Lewis Hamilton’s arrival at Ferrari next year will make him the 11th British driver to race for the Scuderia. How did the others behave?
In the 74-year history of the official Formula 1 championship, Ferrari used British drivers ten times before the sensational signing of Lewis Hamilton ahead of the 2025 season.
In an ancient context, did British drivers in red behave well for the Scuderia?
Irvine signed with Ferrari at the end of 1995, and the Northern Irishman was signed to race alongside Michael Schumacher after impressing in Jordan.
Irvine proved worthy support for Schumacher’s title bids in 1997 and ’98, before finding himself taking part in the championship battle directly in 1999.
With Michael Schumacher sidelined due to a leg injury following a technical failure on the opening lap at Silverstone, Irvine found himself in position to lead the team’s aspirations into a name challenge.
However, Irvine struggled to impress and had to rely on some gifts from his teammates to keep his name alive in the fight. First, substitute Mika Salo helped him to victory in Germany, and Schumacher played at will with the McLarens in Malaysia to help Irvine to victory in his first race back.
This led to the tricky situation that Irvine was in contention for the name in the final at Suzuka, but Schumacher did his best to avoid Mika Hakkinen, who Irvine himself.
Irvine was unable to make a good impression in the race and, with Schumacher unable to prevent Hakkinen from taking the win, he lost out in the name fight. He joined Jaguar in 2000, and in the summer of 1999 had to end his tenure at Ferrari.
A dismal 1988 season, in which Judd without a Williams turbocharger proved uncompetitive, Mansell had to look elsewhere.
The British driver ended up being the last driver Enzo Ferrari would select and approve before his death in the summer of ’88, and Mansell’s time in red was greeted with jubilation by the tifosi.
Dubbing him ‘Il Leone’, ‘The Lion’, Mansell won his very first race for the Scuderia as he utilised the new semi-automatic gearbox on the Ferrari to win the Brazilian Grand Prix.
But it turned out to be one of the few peaks for the Ferrari/Mansell combination, with many retirements due to technical problems. In the two seasons he raced for Maranello, Mansell took a total of 3 wins and podiums.
Added to this is the fact that Alain Prost took part in a name race in 1990, taking wins that season and narrowly losing to Ayrton Senna.
After this humiliation, Mansell decided to retire, only to be cajoled through Williams after being promised number one prestige over Riccardo Patrese. Mansell won the name with Williams in 1992.
Derek Bell became famous as a successful sports car legend, but he took part in a few championship and non-championship appearances for Scuderia Ferrari in the late 1960s.
Impressing Enzo Ferrari with a Brabham BT23C in European Formula 2 in 1968, Bell was called upon to race Ferrari in five Formula 2 starts. Finishing third at Hockenheim earned him the green light for a Formula 1 championship outing, at the team’s home. race at Monza.
Bell stayed for a handful of Formula 2 and F1 races with Ferrari in 1969, but his opportunities with the Scuderia ran out. Bell’s first appearance at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Ferrari’s factory team in 1970, where he and his teammates failed. But Bell won the remarkable race for staying power five times over the next 25 years.
Egyptian-born British racer Jonathan Williams found his way into a Ferrari F1 car by happenstance more so than by dint of being highly desired by Enzo Ferrari.
Becoming a motorist in the junior categories, Ferrari hired him to race sports cars in 1967. But, with Ferrari defeating Lorenzo Bandini in a horrific crash at the Monaco Grand Prix, Williams showed up to drive after the death of its sports co-driver. Gunter Klass. in a twist of fate at Mugello.
Williams competed in the 1967 Mexican Grand Prix, qualifying and finishing eighth.
He didn’t stand a chance in F1 as his hopes of an Abarth-related assignment failed to come true. He continued to compete in some junior categories for another five years, before retiring as a driver. He passed away in 2014.
Having made a call even before moving into motorsport by winning several motorcycling world titles, Surtees got the call to sign up for Ferrari in 1963, after first competing for British teams.
The partnership had almost instant good fortune, as he won his first F1 Grand Prix at the German Grand Prix that season. Winning two races in 1964, Surtees became the first (and so far only) competitor to win world titles on two and 4 wheels by being crowned F1 World Champion.
There were no wins in 1965 and Surtees was fortunate to have fate changed at Mosport Park while testing a Lola sports car.
A win in Belgium in early 1966 set him and Ferrari up for a battle for his name, but Surtees and the team were battling it out in that year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.
With Ferrari entering only two cars for the race, Surtees found himself at the center of the drama – there are conflicting reports about what really happened.
According to Ferrari, each car allowed two drivers, and Surtees was excluded from the line-up entirely; the explanation was given by Ferrari team principal Eugenio Dragoni, as Surtees was not considered to be in the best shape after his crash in the past. 1965.
According to Surtees, he was placed alongside Luovico Scarfiotto in one of the Ferraris, and argued he should be given the first stint of the race as he felt he was the faster of the pairing.
Dragoni refused that request and Scariotto was given the starting job, perhaps to check it out and satisfy Fiat president Gianna Agnelli, his uncle, who was attending as a spectator.
Regardless, Surtees was dissatisfied and immediately left the team, which probably claimed the name of him and Ferrari in 1966. Surtees passed away in 2017.
Having been one of Surtees’ biggest thorns in sports car racing in the early 1960s, Parkes presented a second chance in F1 after making his debut in 1959.
