From Hawthorn to Hamilton, British drivers racing for Ferrari
F1 NewsWednesday, 01 January 2025 at 09:00
Commendatore Enzo Ferrari did not have much fascination with ‘garagistes,’ but he had high regard for drivers from the land where passion for motor racing is as deep and intense as in his own country.
Britain has produced ten F1 world championship-winning drivers, while joint second-place nations, Brazil and Finland, have three each. With the isles and F1's greatest driver, Lewis Hamilton, joining Ferrari in 2025, it's timely to look back on how British drivers fared in Red.
Hamilton makes no secret of the fact that he wants to end his career with an eighth title, and Ferrari is where he intends to do it. If he succeeds, he will emulate fellow Britons Mike Hawthorn and John Surtees, who were world champions for the Italian team.
To date, Ferrari has won 15 F1 Drivers' titles and 16 Constructors' titles.
Mike Hawthorn
Grand Prix starts: 45. With Ferrari: 35.
The first British Grand Prix winner and the first world champion—Mike Hawthorn—rode to success driving a Ferrari. His first race win came in the 1953 French Grand Prix at Reims after an epic battle with Juan Manuel Fangio, the pair changing lead several times in the closing laps of the race in the French champagne region. Fangio’s compadre and Maserati teammate Jose Froilan Gonzalez was third.
During the season, Hawthorn also won the Spa 24 Hour race with the 1950 F1 World Champion, Nino Farina. Hawthorn’s second Ferrari win came in the 1954 Spanish Grand Prix at Pedralbes. His third and final Grand Prix victory came in his F1 world championship-winning season, 1958, again at Reims.
The battle to be the first British world champion was won by Hawthorn by a single point over Stirling Moss at the Ain-Diab street circuit near Casablanca in October.
To this day, apart from Keke Rosberg in 1982, Hawthorn remains the only driver to have clinched the world championship with a solitary win throughout the season.
Sadly, Hawthorn did not live long enough to enjoy his championship glory. In January 1959 he was killed in a road accident in his Jaguar on the Guildford bypass in Surrey.
John Surtees
Grand Prix starts: 111. With Ferrari: 30.
Surtees won championships on both two and four wheels with Italian machinery. His transition from racing on two wheels to four wheels was smooth and swift.
He made his Formula 1 championship debut in the 1960 Monaco Grand Prix with Lotus. He was second in his second race, the British Grand Prix, and took pole position in his third race in Portugal.
He joined Ferrari in 1963, and after two podium finishes—third at Zandvoort and second at Silverstone—he took his first victory in his sixth start for Enzo at the daunting Nürburgring. This was his only victory of the season, and he was classified fourth in the championship.
In 1964, he made history by becoming, and to this day remaining, the only world champion on two and four wheels. Victories in Germany and Italy, plus four additional podium finishes, earned him the title.
The 1965 season was winless for Scuderia and Surtees, and he was fifth in the championship.
Surtees started his own Formula 1 team in 1970 and famously ran the Durex Safe Formula sponsorship in 1976. One of his drivers was fellow motorcycle legend Mike “The Bike” Hailwood, who gave the team their best result in Formula 1 with his second-place finish at Monza in 1972.
It was an ironic tragedy that Surtees, who raced on two and four wheels in an extremely dangerous era of motorsports, would suffer from the death of his 18-year-old son Henry in a Formula 2 accident at Brands Hatch in 2009. Surtees himself passed away on March 10, 2017, at the age of 83.
Peter Collins
Grand Prix starts: 32. With Ferrari: 20.
He was born in Kidderminster, Worcestershire. His claim to fame before joining Ferrari in 1956 was partnering Stirling Moss to victory in the 1955 Targa Florio with Mercedes.
In his first season at Maranello, Collins captured his first championship victory at Spa-Francorchamps. The second victory would follow at Reims. He was third in the championship. In the Mille Miglia he placed second.
In the 1957 F1 championship, his best finish was third step of the podium at Rouen and the Nürburgring. He won the non-championship Syracuse and Naples Grands Prix.
