Up Close With a 2002 Ferrari 575M Maranello

 

I met Dan (@dnm814) on Instagram. After a few weeks of me pestering him, he agreed to meet up for a ride and some car talk. His South Beach condo’s parking garage is filled with prancing horses, raging bulls and other high-end rides. We rolled up to Dan’s spot and he tugged the corner of a silky red car cover to reveal his prized 2002 Ferrari 575M Maranello.

Photography: Christian Cipriani

For his first Ferrari, Dan spent quite a while tracking down the perfect spec: F1 transmission (the first to appear in a V12 Ferrari), rosso corsa paint, beige interior with red leather inserts, Tubi exhaust and an x-pipe. He even bought luggage to strap onto the shelf behind the seats.

Just a hair over 2,000 575Ms left Maranello, but fewer than 600 made it to North America and only a few of those were red. When it debuted, it was the ultimate front-engine tourer – a car designed to plow through mountain tunnels and downshift into hairpin turns on its way to a ski chalet in the Swiss alps.

The 575M: Fast, loud and luxurious

I haven’t ridden in “old” Ferraris for over a decade, back when they were…well, new…and it was interesting to see the 575M show her age: A few wrinkles here and there. Simple interior tech. Steering wheel free of buttons and dials. This was the end of an analog generation swiftly replaced by manettino dials, digital displays and other user-friendly advancements.

With the engine now warm, Dan pulled away from South Beach and hit the causeway toward Downtown Miami as we traded memories about how exciting it was to grow up in a house with a Ferrari. We crossed Biscayne Bay, dropped a gear and opened it up. Each bump rippled through the car’s stiff frame, but every tap on the accelerator unleashed a distinctive howl through the V12’s Tubi exhaust.

Dan said he put about 2,800 miles on the car in one year, during which time it broke down three times. Part of why I wanted to meet up was because I kept seeing his car on Instagram being hauled onto a tow truck. I wanted to hear all the maintenance drama – and boy did he have it.

Gentlemen, start your checkbooks

What’s it like to own a classic Ferrari? In a word: Expensive. In another: Unpredictable. Great adjectives for an exciting woman, but that can be nerve-wracking for a car-owner.

Dan bought his 575M with around 19,000 miles from a dealer in Naples, Florida. He drove it back to Miami in sixth gear and awoke the next day to an odd whistling sound. He consulted an independent Ferrari technician – the best in Miami – who explained that the car wasn’t correctly serviced. He would need a new sixth gear.

To make a long story short, the seller agreed to fix the car for free, but it took eight weeks. The new gear got stuck at customs after its flight from Italy.

Part of what can make owning an exotic complicated is that you can’t just grab parts at NAPA. Dan said he once had to replace the spark plugs on his SLR McLaren and the bill was – wait for it – $21,000. Let that sink in. Aside from questionable service records, expensive repairs are the bane of second-hand exotic ownership.

Another thing: they’re hard to insure. Dan’s secure condo garage – the one teeming with six-figure autos – isn’t safe enough for most insurance companies. He jumped through hoops for two weeks to land a policy from a specialty insurer and paid dearly for the honor.

A labor of love or just labor?

As we made our way east again and hit the crest of the Julia Tuttle Causeway, Biscayne Bay and Miami Beach spread out before us like an infinite, shimmering paradise.

While I’m obviously a Ferrari diehard, Dan turned out to be a little more cynical about the brand. He laments the way Ferrari shuts out new buyers and allocates cars to collectors who don’t even drive them. The brand’s unique ability to make people feel like second-class citizens is well-documented, and they’ve lost powerful buyers because of it.

Ferrari’s stock has doubled in the past five years but they may need some fresh ideas to support another 70 years of success. My vote is for an entry-level car that encourages young people to embrace the brand, the same way you can start with a $50,000 Porsche Boxster and work your way up to a 918.

Ultimately, Dan taught me that owning a classic Ferrari is a bit like marriage: It’s a labor of love. Treat it right and the rewards are manifold – passion and excitement like you’ve never known. But if you get lazy with the upkeep or hit a patch of bad luck, you might lose your shirt and your spouse.

Join the conversation on
Instagram at @drvnbydesign

 

 

Finali Mondiali of the Ferrari Challenge – Here’s what you’ve missed

Last weekend, the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza has hosted the Finali Mondiali (World Finals) of the Ferrari Challenge, an international monobrand competition consisting of North American, European and Asia-Pacific legs. ROSSO attended the event and is bringing you on a journey in Italian excellence.

