6 memorable Ferrari winners at the British GP

But sport doesn’t stick to scripts. After a poor start, Hamilton found himself tripped into a spin at Village by Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari, and although he put in a brilliant recovery drive, he was powerless to stop Sebastian Vettel stealing his thunder in the other red car. The British GP win record will have to wait for at least another year.

Professional foul? That was the unsavoury question raised by a disgruntled Hamilton and his Mercedes team in the aftermath. In fairness, such cynicism would be out of character for Räikkönen, who to most onlookers simply appeared to make a clumsy mistake under braking. That’s certainly more in character for the hapless Finn these days.

Whatever, no one at Ferrari will care a jot that its 17^th British GP win out of 69 World Championship races on UK soil cast a shadow over a scorching Silverstone day for the majority of the 140,000-strong crowd. Vettel has stretched his slight points lead over Hamilton to eight, and Ferrari can leave a grand prix considered to be something of a ‘bogey’ race for the team with a first victory at Silverstone in seven years.

But as this recap of six memorable Ferrari wins at the British GP only highlights, that drought is nowhere near the longest for Formula 1’s most famous and successful team.

1 1951: ‘The Pampus Bull’ charges the gate

Seven victories in the first 12 world championship British GPs gives some clue to the power of Ferrari when Formula 1 was in its first bloom. And its first, at Silverstone in 1951, was of huge significance in more ways than one.

Alfa Romeo had dominated the new world championship since its birth a year earlier at the WWII airfield, with its 1.5-litre supercharged 158 ‘Alfetta’. But a fierce and emerging threat was building momentum: Ferrari’s 4.5-litre V12 375 was ready to finish what it had started in France two weeks earlier, thanks to a burly, relatively unknown Argentinian in only his second race for the team.

A glance at any picture of Jose Froilan Gonzalez explains the ‘Pampus Bull’ nickname in an instant. The antithesis of the finely honed athletes of today, he was just what was required to hustle a fearsome V12 Ferrari around Silverstone’s featureless fast turns 67 years ago – as Juan Manuel Fangio in his ‘Alfetta’ found out.

The pair engaged in a close-fought duel, in which the lead switched back and forth. Fangio just couldn’t shake off the Ferrari. At the pit stops for fuel and new wheels, Gonzalez graciously offered his car to team leader Alberto Ascari who had already retired. But Ascari declined, allowing Gonzalez to claim a famous victory he thoroughly deserved. Alfa had been beaten in the world championship for the first time – and Enzo Ferrari savoured the sweet taste of a maiden F1 victory, at the expense of his old masters.

At season’s end, Fangio was champion (just) – but the game was up for Alfa Romeo. Its ageing Alfetta was outclassed and obsolete, and with no stomach (or finance) for the fight, it left the board to Ferrari. Ascari would win the next two British GPs during a record-setting unbeaten run across 1952 and ’53, while Gonzalez would add a second Silverstone win in ’54. The game had changed.

2 1978: King Carlos rules at Brands

After so much early success in Britain, Ferrari’s F1 history is peppered by glaring gaps between UK wins. After Wolfgang von Trips conquered Aintree in 1961, the reds would not win again in Britain for another 15 years – and that was only after an appeal weeks after the ’76 race that robbed James Hunt of his famous Brands Hatch victory and handed the somewhat withered laurels to Niki Lauda.

Two years later, Ferrari would claim a proper victory in Kent – but only in mostly fortuitous circumstances and at the expense of its estranged former champion Lauda.

Carlos Reutemann shared his Argentinian nationality with Froilan Gonzalez, but little else – at least in terms of looks. For this writer, no other driver exemplifies what a grand prix driver is supposed to be than mean and moody Reutemann – who was also magnificent (when he could be bothered).

Lauda was no fan, especially when Ferrari signed Reutemann in the wake of Niki’s fiery accident at the Nurburgring in ’76. Angered by the lack of loyalty and belief, Lauda stayed just long enough to win a second title for Ferrari in ’77, before bolting for Brabham.

By ’78, the stunning and once-dominant 312T3 was sliding into mediocrity, especially in the face of the ground-effect revolution led by the JPS Lotus 79s. At Brands Hatch, Mario Andretti and Ronnie Peterson duly locked out the front row, with Reutemann languishing on the fourth in P8. But this was a race that would come to him.

Peterson retired first with engine failure, then Andretti pitted with a puncture before his DFV also let go. New leader Jody Scheckter was under pressure in his Wolf from Alan Jones in the promising Williams – only for the Australian to suffer a driveshaft failure and the South African a broken gearbox. Now Lauda’s Brabham led from Riccardo Patrese’s Arrows, with Reutemann up to third.

A puncture would account for Patrese, and now Reutemann just had Lauda ahead of him. With no love lost between these two, even the glaring Argentinian must have cracked a small smile when he passed the Brabham for the lead as they lapped Bruno Giacomelli’s McLaren.

Victory for Ferrari. But now the drought would begin again.

3 1990: Prost keeps cool as Mansell boils over

Another 12 years would pass before Ferrari would win again in Britain. The 1980s would prove a tough decade for the Scuderia, with only patches of light breaking through an increasing darkness. But in 1990, a fresh era appeared to have dawned with the beginning of another new decade.

