From Prost to Vettel: Ferrari's biggest hits before Hamilton | FP

Lewis Hamilton: the latest arrival

“Everyone is a Ferrari fan, even those who don't admit it”. A phrase that Sebastian Vettel uttered shortly after the opening of his stint in Maranello, but which seems to reflect the value of the recent words of Lewis Hamilton. The Englishman, the Rossa's latest new entry, will only officially join the team in 2025, but she has already had the opportunity to indicate Ferrari as her childhood dream. Vettel and Hamilton: the last two of a list of champions who have landed in the Prancing Horse team with more or less satisfactory results from 1990 to today.

Alain Prost

Excluding the period from the 80s onwards, Ferrari's first market coup dates back to 1990and more particularly with a then three-time world champion Alain Prost. Rival of Ayrton Senna in the golden age of McLaren, the Frenchman passed to the court of Maranello as reigning world champion after the bitter controversy over the title won in 1989, obtained following Senna's disqualification for contact between him and the Brazilian at the last chicane of the Suzuka circuit. The climate that had now become unbearable in McLaren pushed the 'Professor' to start a new adventure in Ferrari, coming close to breaking the fast of Drivers' World Championships won in Maranello in the first year, losing the challenge with Senna once again for another controversial accident between the two at Suzuka. Seeking revenge, Prost was unable to count on a competitive Ferrari in 1991, going so far as to compare the 642 to a 'truck', back in Japan. A statement that put an end to his adventure in Ferrari.

Michael Schumacher

The chapter dedicated to the 'Kaiser', who signed for Ferrari in 1996 after two consecutive titles won with Benetton. After a complex initial season, Schumacher came close to the world championship in 1997, but lost the challenge with Jacques Villeneuve due to a contact in Jerez in which he was harshly contested and penalized with the cancellation of all the points won. Constantly improving in 1998 and 1999 (when he was the victim of an injury at Silverstone which kept him off the track for a good part of the championship), the German was the first Ferrari driver to become world champion in the 2000 for the first time since Jody Scheckter, who achieved the feat in 1979. From there, Schumacher achieved other four consecutive titles from 2001 to 2004, becoming a seven-time world champion and writing the most triumphant page in the history of the Scuderia. After a misstep in 2005, at the end of the following year he retired from competition for the first time following a long battle with Alonso.

Kimi Raikkonen

He became Schumacher's replacement in 2007 after five years at McLaren, Raikkonen made history that year. The Finn, in a season characterized by the Spy Story, managed to win his first and only career titlebecoming at the same time Ferrari's last world champion in F1. Winner of 9 GPs from 2007 to 2009, 'Iceman' retired from the Circus the following year, only to return from 2012 to 2021. In this period, the Finn opened a second parenthesis in Ferrari from 2014 to 2018taking his final career victory in the 2018 US GP.

Fernando Alonso

Schumacher's great rival in the two-year period 2005-2006, the Spaniard arrived in Maranello in 2010 with two world titles in his pocket and replacing Raikkonen. It was precisely on his debut that the current Aston Martin driver came close to winning the world championship, as in 2012. In both cases, however, he was outwitted by Sebastian Vettel. Winner of 11 races in total with the Red (the last of which also represents his last success in F1 in Valencia in 2013), Alonso mutually terminated his contract with Ferrari after a disappointing 2014.

Sebastian Vettel

Ferrari's last coup before Hamilton's took place in 2015when Vettel arrived in place of the Spaniard, fresh from four consecutive world titles in Red Bull from 2010 to 2013. Author of 13 podiums on his debut with the Red Bull, which is equivalent to a record, the Michael Schumacher fan graduated vice-champion in 2017 and 2018 behind Lewis Hamilton. However, following the mistake made at Hockenheim in 2018, the German was unable to repeat himself in the following two years, with only one victory and with the difficulties due to the arrival of Charles Leclerc in the team.