Ferrari Formula 1 Team celebrates its 60th Birthday

Last week saw the Ferrari team celebrate 60 years in Formula 1, and with more than 200 Grand Prix wins under its belt, let’s take a look at the great race that started it all.

It was Round 2 of the 1950 Formula 1 world championship, Ferrari had four 125 F1 cars competing in the race, two factory team cars driven by Alberto Ascari and Luigi Villoresi and two privateer run cars driven by Raymond Sommer and Peter Whitehead. The Race was to be nothing short of an epic, filled with many highs and lows for team with it all starting before the race had even begun.

The team knew to have a poor result in qualifying would be disappointing though to have the cars arrive late would be disastrous. This was a scenario that the Ferrari Team had to deal with and forced both cars to start on the 3rd row of the Grand Prix.

Drivers Ascari and Villoresi knew they had to put this behind them and focus on the big race if they were to bring home a good result for the team. From the launch into turn one it was on, an incredible start from Villoresi saw the Ferrari jump to 2nd position by the first turn. Though this great start was to be rendered meaningless by the end of the first lap when an accident on track held up the Ferrari causing it to stall, Villoresi lost 1:18 to the rest of the field.

The remainder of the Grand Prix saw an amazing recovery by Villoresi jumping to 4th position by lap 10, 3rd position by lap 20 and incredibly 2nd position by lap 30, landing him right behind his team mate Alberto Ascari.

This great display of speed by the Ferrari 125 was soon to come to an end when Villoresi was forced to retire with a broken bearing, a heart breaking moment for the team in what seemed to be the perfect race for both drivers.

The race ended with a podium finish for the Ferrari team with Alberto Ascari claiming 2nd place, still a great result for the debut of any racing team.

60 years on, 799 Grand prix starts, 211 wins, 16 constructor titles and 15 drivers titles, the legend that is the Ferrari Formula 1 continues.