Suffocated by life with Ayrton Senna at McLaren, Alain Prost was enjoying the taste of clean air after his headline-grabbing move to Ferrari. And at Silverstone, he would claim a typically understated and stealth-like victory.

Home hero team-mate Nigel Mansell would inevitably steal the limelight, ‘Il Leone’ charging to pole position in front of his adoring public. Prost would qualify fifth, behind Senna and Berger in the McLarens and Thierry Boutsen’s Williams.

The early exchanges in this one were fabulous, as Senna caused dismay by leading Mansell into Copse, only for ‘Our Nige’ to snatch the lead before his nemesis made a rare mistake and spun. British fans were used to Mansell wins for Williams; now would he top that by taking a Ferrari to victory at Silverstone?

No. A gearbox problem began to hobble his charge. Prost coolly picked off Berger for second, the demoted his downhearted team-mate. Mansell’s 640 would eventually let him down completely, and in a dramatic walk back to the pits he would announce his retirement to amazed pressmen and TV cameras. This being Mansell, he’d soon change his mind.

Meanwhile, Prost serenely claimed his third GP victory in a row to slide into the championship lead. It wouldn’t end well, of course. But for the Silverstone faithful, this had been a rare sight: a Ferrari first past the post at the old airfield for the first time since Peter Collins won in 1958…

4 1998: Schumacher wins in the pits

The oddest ending to a British GP? Indubitably. Michael Schumacher often tended to have a rocky time at Silverstone. He’d win here in 2002 and 2004 during dominant seasons, but he’d also break his leg at Stowe in ’99 and endured the wrath of the FIA after ignoring a black flag in ’94. But in ’98 he and his Ferrari team got one over the hapless stewards in the most bizarre circumstances.

McLaren really should have won this race. Mika Hakkinen built a dominant lead in damp conditions, while his team-mate David Coulthard demoted Schumacher to third. But as the rain increased, DC spun out and Hakkinen survived a close shave after a high-speed spin at Bridge corner.

The Finn still led when the safety car bunched the field, but Schumacher – always fantastic in the wet – put the pressure on after the restart, and Hakkinen cracked, a grassy moment at Becketts costing him his lead.

But in the closing stages, there was a typical Silverstone twist. Schumacher was judged to have committed a yellow flag infringement during the safety car period – but the stewards had taken their time issuing a pitstop penalty. So Ferrari waited… and called Michael in on the final lap. The Ferrari crossed the finish line in the pitlane, then coolly served its penalty with the race already over.

The stewards had botched their issuing of the penalty. Adding 10 seconds to Michael’s race time was not in the rulebook and eventually the embarrassed officials rescinded the penalty completely. Ferrari kept the win, McLaren fumed when its appeal was turned down… and the stewards lost their jobs.

5 2003: Barrichello’s finest moment

You couldn’t help but like Rubens Barrichello. After a rapid rise via British Formula 3, the Brazilian never quite delivered on his early promise, but served six faithful seasons at Ferrari in the unenviable role as team-mate to Schumacher. Most of the time, Michael had Rubens beaten for pace – but not always.

The 2003 British GP marks a Barrichello filling in a Ferrari hat-trick sandwich, with Schumacher winning the races either side of what would surely be Rubens’ finest F1 victory.

This was a day when Barrichello would pass Kimi Raikkonen twice for the lead during a storming performance that shouldn’t be overshadowed by one of the most surreal moments in F1 history. A defrocked priest wearing a kilt and Tam o’ Shanter ran on to the Hangar Straight to lodge some kind of demented protest, risking not only his own life but those of the drivers who screamed past him at full speed. Terrifying.

Somehow it’s typical of Barrichello’s career that such a thing should have happened on a day when he legitimately stood on top of the F1 world.

6 2007: Räikkönen upstages Hamilton (legitimately)

Our final entry in this selection of Ferrari’s British GP victories centres around the two men who made the headlines once again at the weekend. That Kimi Räikkönen and Lewis Hamilton are still rivals in F1’s top two teams 11 years later says much about the longevity of modern F1 careers.

Back in 2007, Lewis was a raw rookie who had caused a sensation by the explosive start he’d made to his F1 career. Incredibly, he arrived at Silverstone in July leading the world championship and looking for a home win on his first British GP appearance.

Just as he did last Saturday, Hamilton secured pole position – but his McLaren was running light for the race. After holding off Räikkönen’s Ferrari in the opening laps, he pitted early for fuel and in his haste to get going, lost more valuable time by trying to leave with the fuel hose still attached. He was out of the running for victory.

These were the days when Räikkönen was still the complete package. He and Ferrari put in a perfect strategic performance to see off the threat by Hamilton’s McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso, for the Finn to claim his only Silverstone F1 win, in what would also turn out to be his sole title year. As a driver, he’s a different man today.

Alonso himself would win for Ferrari in ’11 before Ferrari’s latest Silverstone drought began. Will the reds, we wonder, wait as long again for British GP win number 18?