Races
Dream debuts
Racing for Ferrari is something very special. Some of the greatest champions in motorsport history have sat behind the wheel of the Scuderia’s cars during its 75-year history. Some of them have even won on their debut… It’s an elite band amongst the elite, and there’s often a bigger story associated with it.
Nigel Mansell did it back in the opening round of the 1989 world championship, a victory that was all the sweeter because Ferrari was debuting its radical new semi-automatic transmission. Mansell had qualifed sixth and in his usual laconic way joked that he’d booked an early flight home, so convinced was he that the new gearbox would fail. Instead, he won the Brazilian GP in memorable style, despite needing a new steering wheel during a pit stop…
The select F1 drivers who won first time out for Ferrari
But he wasn’t the first driver to win for Ferrari on his debut for the team. That honour goes to none other than Juan Manuel Fangio, a driver whose record is scarcely lacking in firsts. Having signed with Ferrari for the 1956 season, he duly won the opening round in Argentina, though he shared the victory with Luigi Musso. Musso, who was also making his debut for Ferrari, led the first 29 laps before handing the car over to Fangio whose car had suffered a faulty fuel pump. As was the custom in those days, the team leader was able to pull rank. Fangio then found himself dicing with Stirling Moss’s Maserati, whose pace was soon compromised by a fuel leak. Fangio even survived a spin to win the race, a victory for which he owed a substantial debt to Musso. It was also his first F1 race win.
Fangio, Baghetti, Andretti, Mansell, Räikkönen and Alonso all won for Ferrari on their debut
Giancarlo Baghetti’s victory in the 1961 French GP in Reims was so improbable it would make a good movie. Having won non-championship races in a Ferrari sponsored by FISA (that covered the cost of a fourth Ferrari car to offer a seat to young brilliant drivers) in Syracuse and Naples, where he competed against the likes of Stirling Moss, Jim Clark and Graham Hill, Baghetti arrived at Reims for his first world championship event.
He qualified his Ferrari 156 ‘sharknose’ in 12th place, and watched no doubt aghast as the three works Ferraris succumbed to mechanical problems. He kept his cool, though, and on the last lap overtook Dan Gurney to win by a margin of just 0.1 seconds. Baghetti had won his debut F1 race in a Ferrari, and remains the only driver to win his first three F1 races. A remarkable feat, matched only by the fact that he would never win again in anything.
Mario Andretti would enjoy greater longevity. Along with Phil Hill, he’s one of only two American drivers to win the F1 world championship, something he achieved driving for Lotus in 1978. He also managed to score a pole position in his debut F1 race, the US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen in 1968. He was more focused on IndyCars back then, but the popular Italian-American would soon find himself racing for Ferrari in sports cars, and took a win in a 512 S at Sebring in 1970. He joined Scuderia Ferrari the following year, and promptly won the season-opener at Kyalami in South Africa. “If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough,” Andretti famously noted.
Alonso set fastest lap and won by 16 seconds over team-mate Massa in Bahrain 2010
Kimi Räikkönen had the honour of replacing Michael Schumacher at Ferrari for the 2007 season; the German remains arguably the most revered Ferrari driver of them all – and certainly the most successful in terms of race wins. But the Finnish driver lived up to his Iceman nickname by securing pole position and the fastest lap on his way to a dominant Australian GP victory (in the same race in which a certain Lewis Hamilton would make his debut for McLaren, finishing third). There would be five more race wins that year on the way to a world championship – secured by just a solitary point.
Fernando Alonso also won while making his Ferrari debut, in the 2010 Bahrain GP, and was in the hunt for a world championship until the finale in Abu Dhabi. If it was a deeply frustrating end to an exceptional season, Alonso can take comfort from the fact he remains one of only a select group of drivers to win on their debut for Ferrari.