In 1958, he scored a popular victory in front of his home crowd at Silverstone in July. In the German Grand Prix on August 3, Collins was in pursuit of race leader Tony Brooks in a Vanwall when he crashed to his death on Lap 10 of 15.
Cliff Allison
Grand Prix starts: 16. With Ferrari: 6.
Allison’s career lasted sixteen Formula 1 races, six of them with Ferrari. He made his championship debut with Team Lotus in their first Formula 1 Grand Prix at Monaco in 1958. He was sixth.
The following year, at the same circuit by the Mediterranean, he made his Ferrari debut. His final race in the scarlet car came in the 1960 season opener in Buenos Aires, where he scored his only podium in second behind the race winner, Bruce McLaren.
A serious crash in practice for the 1960 Monaco Grand Prix put Allison in a coma for sixteen days and sidelined him for the rest of the season.
In life after racing, he returned to his family's garage business and passed away on April 7, 2005, at the age of 73.
Tony Brooks
Grand Prix starts: 38. With Ferrari: 7.
Tony Brooks - The Racing Dentist - was a four-time Grand Prix winner when he joined Ferrari for the 1959 season. His first drive in a red car was in the season opener in Monte Carlo. He qualified fourth and finished second behind Jack Brabham, the Aussie mate taking his maiden win in a rear-engine Cooper.
Brooks took his first Ferrari win from pole position in his third start for the Maranello-based team in the French Grand Prix at Reims. His sixth and final Formula 1 victory came in the only German Grand Prix ever held at the fast AVUS circuit in Berlin. It was a red sweep of the podium. Behind Brooks were his two Ferrari teammates from California, Dan Gurney in second and Phil Hill third.
Brooks finished his first and only season with Scuderia Ferrari as vice-champion behind Brabham. After leaving Ferrari, Brooks raced for Cooper, Vanwall, and BRM in his final season in 1961.
He went out on a high, reaching the third step of the podium in his final Formula 1 race at Watkins Glen. This was the first race at the upstate New York circuit. Scottish driver Innes Ireland gave Colin Chapman’s Lotus team their first taste of success in Formula 1.
The affable racing dentist passed away on May 3, 2022, at the age of 90.
Mike Parkes
Grand Prix starts: 6. With Ferrari: 6.
“Parkesi” was a Ferrari racer and engineer who took part in six Formula 1 events for the Scuderia between 1966 & ‘67. His dramatic debut came in the 1966 French Grand Prix at Reims, where he qualified third and finished second to Brabham.
Parkes’ only other podium finish came at Monza, where he started from pole position and finished second to teammate Ludovico Scarfiotti.
After his racing days were over, Parkes worked on the development of the Lancia Stratos rally car. He was killed in a road accident near Turin in 1977; he was only 45 years old.
Jonathan Williams
Grand Prix starts: 1. With Ferrari. 1.
Williams was born in Cairo, Egypt. He started racing when he moved to England. In 1966, he raced successfully in the Italian F3 and was hired by Ferrari for Formula 2 and sports car racing.
He raced at the Sebring 12 Hour and competed in a couple of Can-Am races in the United States.
His only Grand Prix appearance came in 1967 in Mexico City as teammate to luckless Kiwi Chris Amon. An F1 testing crash at Modena Autodromo marked the end of Williams’ association with Ferrari.
The footage from his Porsche 908 was extensively used in Steve McQueen’s movie Le Mans.
After his racing days were behind him, Williams took to the skies and became a professional pilot. He then retired and moved to Spain, where he passed away on August 31, 2014.
Derek Bell
Grand Prix starts: 9. With Ferrari: 2.
Bell’s career is ringing with success at Le Mans and in sportscar racing. Five wins in the French classic, three at the Daytona 24 Hour, and two sports car world championships.
Towards the end of the 1968 season, he was entered by Scuderia Ferrari in the Italian and United States Grands Prix. Both resulted in mechanical retirements.
His only championship point came from his sixth-place finish in the 1970 US Grand Prix with Surtees.
Nigel Mansell
Grand Prix starts: 187 starts. With Ferrari: 31.
Britain’s “Our Nige” was Tifosis “Il Leone.” The gutsy driver from Birmingham was an electrical engineer and had high voltage flowing through him on and off the track.