The atmosphere

The Finali Mondiali are the single biggest Prancing Horse kermesse in the world, and a true full-immersion experience when held in Italy. Hosted by the Mugello circuit last year, the Challenge always sees an Italian stop for the European leg in Imola, a truly historic track. Monza, however, is in a league of its own. The Temple of Speed has always been the greatest representation of motorsport excellence, both in Formula 1 and in smaller categories. Tifosi from all over Italy and the rest of the world come in swarms in the small Italian town, celebrating the Italian excellence and racing pillar that Ferrari is. Fans have the chance of admiring classic, era-defining racing and road cars in the exhibition paddock and join the mechanics in the pits, enjoying an unprecedented insight on the Maranello spirit. Here you can find a selection of some of the great opportunities offered to the Ferrari fans in Monza.

Fierce competition

The Ferrari Challenge sees dozens of Ferrari 488 Challenge supercars fighting each other by the inch on track. The Finali were entered by no less than 37 of these V8 3.9 beauties, in their race-adapted setup: a different rear wing, 126-litre fuel tank and, of course, specific safety devices.

Exclusive video content and more – for your entertainment

ROSSO has covered the whole weekend life, with a firsthand, almost interactive approach. If you want to live the full experience through your own eyes, as if you were there, then check out my takeovers on my Instagram blog and over at ROSSO.

Shop the New Online ROSSOstore

 

We’ve been working on the ROSSOstore for a couple of months, so we are very proud and excited to announce the website is live!

What will I find in the ROSSOstore?

I am glad you asked! We are taking things off slowly and adding more products along the way. We have plans to create ROSSO merchandise and team up with many other cool automotive companies.

These are the products you can find and purchase as of today.

Opus

For those who are not familiar with Opus, they are a British publishing company most famous for their extremely extensive and expensive documentation books. During the RM Sotheby’s Monaco auction earlier this year, a Diamante Edition of the Official Ferrari Opus sold for €38.400.

 

 

They agreed to partner up with ROSSO to sell not only art prints, but also box sets. Those box sets are by far the best Ferrari collectible item you will ever find, you can check them out over here. Each box set has a large number of individual art prints in the categories Gran Turismo, Sports Cars and Single Seaters. If you’re into Formula 1, the latter is a great addition to your own Ferrari merchandise collection.

Historic Car Art

The second company we are teaming up with is Historic Car Art. Once again, a British company, but solely focused on art prints. At this point, we added stunning pieces made by Frederic Dams, Julian Thomson and John Ketchell. Historic Car Art are regularly represented in London through art galleries, pop-ups and corporate exhibitions. The company was founded in 2004 and grew out to a leader in the acquisition and supply of original automotive art prints. We are extremely proud to partner with them to offer awesome products!

 

 

Our personal favourite has to be the photo finish piece of the 1967 24 Hours of Daytona. John Ketchell managed to visualize a historical motorsport moment when the Ferrari 330 P3/4 (driven by Lorenzo Bandini and Chris Amon), the Ferrari 330 P4 (driven by Mike Parkes and Ludovico Scarfiotti) and the Ferrari 412 P (driven by Pedro Rodriguez and Jean Guichet) paraded seconds before crossing the finish line.

ROSSOart

As we were building the store, we got in touch with Anatole Bourne, a talented artist from France. His passion for the Ferrari brand is contagious, so we offered him to sell his art pieces through the ROSSOstore. Anatole is currently working on the Five Ferrari Supercars, two of which are already available. The next one will be the Ferrari F50, which is even more detailed than the F40 and LaFerrari!

 

 

The most exciting part about ROSSOart is that we now offer the opportunity to purchase a commissioned piece. We’re calling this ROSSOart Tailor Made. While working closely with Anatole, you can either get your Ferrari, or a particular Ferrari you love, visualized. Anything is possible!

Make sure to get in touch with us if you’d like to work on a unique piece for yourself.

Now… what are you waiting for? Click here to visit the store, let us know what you think of it and – of course – buy some cool products!

 

Ferrari: A Love Meant for Sharing

 

This past weekend, I stopped by the Miami Design District to see “Exotics en Plein Air,” the capstone event of a four-day supercar bash thrown by FerrariChat.com. Outside the new Prada store on NE 41st Street, about a dozen Ferraris from across the decades sat lined up beneath the tree canopy, shaded from the afternoon sun.

Photography: Christian Cipriani

My wife floated in the background enjoying the cars in her own way, which is to say mainly through my excitement. I’m so happy around supercars, especially Ferraris. I feel physically invigorated. Younger. Impassioned. In most settings I’m socially reserved, but I’ll strike up a conversation with nearly anyone at a car event. I chatted with Rob Lay, the founder of FerrariChat.com, then spoke at length with John, the owner of a 458 Italia who was in town from Dallas for the event.

