Ferrari has been at the very heart of Formula 1 since almost the very beginning. Having missed the inaugural British Grand Prix on 13 May 1950, the team joined the series from the next race held at Monaco and has been a constant and powerful presence ever since, with more race entries and more wins than any other team. During the past 69-years, Ferrari has won 16 Constructors’ and 15 Drivers’ titles, as well as 235 race wins, 220 pole positions and 752 podium finishes. Impressive figures that it hopes to add to as the team prepares for the 16th running of the Chinese Formula 1 Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit.
Ferrari has shown good form here in the past and Rubens Barrichello won the very first race back in 2004. Scuderia Ferrari has since won at Shanghai three more times; Michael Schumacher scored his final F1 win there in 2006 and Kimi Raikkonen added to the tally with a win the following year. More recently Fernando Alonso secured a victory in 2013 and it is with high hopes that F1 veteran Sebastian Vettel and sensational new addition Charles LeClerc ready themselves for this weekend’s race.
With this being such an important milestone in Formula 1 history, Team Principal Mattia Binotto was cautiously optimistic when asked about the upcoming race, “The third round of the season takes place at a track that is different in character to those in Melbourne and Bahrain. Here, we have a very long straight and corners that put an uncommon amount of load on the front end. For our part, we want to verify that the SF90 is also competitive on this type of track and ensure that the reliability problems we had in Bahrain are not repeated. As usual, we want to do well and take on our competitors. It will be race number 1000 in the history of Formula 1, which is a further reason to try and excel.”
Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow is currently second on 48 points in the constructor standings behind Mercedes’ 87 point tally. However, with only two races run so far a lot can change over the course of a weekend. The Chinese Grand Prix will take place on 14 April. Be sure not to miss it.
Images courtesy of Ferrari
