Ferrari's first Grand Prix machine raced in 1948. The company's first GP win was as late as 1951 at Silverstone, when Enzo was 53 years old. Ferrari was actually in contention for a World Championship that year, but the great Juan Fangio took the title in an Alfa.
Over the years that followed, the list of drivers who piloted cars for Ferrari became impressive, including Nuvolari, Ascari, Farina, Dreyfus, Sommer, Campari, Varzi, Chiron, Fangio, Hawthorn, Phil Hill, Surtees, Parkes, Musso, Ickx, Amon, Gurney, Villeneuve, Sheckter, Lauda, Alboretto, Andretti, Berger, Prost, Mansell, and currently Barrichello and Schumacher.
Perhaps the most significant test for influence in the motoring world might be how many times a marque has been pitted against specific adversaries, against identified foes, against competition for recognition. Ferrari might be judged the all-time leader in this kind of categorical comparison.
How many titles have you defended? In your own assault on titleholders, how many giants have you slain? How many dominant leaders have you successfully dethroned? How many companies have you competed against in the categories of comparable model sales, racing accomplishments, refinement of the product, all out performance or sporty and graceful appearance? Ferrari has challenged the world of motor sport and the world of automobile marketing in so many ways that the listing of battles, and even of vanquished foes in these battles, is a "Who's Who" of automotive journalism.
Now, granted, there are those who went on to best Ferrari in some of those specific confrontations. But how many other manufacturers can boast of such an impressive list of notable adversaries? How many other challengers were present when Ferrari flexed its competitive muscles, only to lose in the final analysis? Who else showed up? The answer in some cases is that almost nobody else showed up. And in the confrontations Ferrari failed to win, in most cases, nobody else was even close. Ferrari has been both the giant slayer, and the giant. Few companies can lay claim even to a similar history in production automobile performance, in racing competitiveness, in number of opponents or in overall reputation. Looking at just a few of the names Ferrari has competed against in these confrontations of performance, of endurance, of sheer will and of pride, we see the names of true giants. Together with Ferrari, they are the names that identify the greatness of auto racing, itself. They were the teams and the companies to beat. They were the cream of the crop. In American Football, they would have been called dynasties. In biology they would have been the top of the food chain. In politics, fittingly, each in its own time would have been called "the machine."
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