John said he shied away from events for years because he thought people might be “snobbish.” When he finally went, he was surprised to find an awesome community of like-minded people and no pretense. I love supercar meetups for many reasons, but a big one is how they level the playing field and connect diverse people through a shared passion. It’s like a 12-step meeting for car addicts. John was my dad’s age, but we yammered on together like kids in a candy store.

A beam of light in the darkness

I’ve always loved Ferraris, but I didn’t attend car events in Miami until 2017, despite having lived here for the last 13 years. The cars I saw on the road each day and an occasional visit to The Collection with my dad was enough. But in December 2016, my wife and I went to the hospital two days before our son, Jude, was due and came home empty-handed. He didn’t make it. It was the most devastating moment of my entire life, and 2017 was a long, painful year of mourning and recovery.

Late last year, I saw an ad for Supercar Saturdays at Lamborghini Broward and decided I needed to get out and do something for myself. That morning spent running around in the sun taking pictures of beautiful cars reignited something in me—passion, joy, life. I returned home genuinely happy for the first time in months. Since then, I’ve made supercar events a regular part of my calendar and writing about Ferrari is just another outlet for this passion. No money. No agenda. Just me and a keyboard, straight from the heart.

Sharing joy with my loved ones

At the Design District event, I walked around holding Arrow, our six-month-old rainbow baby, showing her all the pretty colors—Azzurro Dino, Bianco Italia, Rosso Mugello and of course Rosso Corsa. We admired the creative striping on special editions like the F12tdf and 458 Speciale, ran our fingers across details that you can only appreciate in person, and privately judged one owner’s aftermarket modifications. I hope I can share my passion with her the same way I would have shared it with Jude.

Today, an old friend messaged me on Facebook and asked when I was buying my Ferrari. I laughed. “When I have the money, I guess,” I replied. But I’m not in a hurry. Every time I have my heart set on something, it seems to lose its luster the second it’s mine. Perhaps Oscar Wilde was right: “There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.” Arrow is pretty much the only thing I’ve wished for that just keeps getting better.

For now, I’m content to wait, to dream, to anticipate the day I see a prancing horse on my steering wheel, because there’s so much fun to be had between now and then.

 

How Sebastian Vettel lost the title (and why we should stop blaming him)

 

Yesterday’s performance at the Mexican GP was one the best races of the season for Sebastian Vettel. The four time World Champion was wise in managing his position without causing any collisions during the first lap and was then a true master of overtaking, beating the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo fair and square, with the help of a finally well-structured Ferrari pit strategy.

All of this, however, was not enough to prevent Hamilton from snatching a well-deserved fifth World Title, equalling the legendary Juan Manuel Fangio. The Brit showed a consistency and a pressure management which the German lacked, resulting in game-changing errors. However, Hamilton did not, at any moment, have to endure what Vettel endured from a psychological point of view. Today we’re taking a look at how Sebastian Vettel lost the title, and why he can’t be the only one to blame.

 

 

THE CAR

The 2018 seasons opened with high expectations for the Prancing Horse. After years of Mercedes domination in the Hybrid Era, where Maranello couldn’t even dream of having a car competitive enough to challenge the Silver Arrows, all data and results seemed to point out that the SF71H was finally a title contender, with elaborate, state-of-the-art Energy Recovery System and solid reliability. However, having a great car to start with has never been enough to win the Championship. The German team’s better resources allowed Mercedes to catch up on development, with many new aero and power solutions that closed the gap to the Italians. On both parties, many innovative updates were tried in the strive to acquire the title (Ferrari’s well-monitored ERS and Mercedes’s controversial drilled rims), with the FIA eventually deciding (as of today, at least) not to intervene.

This is not the place or time to jump on the bandwagon and defend the legality (or illegality) of Mercedes’s solutions, but a simple look at facts can speak volumes. Drilled rims and hub were first introduced in Belgium, with Mercedes immediately finding a terrific pace in Italy, Singapore, Russia and Japan, where the Silver Arrows were suddendly unmatched in speed and performance. After the controversy started surfacing (and with the title fight coming to an end), Mercedes decided to close the rims in Austin (where Hamilton has to go for a two-stop strategy, his tyres being butchered) and in Mexico, arguably the worst race for Mercedes this year, with Valtteri Bottas being lapped by race winner Max Verstappen. This update was declared “irrelevant” in terms of performance by the FIA, although its legality has been widely contested. I personally think that it’s no place for a reporter (even less, an amateur one such as myself) to decide whether or not an update of this sort should be allowed. One thing, however, is clear as water: this solution was definitely not irrelevant.

