juan Manuel Fangio, who was also a race car driver. In 1951, Fangio was driving for Alfa Romeo, and Ferrari had recruited Gonzales to drive the 375 F1 in the British Grand Prix. 

Gonzales was able to expertly drive his Ferrari to the finish line before Fangio did and with that, Ferrari’s dominance in F1 was started. Ferrari would continue to innovate on its race cars and it would also continue to recruit the best drivers. In fact, Fangio would win a championship for Ferrari in 1956.

Ferrari would continue to win championships for decades. The most famous of these wins were the ones in 1975 and 1977 when Niki Lauda won the title for Ferrari. Lauda and Ferrari’s success became the basis of the popular racing movie, Rush.

However, this was when Ferrari’s dominance started to wane and Ferrari would go without winning for over 20 years.

Modern-day Formula 1

Although Ferrari would win the constructor’s championships during this drought, it wouldn’t win any driver’s championship until the turn of the century. In the year 2000 however, Ferrari would dominate Formula 1 completely and it’d win both the driver’s championship and the constructor’s championship for three years in a row.

This was also when Michael Schumacher started racing and winning for Ferrari. Schumacher and Ferrari would win from time to time. But now, things have become more competitive for Ferrari in Formula 1. 

Great drivers like Lewis Hamilton came onto the scene and great automakers like Mercedes and Honda started making very competitive Formula 1 cars. Presently, Ferrari doesn’t dominate Formula 1 like it used to. Competitors have caught up, however Ferrari is still a major and very competitive player in the sport. 

Why Ferrari?

To be a great team in Formula 1, you need a great car, a great driver, and a great team. Ferrari, for much of its history, had all three. Indeed, like How Stuff Works mentioned, Ferrari was able to win his first Grand Prix because of a combination of those three things.

Ferrari noticed that the Alfa Romeos that were dominating had powerful engines that ran out of gas really quickly. Ferrari chose to use an engine that was as powerful but more fuel-efficient, and in that way, Enzo Ferrari was able to help his skilled driver take the win in the Grand Prix. 

Such a mindset was what allowed Ferrari to win medal after medal but ultimately, other teams started catching up. Ferrari would make innovative cars and other teams would design even more innovative ones. Ferrari would sign a great driver, but other teams managed to nab the better one. 

In this game of inches, Ferrari is currently behind, but not by much. Ferrari has shown that it can learn from its mistakes and get the win.