Formula 1: Ferrari the most overrated team in history?

Ferrari have been the most dominant and successful team in Formula 1 history. But they have had arguably the best driver in the field for almost every driver championship they have won. Are they the most overrated team in history?

Scuderia Ferrari have won 15 Formula 1 driver championships, the most by any team in Formula 1 history, and they have won 16 constructor championships, also the most by any team in Formula 1 history.

But at least 12 of those 15 driver championships were won by drivers who were the best drivers in the field, not necessarily because Ferrari had the best car. With that in mind, are they the most overrated team in history?

Ferrari won their first two driver championships in the 1952 and 1953 seasons with Alberto Ascari. They won again in the 1956 season with Juan Manuel Fangio, one of the greatest Formula 1 drivers of all-time.

They have also won driver championships with Mark Hawthorn, Phil Hill, John Surtees, Niki Lauda (twice), Jody Scheckter, Michael Schumacher (five times) and Kimi Raikkonen, of whom several are also considered among the greatest Formula 1 drivers of all time.

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Obviously driving for Ferrari was a big help to these drivers in terms of winning their championships. But in the cases of Fangio, Lauda, and Schumacher, they all won at least one championship driving for other teams as well.

Even though the list of champions who have raced for Ferrari is very impressive, take a look at the list of drivers who drove for the team and never won a championship doing so. This list includes Fernando Alonso, Mario Andretti, Dan Gurney, Jacky Ickx, Felipe Massa, Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost and Gilles Villeneuve.

Plus, Sebastian Vettel, who won four straight championships driving for Red Bull Racing from the 2010 season through the 2013 season, has driven for Ferrari since the 2015 season, and he has not yet won a championship driving for the team.

Along with Vettel, Alonso won championships driving for another team, as did Prost, Andretti and Mansell. This is not a good look for Ferrari. Plus, Villeneuve is known as one of the top Formula 1 drivers of all-time, but never won a championship and spent his whole career driving for Ferrari before he was killed in a crash during his fifth season as a full-time driver.

Ferrari have been carried by their drivers rather than their team throughout the years. In recent seasons, teams such as Red Bull Racing, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport and McLaren have provided their drivers with the best cars in the field in order to win championships, and it was the same story in the 1980s and 1990s with Williams.

If Ferrari can win a championship within the next few years with Vettel or Charles Leclerc and they can take it to Mercedes after several years of finishing behind them in the constructor standings, the idea of them being overrated may change. But they would need to pull it off numerous times to really make that be the case. As of right now, I can’t see then taking the fight to Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton.

I firmly believe that Vettel is a better driver than Hamilton. Vettel has been at Ferrari since the 2015 season, and the drivers who have won the championships that have been contested since then all won driving for which team? Mercedes. Hamilton has won three championships during this four-year span while Nico Rosberg won one.

dark. Next. Formula 1: Mercedes’ dominance by the numbers

It has seemed as though Ferrari need a generational talent to win their Formula 1 driver championships. Is Charles Leclerc the new generational talent they need to capture their first since Kimi Raikkonen won it in the 2007 season? It is still a little bit early to tell.

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