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Ferrari had a terrible year in 2014. The first year of radical rule changes that the new V6 turbo era brought had caught them way behind the curve, if not exactly napping. The partnership of Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso meant that it was for the first time since 1954 that the Italian team had entered a season with two World Drivers' Champions. Alonso decided that Ferrari could not give him a race winning car anytime soon, went to McLaren - to recreate the magic of the Senna-Prost era. How the 'power of dreams' turned into 'bouts of nightmare' is well-documented. His team-mate for the year Kimi Raikkonen had a tough year too, having been outscored almost by 3 times with a points haul of 161-55.
Defending champion for that year Sebastian Vettel too had a whimper of a title defence with no race wins and soundly being beaten by Daniel Ricciardo who won in Canada, Hungary and Belgium. Vettel decided to don the scarlet and start afresh. Everyone wanted to including Kimi and Ferrari. A double world champion driver's line-up again to begin 2015.
Ferrari made immediate gains in 2015, with Vettel winning 3 races in Malaysia, Hungary and Singapore, but they couldn't threaten Mercedes. The story worsened in 2016 when they had no poles or wins. 2017 was a genuine step-up and Vettel had a serious shout of winning until his and Ferrari's season imploded in Singapore. The spectacular clash that involved Kimi, Verstappen and Vettel knocked the sails out of the campaign in which Ferrari had 4 poles and 5 wins.
After a lot of speculations, Kimi was renewed for his fifth year for 2018 and Ferrari came with a car that was genuinely the best one on the grid for a majority of the races. Kimi finally won for Ferrari after 113 races in a spectacular race at the Circuit of Americas, USA and sent the Tifosi into delirium after clinching the pole at Monza - clocking the fastest ever lap in F1 history.
Vettel though floundered his chance at becoming a 5-time world champion with his gaffes and spins. Ferrari won in Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Britain, Belgium and the USA and had 6 poles to finish runner-up to Mercedes yet again. The drivers having had their most successful year together, finished with 12 podiums each and 2-3 in the driver's championship. Kimi is still the last Ferrari F1 World Champion and the scarlet team's quest and wait continues. Next year, Kimi leaves to drive for his first ever F1 team - Sauber to complete a full circle and the Kimi-Sebastian era at Ferrari comes to an end.
The teammates were friendly and quite fond of each other and they can be happy in what they achieved in their 4 years together at Maranello.
PS. The end of era marks the beginning of the next. Fernando Alonso, if he were not to leave, would have been contracted until 2016. Many Ferrari insiders believe would have won the title this year with them. Turns out, neither did Ferrari nor did Alonso.