Enzo must have been immensely proud of Mansell’s incredible balls-to-the-wall move on Gerhard Berger at the fast Peraltada corner in the closing laps of the 1990 Mexican Grand Prix.
Mansell took pride in being the last driver signed to drive for Scuderia by Commendatore himself. He repaid his faith by winning on debut with the new John Barnard-designed semi-automatic gearbox Ferrari 640 in the 1989 Rio de Janeiro season opener.
His only other victory was at the Hungaroring, where he outfoxed his archrival Senna on Lap 58 of 77. Mansell was fourth in the 1989 World Championship. His second and final year at Ferrari saw him finish fifth in the championship; the only victory of the season came in the Portuguese Grand Prix.
For the 1991 season, Mansell went back to Williams and, thanks to the active suspension Williams FW14B, easily won his long-awaited and much-deserved championship in 1992. The following year he moved to the colonies and won the IndyCar championship—enjoying at one time the honour of being champion on both sides of the pond.
Oliver Bearman
Grand Prix starts: 3. With Ferrari: 1
This young bright star of British motorsports is a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy. In the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix at the fastest street circuit in Jeddah, he was called upon to replace a sick Carlos Sainz Jr. at the last minute.
Bearman beat the odds; he qualified eleventh and brought the car home in the points in seventh place.
A strong season in 2025 with Ferrari-powered HaasF1 is expected. It is only a matter of time before we see him galloping to race wins riding a prancing horse.
Eddie Irvine (Northern Ireland)
Grand Prix starts: 145. With Ferrari: 65.
The flashy driver and his ebullient manager, Eddie Jordan, went to Geneva for a business meeting. While the driver was feeding ducks at a pond, Jordan sold his contract to Scuderia Ferrari.
Irvine outqualified his then double world champion teammate, Michael Schumacher, in their first qualifying session together in Albert Park, 1996. After an impressive debut podium in third, his next podium appearance would not be till the third round of the 1997 season in Argentina.
Irvine finished the 1996 season tenth in the championship with eleven points. Schumacher was third in the standings with fifty-nine points. In 1997, Irvine was seventh in the championship with twenty-four points while his teammate fought for the championship against Jacques Villeneuve and was disqualified for his stunt in the season finale at Jerez after scoring seventy-eight points.
The 1998 season was again winless for Irvine, and he was fourth in the championship.
His first victory came in the 1999 season opener in Australia. Back-to-back wins in Austria and Germany helped to take the fight to McLaren’s Mika Hakkinen for the championship.
Schumacher, out of action after breaking his legs at Silverstone, was back in action at Sepang for the Malaysian Grand Prix. He not only took pole position upon his return to racing but surrendered the race lead to Irvine, not once but twice.
The Ulsterman would go on to win the race but lost the championship battle to the Finnish driver. He would never win again in Formula 1.
Irvine has gone on to enjoy immense financial success as a property developer in Miami.
Sir Lewis Hamilton cometh
Grand Prix starts: 356. Zero with Ferrari. The show commences on March 16, 2025.
Here comes Sir Lewis Hamilton to Scuderia Ferrari in January 2025. He will test a red car at Fiorano and stay at Commendatore’s casa at the track, a luxury previously accorded only to the high-flying Red Baron.
Once the racing season starts, Hamilton will not find a Bottas or a Barrichello on the other side of the garage. Highly talented and rated Charles Leclerc has his own agenda and score to settle. The man from Monaco is one of the very few on the grid today who can take the fight to Max in competitive machinery.
Hammer time will be clocking the fourth decade on January 7th. The most successful driver in the history of Formula 1 racing is still looking for the next magic carpet ride after he was cruelly robbed of a record-breaking eighth world championship on that Arabian night in December 2021.
The resurgence of Constructors’ Championship-winning team is a real threat and headache for the animal house—Red Bull and Prancing Horse.
Time will tell how the departure of Adrian Newey from Red Bull and the arrival of Hamilton at Ferrari will shape the fortunes of the respective teams.
One thing is for sure: fans are in for an exciting start to the wonder of the Formula 1 season in the land down under on March 16.
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