Ferrari have not won the drivers World Championship since 1979 when Jody Scheckter and Gilles Villeneuve dominated the championship. Despite this Ferrari have won more races since the championship began in 1950 than any other team. Ferrari in Formula One is Formula One to many people. When the team wins, Italy is ecstatic and the country loves Ferrari, when it losses - the driver gets fired. That was Ferrari pre-Schumacher...

Alberto Ascari won the first championship for Ferrari in 1952, with team-mate Farina finishing in second place. Ascari also won in 1953. Fangio won the drivers title in 1956 driving the Lancia-Ferrari, as it was known at the time. Championships followed in 1958, 1961, 1964, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1982 and 1983. The glory years are now almost two decades past, despite massive levels of investment from the parent company Fiat.

Most Formula One drivers dream of driving for Ferrari and indeed many great drivers have driven for the team. Alain Prost nearly won the title in 1991, only beaten by the McLaren of Ayrton Senna when the Brazilian deliberately took the French driver off the track in the deciding race at Suzuka. The following year Ferrari sacked Prost, a mistake that has taken five years to recover from.

After Prost’s departure Luca di Montezemolo returned to Ferrari as President. Niki Lauda was also recruited as "advisor". This was an attempt to recreate the dream team of the mid 1970’s when Lauda was most dominant in the driving seat of the Ferrari. John Barnard returned to the team to sort out the chassis side while Osamo Goto, formerly at Honda, was brought in to oversee engine developments and in particular a new V10 unit.

1992 was a disaster, Ferrari scored 21 points while Williams again won the championship with 164 points. The F93A of 1993 was little better scoring only 28 points. Jean Alesi had two podium positions, Gerhard Berger one. 1994 was the first proper John Barnard designed chassis since 1990. The 412T1 was a vast improvement over the previous years chassis with Berger scoring a victory at the German Grand Prix. Jean Alesi was unlucky not to score a victory at their home track, Monza. 1995. Jean Alesi finally won his first race for Ferrari with a lucky win at the Canadian Grand Prix the following year in the 412T2. The team was now scoring points on a more regular basis and finished third in the constructors series behind Benetton and Williams.

It was not until Michael Schumacher moved to the team in 1996 that the once great team began to look competitive on a regular basis, despite the departure mid season of designer John Barnard to TWR-Arrows. Barnard designed the effective F310 to utilise V10 power for the first time, the Maranello team having always favoured the more powerful, but less efficient V12 engines. Schumacher finished in third place in the drivers championship with wins at Spain, Belgium and Italy. The season ended with 70 points for Ferrari, while Williams has amassed a dominant 175 points. Schumacher remained with the team in 1997, leading for most of the season, before the Ferrari team lost its way in the final five races of the season. The final race of the season was a dramatic shoot-out between Schumacher and the Williams-Renault of Jacques Villeneuve - Schumacher crashed out, after an attempt to take out Villeneuve - the championship, and hope of Italy lost once again. The end result was that the German driver lost the championship, and was stripped of his championship result.

Schumacher remained with the team once again in 1998 with Eddie Irvine as team-mate for the third year running. The team are optimistic about the all new Ross Brawn designed F300 and claimed that they will have failed if the championship did not come to the Italian team in 1998. It didn't - but Ferrari were close. The season started off badly for the team, with Michael Schumacher retiring his Ferrari early on in the Australian Grand Prix. Mika Hakkinen went on to win the controversial race. The championship was lost for Ferrari in the early races, but Michael Schumacher proved that he is the best driver in the pitlane, with superb drives and wins in Argentina, Canada, France, Hungary and Italy, where Ferrari recorded a 1-2 result on home soil. The championship's both went to McLaren Mercedes, but Ferrari will be in a strong position next season and will be once again be aiming for their first drivers' title since 1979.

At the start of the '98 season, Jean Todt declared that Ferrari "must" win the championship, ominously adding that the team "no longer have any excuses". In 1999 no such predictions are being made. However, with Fiat's massive bankroll, together with the "dream team" of Schumacher, Todt, Brawn and Byrne - surely the ultimate prize must be within reach. Sadly for the team it was another case of so near and yet so far, with Schumacher just missing out on the championship to Mika Hakkinen and the McLaren team.

Rory Byrne's F399 looked good, and the all-new Ferrari 048 power-plant was one of the most powerful (and reliable) engines in F1. At long last Ferrari seemed to be working as a team rather than a collection of departments and individuals. For the third straight season, Ferrari took the championship down to the final race of the season and lost. The team's chances of winning the drivers world championship took a major blow at the British Grand Prix. Schumacher, challenging team-mate Eddie Irvine on the first lap, suffered a rear brake failure and crashed heavily. Schumacher was fortunate to escape with just a double fracture to his right leg - but once again, the German's title chance were over. The team then turned to Eddie Irvine and the Ulsterman responded with back to back wins to take him into the lead of the championship. Then came the news that Irvine would be leaving the team for Jaguar Racing at the end of the season and his place being taken by Rubens Barrichello.

Irvine, Schumacher and the team all did a superb job in 1999 and were rewarded the constructors championship for their efforts - the first since 1982. Irvine duly left the team after four-years and can only think about what might have been.

However, If they fail again in 2000 surely Fiat will have to question whether their money is being well spent. In 1990 Ferrari failed despite having the brilliant skills of Prost at their disposal, are Schumacher's skills to be similarly squandered? It seems not, for Schumacher scorched to three straight wins at the start of the 2000 season and come round 15 of the 17 round championship had a lead of eight points over defending champion Mika Hakkinen. Is this finally it?

Ferrari had to wait 21 year before they finally won the drivers World Championship in the magical year of 2000.