F2003-GA - Blog Posts

"Those red cars were the bane of my existence" - 2000-2004 Ferraris

When Aidan Millward said something along those lines in a recent video, I felt it, because as a Häkkinen fan in the late 90s and early 2000s, Ferrari and Schumacher were the adversary. And like Aidan does in his videos, I have to admit that, looking back, they were only that insufferable because they were that good. The ultimate adversary of sorts, with generational talents in driving, managing and engineering under one roof: Michael Schumacher, Jean Todt, Ross Brawn, Rory Byrne, Nigel Stepney...

It took a few years and a few attempts, but in 1999, Ferrari won their first Constructors' championship since the early 80s, with Schumacher's first Drivers' title in red, and the first for Ferrari in 21 years, came a year later, with the F1-2000 pictured on the left. The momentum had built up, and for the next four years, the well-oiled machine that was the Scuderia with the aforementioned people in charge, were consistent contenders, always in the conversation to win races and championships... though more often that not, they were the only ones in the conversation. 2001, 2002 and 2004 were write-offs if you weren't Michael Schumacher. 2003 (F2003-GA on the right) was a closer affair, as a tyre war allowed McLaren and Williams to get close to breaking the streak.

But it didn't happen, and Ferrari won Drivers' and Constructors' doubles for five straight years, something no-one had done before, and only an equally dominant Mercedes has done since. All five cars were on display together at the Museo Ferrari in Maranello - the set-up may have changed, but I expect all five to still be shown in some capacity. After all, 2000 to 2004 were Ferrari's best years, even though, as someone who wasn't a Ferrari fan, they didn't feel like F1's best years.