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Ferrari is not just a team, it's an emotion in F1. As the oldest and most successful outfit on the grid, it is a dream team for many F1 drivers. Throughout its history in the sport, it has been home to some of the greatest talents ever seen in F1.
In this piece, we rank the top 5 drivers to have driven for the Italian team. In the interest of keeping the list contemporary, we've excluded legends like Juan Manuel Fangio, Alberto Ascari, and John Surtees as these drivers drove in an entirely different era of F1.
Ferrari's top 5 drivers ranked
#5 Kimi Raikkonen
The last driver to win the championship for the Italian team, Kimi Raikkonen spent eight seasons with the team and is one of the more prolific drivers the team has had. The Finnish driver was arguably the best driver on the grid when he was picked up by Ferrari to replace Michael Schumacher in 2007. Raikkonen duly obliged by winning the driver's title in 2007, beating Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.
Ever since his win, Raikkonen's stock inside the team nosedived as he was released in 2009, a year earlier than his contract stated. The Finn, however, made a comeback for the Italian team in 2014 and played the supporting act to Sebastian Vettel until 2018.
Raikkonen may not be the best driver Ferrari has had in recent times. His ability to win the title in 2007 and stay with the team for eight years, however, qualifies him to feature in these rankings.
#4 Sebastian Vettel
Sebastian Vettel's relationship with the team has to be one of the most underwhelming partnerships in the history of the sport. The German joined the team in 2015 as a four-time world champion looking to emulate what his idol Michael Schumacher had done for the team.
The combination of Ferrari with all the resources in the world and Vettel, a four-time champion in his own right, was expected to be destined for greatness. During his six-year stay with the team, however, Vettel couldn't even come close to achieving the results he had hoped for.
The team never produced a car capable of a sustained championship challenge, while Vettel too developed a few shortcomings in his driving that didn't help. Concurrently, though, during his tenure, Vettel did put together consistent results with the car he had at his disposal. He would become one of the most prolific drivers, with the second-highest number of wins, to ever drive for the team.
Ferrari's top 5 drivers ranked (cont.)
#3 Fernando Alonso
Fernando Alonso's reign at Ferrari mirrors what Sebastian Vettel had with the Italian team. What the Spaniard brought to the table, however, was a tenacious approach when it came to racing. Alonso never left a point on the table while driving for the Scuderia, and despite driving comparatively slower machinery at his disposal, he almost won the title in 2010 and 2012.
While for Vettel, the blame for the failure of the partnership was still in the middle, in Alonso's case, his driving was never in question, he just never had the car to win.
During his partnership with the Italian outfit, he was consistently amongst the top echelons of drivers on the grid. To this date, he remains one of the best talents to have never won a title with the team.
#2 Niki Lauda
Niki Lauda was the first one that was essentially able to find the perfect synergy between the team and the driver. He was signed by the team as a driver that was quick enough to win the championships but was also astute enough to build a team around him.
Lauda did just that for the team and would win multiple titles during his tenure. Lauda was also involved in what was one of the most dramatic championship battles with James Hunt in 1976, which would add further mystique to his time at Ferrari.
Lauda may not have gotten along with the team at all times, and was more often than not at odds with Enzo Ferrari. He was, however, the first driver to perfect a method that made the team and the driver work in unison.
#1 Michael Schumacher
At number one, who else but the great Michael Schumacher? The Prancing Horse might have a varied history in the sport, however, it was he who turned the scarlet Ferrari into the icon that it is today.
Schumacher joined the team after winning two consecutive titles at Benetton to bring the Italian team back to its glory days. The team had not won a championship in more than a decade and it looked like a shadow of its glory days. The German transformed the team and turned it into a dominating force in F1.
A run of five consecutive driver titles and six constructor titles after a two-decade-long barren run surely makes Michael Schumacher the greatest driver to ever drive a Ferrari.
