When Ferrari loses, it has the pressure of a nation on its back, and stern questions were asked in Italy after the Scuderia’s new hero Fernando Alonso so narrowly missed out on the 2010 crown.
But the tifosi couldn’t be too disappointed – Ferrari had bounced back from an uncompetitive and traumatic 2009 in fine style, recovered from a mid-slump season to very nearly beat the much faster Red Bulls, and the potentially volatile Alonso had settled in beautifully at the team he hopes to lead for many years to come.
It was a sign of how bright the spotlight shines on Ferrari that the crucial strategic error in Abu Dhabi caused such a furore though, for after years in the wilderness through the 1980s and 1990s, Ferrari became a relentless victory machine during the last decade – and having got back in the winning habit, it now has a visceral distaste for losing.
With genial Italian Stefano Domenicali at the helm, Ferrari now presents a friendlier face than in the Jean Todt era, but Domenicali still has to prove that he can emulate his harsher predecessor’s level of success.
The team’s 2011 car is outwardly one of the least dynamic on the car, yet it has been consistently strong in testing, and bolstered by new technical arrivals from McLaren and Red Bull, Ferrari will surely be in the thick of this year’s title fight.
Which is just as well, for it will have Italy to answer to if it isn’t…
F1 track record
Ferrari has an incredible record of success, having not only been part of the F1 world championship since its inception in 1950, but been a front-runner and title contender for much of that time – although until recent years it had tended to punctuate championship glories with long periods in the doldrums.
Great names like Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel Fangio and Mike Hawthorn gave Ferrari four titles in the 1950s, before American Phil Hill and Briton John Surtees joined the elite club in the early 1960s.
Ferrari's fortunes went into a prolonged slump thereafter until ace engineer Mauro Forghieri introduced the ‘T’ series of cars that revitalised the team in the mid-1970s.
Niki Lauda then delivered the results on track, only his infamous fiery crash in the 1976 German Grand Prix preventing what would’ve surely been a clean sweep of titles from 1975-77.
Jody Scheckter added another crown at the end of the decade, but no one would have guessed that a 21-year drought would follow.
The team enjoyed some success in the turbo era, taking constructors’ titles in 1982 and 1983, but that period will be best remembered for the death of Ferrari’s hero of the age - the legendary Gilles Villeneuve - who was killed during practice for the 1982 Belgian GP at Zolder.
In 1988, team founder Enzo Ferrari died, strengthening the FIAT group’s hold over the team.
Alain Prost came close to bringing Ferrari another title in 1990, but this proved to be a brief moment of relief amid years of underachievement and internal politics.
New team boss Todt was hired to stop the rot in 1993 – an appointment which would ultimately prove a masterstroke.
The subsequent signing of reigning double world champion Michael Schumacher in 1996, followed by his former Benetton colleagues Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne a year later, showed Ferrari meant business once again.
After three consecutive runner-up finishes (and a constructors’ title in 1999), Ferrari finally reached the top in 2000 – allowing Schumacher to clinch his elusive third drivers’ title and end Ferrari’s woe.
The floodgates then opened, with another four championships following in consecutive seasons.
But in 2005 the chasing pack finally usurped Ferrari, whose Bridgestone tyres were no match for rivals’ Michelins.
Ferrari was back on form in 2006, and took some crushing wins in mid-season, but what turned out to be both Schumacher and Brawn’s final season ended in narrow defeat to Renault.
The new era started well, with Kimi Raikkonen taking the 2007 title and Felipe Massa almost repeating the feat a year later.
And though 2009 proved far less successful, it was just a blip before the arrival of Alonso and a fresh design saw Ferrari back in the title reckoning, though unsuccessful – by a narrow margin – this time.
Strengths: Unparallel heritage, huge resources and plenty of determination to go with all that Italian passion.
Weaknesses: Always under enormous pressure to succeed and yet to prove its current backroom line-up can match the greatness of the early-2000s.
What it brings to F1: Unrivalled heritage, an incredible record of success over more than half a century, and a hugely passionate global following that dwarfs other teams' support.
F1 highlight: Ending half a century of fluctuation by utterly dominating F1 for five straight years from 2000 to 2004.
Lowest ebb: The death of its most revered driver Gilles Villeneuve in 1982, following up 1979 title with particularly awful 1980 season, and descending into uncompetitive chaos in early 1990s.
Goals for 2011: Win another championship.