Seven years after attempting to qualify a David Fry device at Silverstone, Parkes asked to upgrade Surtees, immediately completing the moment in France.
Parkes remained with Ferrari in 1967, finishing fifth at the Dutch Grand Prix and winning back-to-back non-championship races at Silverstone and Syracuse.
But a twist of fate that broke his leg at the Belgian Grand Prix ended his career and, even after he recovered, Ferrari was reluctant to let him race because of the price Parkes brought to the manufacturer as an engineer.
In addition to some sports car racing, Parkes focused on engineering over the next decade, adding to the game a prominent role in the Lancia Stratos. He died in a twist of fate in Italy in 1977.
The last surviving Grand Prix winner from the 1950s until his death in 2022, Brooks was the first driver (along with Stirling Moss) to win a world championship race with a British-made chassis by winning the Grand Prix of Britain 1957 with Vanwall.
Brooks and Moss had the measure of Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins at Ferrari throughout 1958; Brooks was called upon by Ferrari as both Hawthorn and Collins died in crashes.
A tall order for the name was fulfilled when he won at Reims and the Nürburgring, but, understandably, having been afraid to race cars in questionable mechanical conditions after injuries in 1956 and 1957, Brooks pitted for checks after a collision at the end of the season.
Having been hit by Wolfgang von Trips in the race at Sebring, Brooks pitted for over two minutes for checks. The car was fine, and Brooks’ caution – which he never regretted – ended up costing him any chance of the title.
Allison had inspired Ferrari for a short time with sports cars that displayed super speed.
Signed by Ferrari for 1959, Allison’s career was curtailed almost immediately after suffering injuries in a crash at Monaco that saw him hurled from the cockpit.
He lost consciousness in the accident and suffered a fractured left arm, damaged ribs, cuts to his face, and a concussion.
Returning to F1 with a privateer Lotus in 1961, he broke both of his knees and his pelvis in another crash during practice for the 1961 Belgian Grand Prix.
Allison decided to retreat to the town garage her family operated, adding local buses to the network; He passed away in 2005.
Like so many drivers of his time, Collins joined Ferrari off the back of a strong showing in sportscars – having partnered Stirling Moss in the Targa Florio in 1955.
In his first season with the Scuderia in 1956, Collins won the Belgian and French Grands Prix, but gave up his own name by voluntarily handing over his car to Juan Manuel Fangio after a mechanical failure in the Argentine’s car at Monza.
Collins dropped to third in the championship but earned the respect and loyalty of Ferrari.
In 1957, an obese and underpowered Ferrari prevented Collins, or his close friend Mike Hawthorn, from jockeying for the name; the two laughed at the start of a rivalry with Ferrari team-mate Luigi Musso, in which the British drivers split the prize money. or defeating Musso.
The last few weeks of Collins’ life read like something from a novel. Having deliberately damaged the clutch on his Ferrari, which was shared with Hawthorn during the 1958 Le Mans 24 Hours, Ferrari sacked Collins after he was found drinking in a pub in the UK even before the race had ended.
But Ferrari backed down and allowed Collins to race an F2 car until the end of the season – until Hawthorn, close friends with Collins, refused to drive unless Collins was given an F1 car.
Collins drove his assigned F1 car to fifth place and quickly returned, prompting Hawthorn to fly to Italy and break through the locked doors to locate Enzo and tell him he would not race again until Collins was reinstated.
The remainder of Collins’ career continued after Luigi Musso’s death at Reims, with Collins racing to victory at Silverstone. While he was keen to help Hawthorn win the title, Collins didn’t slow down from Ferrari and took the win. A few weeks later, however, Collins died in a twist of fate at the Nürburgring.
Hawthorn joined Ferrari in 1953 and, despite winning a race in his first year with the Scuderia, took until 1958 to launch a proper title challenge.
A spirited season-long fight with Stirling Moss went down to the season finale in Morocco, in which Hawthorn won.
The British driver opted to retire, after being distraught by the death of his friend Collins a few weeks earlier. Just 3 months after retiring, having begun writing a series of children’s books, Hawthorn died in a twist of fate in the UK while racing with a friend on the motorway.
Hawthorn’s death, which came so soon after that of his Ferrari teammate Collins, prompted Luigi Musso’s friend to make the following comments: Musso himself had died in a twist of fate a few weeks earlier.
“I hated them both,” Fiamma Breschi said after saying goodbye to her mortally wounded boyfriend in hospital.
“First because I was aware of some facts that were not true, and also because when I left the hospital and returned to the hotel, I found them in the square in front of the hotel, laughing and playing football with an empty glass. Beer can.
“So when they died too, it was liberating for me. Otherwise, he would have had unpleasant emotions towards them. That way, I can find a sense of peace.
Star of pre and post-war Grand Prix racing, Welshman Peter Whitehead and co-driver Dudley Folland were the first people to whom Enzo Ferrari ever sold an F1 car, purchasing a Ferrari 125 from the Italian in 1949.
The following year, Whitehead attempted to qualify the 125 at Monaco, but failed to do so.
He won a handful of non-championship races as a privateer driver with the Ferrari 125, but his greatest fortune came in sports cars, as he won the 1951 24 Hours of Le Mans, as well as the 1953 12 Hours of Reims and the 1954 12 Hours of Reims. .
He died in a twist of fate in the 1958 Tour de France when he and his half-brother Graham flew off a bridge into a ravine, shortly after the duo finished second in that year’s Le Mans race.
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