10 of Ferrari’s most iconic triumphs on their path to 250 F1 wins

Charles Leclerc claimed victory at the British Grand Prix last weekend, and with it, reached the milestone of 250 championship Grand Prix wins for Ferrari in Formula 1.

A total of 41 drivers across 75 years have contributed to Ferrari’s win record, with some giants of the sport delivering supreme and memorable performances. But how to whittle it down to just a handful? We had a few discussions, and drew up a top 10 of iconic Ferrari F1 victories across the years…

Win #1 – Gonzalez gets them off the mark

Great Britain 1951

Charles Leclerc’s victory at Silverstone’s British Grand Prix fittingly came just a week shy of the 75th anniversary of Ferrari’s maiden World Championship success.

Ferrari’s rivals Alfa Romeo swept the 1950 season but Ferrari chipped away and its 375 machine was a more competitive prospect through 1951.

At Silverstone Jose Froilan Gonzalez claimed pole position and battled for victory against the Alfa Romeos, having to stop only once to refuel, which helped the Argentine open a considerable buffer.

Gonzalez crossed the line almost a minute clear of the pack, chalking up his first win, and getting the ball rolling for team owner Enzo, and the Scuderia.

Win #50 – A first for Lauda

Spain 1974

Niki Lauda’s bravado in securing a Formula 1 seat eventually led to his surprise signing by Ferrari, though he joined during a competitive low ebb, leading to a winless 1973 for the team.

Lauda took pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama in 1974, but ceded positions in a wet/dry race before moving back ahead after pitting for slick tyres. He remained in front until the race hit its time limit and he duly collected his first victory – the first for Ferrari in two years, bringing up the half century for the team.

Lauda went on to take 15 victories in red across 1974-77, meaning he is still the driver with the second most wins in Ferrari history.

Win #81 – Villeneuve on the defensive

Spain 1981

Formula 1 had outgrown Jarama as the championship entered the 1980s but its final race in 1981 provided the backdrop for one of Gilles Villeneuve's greatest performances.

Ferrari’s ill-handling 126-CK shouldn’t have been in the mix at the front at a tight and fiddly Jarama, yet Villeneuve qualified the car in seventh position, rose to third at the start, and then took second off Carlos Reutemann.

A mistake by Alan Jones gifted Villeneuve the lead but he had four drivers right on his tail, in ostensibly quicker machinery. The Canadian expertly used Ferrari’s slightly better grunt to stay ahead along Jarama’s sole straight of note.

Villeneuve kept ahead after 80 laps of competition to beat Jacques Laffite by just two-tenths of a second, with the top five at the flag separated by a mere 1.2s.

#94 – Berger interrupts McLaren’s streak

Italy 1988

McLaren had dominated the 1988 Formula 1 season with its iconic MP4/4, leaving the remainder of the field to pick up the scraps.

That year’s event at Monza was the first to take place in Italy since the death a few weeks prior of Ferrari’s founder, Enzo Ferrari, and the red machines locked out the second row of the grid.

However, McLaren retained their usual dominant positions up front, and kept those places at the start of the race. But Alain Prost’s car suffered a misfire and he eventually headed into retirement.

Ayrton Senna then led but was pitched into the gravel with just two laps to go when an attempt to lap Williams stand-in Jean-Louis Schlesser went awry.

Suddenly Gerhard Berger and Michele Alboreto found themselves running 1-2, and the duo completed the remaining lap-and-a-half in those positions to send the Tifosi wild on an emotional day at Monza.

Win #95 – Mansell’s surprise

Brazil 1989

The hard-charging Nigel Mansell sought fresh pastures after championship near-misses with Williams and was recruited by Ferrari for 1989.

Ferrari’s 640, with its all-new semi-automatic gearbox, had been unreliable in testing, and in conjunction with McLaren’s dominance of the previous campaign, expectations were low.

Mansell qualified sixth for the opener, held at Brazil’s Jacarepagua circuit, but stayed out of trouble to not just finish the race but win it. Mansell, never one to avoid drama, also managed to cut his hands on the winner’s trophy.

The Briton, though, was proven right about reliability, as he failed to finish the following four Grands Prix. He won only twice more for Ferrari and returned to Williams in 1991.

