While Lewis Hamilton must wait until 2025 to race for Ferrari, British teenager Ollie Bearman will make his Formula One debut for the team at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix this weekend.
With Carlos Sainz sidelined with appendicitis, the 18-year-old Bearman will step up from his role as Ferrari reserve driver in Jeddah.
Here, the PA news agency takes a look at five of the most notable Britons to formerly race for the Maranello marque.
John Surtees
Starts: 37
Wins: 5
His F1 title came during a four-year stint at Ferrari, where he won the championship in 1964.
More success probably would have followed had he not quit the team after just two races of the 1966 season following a public spat resulting from his omission from Ferrari’s team for the Le Mans 24-hour race.
Eddie Irvine
Starts: 65
Wins: 4
That all changed when he broke his leg in a crash at Silverstone in 1999, jettisoning Northern Ireland’s Irvine into a title showdown with the McLaren of Mika Hakkinen.
Having joined Ferrari in 1996, Irvine was very much the number two in the team, although victories in Australia, Austria, Germany and Malaysia saw the championship race go down to the wire but – even with Schumacher back from injury and playing a supporting role, he fell short by two points and quit for Jaguar in 2000.
Nigel Mansell
Starts: 32
Wins: 3
Mansell had endured a terrible season at Williams in 1988 but won in Brazil in 1989 – his first race behind the wheel of a Ferrari – and later in Hungary, too.
Reliability issues hampered the remainder of his debut year with the Prancing Horse and 1990 proved even worse in that regard as Mansell retired from seven grands prix, winning in Portugal but falling out with the team and returning to Williams the following year.
Mike Hawthorn
Starts: 24
Wins: 3
Having driven for the team earlier in the decade, he returned to take the crown after winning in France and finishing second in Belgium, Britain, Portugal, Italy and Morocco.
He retired after winning the championship having watched team-mate Peter Collins die at the German Grand Prix months earlier – Hawthorn himself would die in a road accident in January 1959 at the age of 29.
Peter Whitehead
Starts: 8
Wins: 0
The Englishman became the first private racer to convince Enzo Ferrari to sell him a car, which he duly painted in British racing green.
He was entered into one race by the works Ferrari team – but failed to qualify for the 1950 Swiss Grand Prix.
