11 Brits who raced for Ferrari in F1

1. Peter Whitehead

The amateur pre-war racer and RAF pilot is best known in F1 terms as a respected privateer who became the first man to convince Enzo Ferrari to sell him a grand prix car, then ran them in patriotic British Racing Green.

Whitehead’s place on this list is admittedly precarious. Only once was he entered for a world championship grand prix by the factory, at the Swiss GP at Bremgarten in 1950 – and he failed to qualify. But still – he ‘represented’ the Scuderia, even if he never raced, so for us that counts…

2. Mike Hawthorn

The ‘Farnham Flyer’ joined Ferrari in 1953 and immediately made an impact with a win at the French Grand Prix that year, beating Juan Manuel Fangio in an epic duel at Reims.

He came close to success in 1954 with three podium finishes and a second win in Spain, but what followed were a handful of inconsistent seasons with incompetitive machinery.

When Ferrari arrived in 1958 with the 246, Hawthorn was immediately lifted into the championship battle. A season-long battle with Stirling Moss's Vanwall went down to the final round in Morocco, and it was Hawthorn who prevailed to become the first British F1 world champion.

3. Peter Collins

Hawthorn’s ‘Mon Ami Mate’ earned Enzo Ferrari’s respect during his first season at the Scuderia in 1956, after giving up his own world title ambitions by handing his car over to Fangio at Monza.

The greatest of his three Ferrari F1 wins was surely his last, at Silverstone in 1958 when he drove to his limits to outpace Stirling Moss’s Vanwall. A matter of weeks later Collins died at the Nürburgring while chasing Tony Brooks.

4. Tony Brooks

Teamed with Moss at Vanwall in 1958, the pair generally had the better of fellow Brits Hawthorn and Collins at Ferrari – even if Hawthorn would end up champion. But when the British team withdrew following the death of Stuart Lewis-Evans, and with both Hawthorn and Collins having also been lost (this was the reality of a cruel and deadly era), Brooks found himself in a red car for 1959.

Victories at Reims and the Nürburgring put him in title contention, but this brilliant, intelligent man chose to pit at the Sebring season finale after being hit by team-mate Wolfgang von Trips. The stop turned out to be needless, but Brooks hadn’t known that. His life was worth more than a world championship, he’d reasoned – and he stands by that decision to this day.

5. Cliff Allison

Like Brooks, Allison was part of a stable of new-generation stars hired in 1959 – but after just six races his career at the Scuderia was cut short.

Following a second place in Argentina, Allison was hurled from his cockpit at Monaco and woke up in hospital speaking French, despite never having learned the language…

Sidelined for a year, he finally returned to F1 in a privateer Lotus in 1961, only to break both legs in an accident that ended a once-promising career for good.

6. John Surtees

John Surtees had a short but hugely successful tenure at Ferrari. Having only driven British cars during his early years in F1, he made the move to Maranello to reunite himself with Italian machinery with which he had been so successful during his two-wheel career.

Like his British predecessor, Surtees made an immediate impact at Ferrari as he won the 1963 German Grand Prix in his first season. He went one better in '64 with two wins and a world championship triumph.

Things eventually turned sour between driver and team. Maranello’s Machiavellian politics and his own quick temper put paid to any further successes, and he left Ferrari in a rage at the end of the 1966 season.

7. Mike Parkes

A brilliant engineer and accomplished sportscar racer, Parkes emerged from Surtees’ F1 shadow after John’s sudden departure.

Non-championship victories at the Silverstone International Trophy and at Syracuse in ’67 gave sign of his capabilities – only for a leg-breaking crash at Spa to end his F1 career prematurely.

8. Jonathan Williams

Only one F1 world championship start to his name – and he made it for Ferrari.

Motor racing was just a small part of Williams’s full, adventurous life. Signed during 1967, he mostly raced sports car, but stepped up to the F1 team for the Mexican GP and finished eighth – only to be dropped the following season.

9. Derek Bell

The future sportscar legend enjoyed a rich and varied career, but remains proud of his two F1 world championship starts for the Scuderia. Signed for Formula 2 in 1968, Bell was called up for the non-championship Oulton Park Gold Cup and then made his world championship debut for the team at, of all places, Monza.

A lack of opportunities forced him to move on in 1969, but he’d race for Ferrari again in sportscars.

10. Nigel Mansell

Frustrated by Williams’s lack of a turbo engine, Mansell became the first Brit to race a Ferrari in F1 for more than 20 years in 1989.

An unexpected fairy-tale victory first time out in John Barnard’s semi-automatic 640 proved a false dawn, but ‘Il Leone’ became a cult hero for the tifosi during two action-packed seasons.

He never quite connected with the Ferrari car, however, which proved to be horribly unreliable. Although he finished on the podium on 11 occasions over two seasons, winning three times in all, Mansell was ultimately outperformed by team-mate Alain Prost in 1990.

He returned to Williams for ’91 and achieved long-awaited world championship glory a year later.

11. Eddie Irvine

The Northern Irishman was an F1 rebel at Jordan, then enjoyed four comfortable seasons as Michael Schumacher’s ‘solid number two’ in the late 1990s.

After Schumacher broke his leg at Silverstone in ’99, Irvine found himself the unexpected focus of Ferrari title aspirations. He almost pulled it off too, as Mika Häkkinen and McLaren cracked under pressure. But after a Schumacher-aided victory in Malaysia, Irvine lost his mojo at Suzuka and Häkkinen prevailed. He moved to Jaguar for 2000.

Again, it’s now nearly 20 years since a Brit last raced for Ferrari. Like Mansell before him, is Hamilton the man to end that run? It seems a long-shot – but the best known, currently most successful and most commercially valuable driver in the world at the greatest F1 team of them all? That sure is a juicy recipe.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.