Win #105 – Alesi at last

Canada 1995

Jean Alesi made an instant impact in Formula 1 but linked up with Ferrari just as the team entered a competitive slump, shaded by McLaren, Williams and Benetton across the first half of the 1990s.

Alesi had scored 15 podiums across 1990 through the early rounds of 1995, which included retiring from the lead on Ferrari’s home soil in 1994, along with other missed opportunities and setbacks.

But finally in Montreal, in 1995 on the occasion of his 31st birthday, it was Alesi who had his moment in the sun. He inherited the lead from an ailing Michael Schumacher and finally scored his breakthrough victory, before having to hitch a lift back with the reigning champion after running out of fuel after the finish.

It proved to be Alesi’s sole Grand Prix win; he took another 16 podiums across the second half of his career, but never climbed the top step again.

Win #106 – Schumacher supreme in the deluge

Barcelona 1996

Ferrari hired reigning two-time champion Michael Schumacher to bring the championship back to Maranello, and installed him as the focal point of its project. Yet its 1996 car, the F310, was an ungainly, awkward machine, notable for its high cockpit sides.

Williams dominated the season, but an opportunity presented itself to Schumacher in the deluge of Monaco, yet he uncharacteristically slid into the wall on the opening lap. Similar weather struck at the next event in Barcelona, and Schumacher flew.

After a tardy getaway he surged into the lead and simply sailed clear of the opposition, sometimes by several seconds per lap. In a Grand Prix that had just six finishers, with many coming a cropper due to the conditions, just two of Schumacher’s rivals were on the lead lap, and the winning margin was 45 seconds.

Win #134 – Schumacher’s title at last

Japan 2000

Michael Schumacher won 72 Grands Prix with Ferrari, making him comfortably the Scuderia’s most decorated driver, and together making them the second most-successful driver/team partnership in history.

Pick a race between 2000 and 2004 and there is a near six-in-10 chance that Schumacher was the victor. Perhaps the most celebrated and memorable was Schumacher’s triumph in Japan, in 2000. After the controversy of 1997, near-miss of 1998, and leg-breaking interruption of 1999, the title was on the line once more in 2000.

Schumacher and rival Mika Hakkinen duelled around the iconic track in Qualifying, lowering the benchmark with each lap, and continued the scrap in the race. Schumacher extended his second stint and emerged from the pit lane in the lead, converting it to a victory that sealed his third world title, first for Ferrari, and first for a Ferrari driver in 21 years.

Such was the relentlessness of Schumacher and Hakkinen that they were split by just two seconds, but finished a minute clear of the rest.

Win #237 – Leclerc takes Monza

Italy 2019

Leclerc was denied a win in only his second Ferrari start in Bahrain by a cylinder failure, and the team was largely shaded in 2019 by the performance and greater effectiveness of Mercedes.

He captured a maiden triumph in Belgium, but celebrations were naturally muted following the tragic death of Anthoine Hubert in the supporting Formula 2 race the previous day.

Formula 1 travelled straight on to Italy, where Ferrari were a more competitive proposition, and Leclerc narrowly took pole position, before fending off the advances of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.

The Monegasque crossed the line just eight-tenths of a second clear of Bottas to a cacophonous noise as the Tifosi celebrated a first home victory since Fernando Alonso’s similarly excellent triumph nine years prior.

Win #249 – Hamilton’s first in red

Barcelona 2026

The marriage between Formula 1’s most successful driver and its most successful team marked one of the biggest driver moves in history, yet 2025 was something of a damp squib.

The Ferrari was uncompetitive, while Lewis Hamilton took time to adjust to new surroundings, at times bleakly questioning his own ability.

The following year's SF-26 was a more competitive proposition, albeit a step behind Mercedes’ W17, but after back-to-back runner-up positions in Canada and Monaco, Hamilton made another step in Barcelona.

He and Ferrari committed to a three-stop strategy at the high-energy circuit and were poised to battle for the lead with the two-stopping Mercedes drivers, only for a well-timed Virtual Safety Car phase to smooth his path to victory. Hamilton had already won 105 times, and Ferrari 248 before, but it was a well-deserved and celebrated first triumph together.