 

 

THE TEAM

The 2018 season was accompanied by many changes in Maranello: Kimi Raikkonen’s contract renewal had to be discussed, Maurizio Arrivabene was waiting for his contract to be renewed, too. On top of that, as we all know, on July 25 Sergio Marchionne found a sudden and unexpected death following complications from a surgery. The corporate and technical instability that ensued certainly did not contribute to the cause, as everybody was seeing their position within the team being challenged or discussed again. Maurizio Arrivabene was amidst some rumours seeing him leave the team, and Raikkonen’s departure to Sauber was anything but unanimous, seeing Arrivabene and new CEO Camilleri defending his reasons to stay with the team for another year, but John Elkann and the late Marchionne pushing for Leclerc’s arrival.

The corporate instability reverberated on track, with Ferrari being subject to some very questionable strategy mistakes (Spain, Russia). Strategy mistakes were made on Mercedes’s side (and big ones, for that) too, but they were inevitably overshadowed by a solid representation from the team, presenting an “all for one” attitude which is perfectly common in a consolidated team such as the Silver Arrows.

 

 

THE MIND

Hockenheim, Monza. If I had to pinpoint two of the defining moments of this title fight, that’s what I would choose. Germany broke Sebastian Vettel’s stability and Italy took the ultimate psychological toll on him. Sebastian, which is usually known for his composure and his ability to do well under pressure, has finally fallen to the Ferrari spell.

The problem with being a Ferrari driver is easy: everybody simply expects you to be a champion, to never make mistakes. Representing the most historical and important team in Formula 1, the team to which Formula 1 owes his success, can make you a god and can destroy you in a matter of days. Italian media, which I know very well being Italian myself, would be enough to completely break even the most collected of tempers alone. Add pressure from the tifosi, from corporate, from yourself to the mix and you get a recipe for disaster. Whatever mistake a Ferrari driver makes, it’s amplified and resonates through the motorsport world with a relevance that no other mistake gets.

Sebastian is at his fourth year in Ferrari and still hasn’t been able to capitalise, even with what was generally regarded (I disagree, as I’ve already pointed out) as the best car on the grid. I tend to justify his recent mistakes in Japan and in Austin, which were immediately bashed by the media and the tifosi alike. His risky attempts on Verstappen and Ricciardo were nothing but Sebastian giving it all, ready to fight by the millimetre. “If you no longer go for a gap that exist, you’re no longer a racing driver”.

 

 

Is all hope lost?

The Drivers’ Championship might be over, but the fight is still on for the Constructors’ Title. The Constructors’ Championship is especially important from a business point of view: end-of-season financial bonuses granted by FIA are distributed based on Constructors’ Standing, the Drivers’ title being irrelevant in this instance. Mercedes is currently 66 points ahead in the lead, with a best total of 86 points to be awarded in two races (25 + 18, 25 + 18). Mercedes’s current lack of performance might still help the Prancing Horse to bring home a trophy that’s been missing for 10 years. Only Interlagos and Abu Dhabi can give us answers.

 

This Designer Gifted Himself a One-Of-One Ferrari

Giorgetto Giugiaro and his very own Ferrari GG50.
Giorgetto Giugiaro and his very own Ferrari GG50.

 

Giorgetto Giugiaro. You might never heard of him, but he is one of the most influential car designers in history. Named Car Designer of the Century in 1999, it comes as no surprise that Ferrari allowed Giugiaro to create a one-of-one car to mark the 50th anniversary of his career.

Photography: Italdesign-Giugiaro, Ferrari, Auto Express

The best car designer of the 20th century

Giugiaro was born on 7 August 1938 in Garessio, Italy. He quickly developed a serious passion for art and ultimately studied art and technical design in Turin. Before one of his teachers told him that his skills would be more suitable in the automobile industry, he had little interest in car design. Without this professor, it’s possible that Giugiaro would never have become the best car designer ever.

 

 

Although it’s nearly impossible to pick one “best” car designer, Giugiaro’s contributions to the automotive industry are well-documented and significant. He worked on over 120 cars and is perhaps best known for the DeLorean DMC-12 and the Volkswagen Golf Mk1. Among other car manufacturers, he worked for Ferrari, Lamborghini, Alfa Romeo, DMC, BMW, Aston Martin and Bugatti.

Designing his very own car

We need to go back to the 2004 Paris Motor Show where Giugiaro had just finished a conversation with Luca di Montezemolo, President and CEO of Ferrari at the time. Montezemolo gave him permission to create a one-of-one car and they decided to use the Ferrari 612 Scaglietti as the basis. As long as the car would be recognizable as a Ferrari, he received the team’s full blessing. The name of the car was created from his initials (Giorgetto Giugiaro) and the number 50, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his design career.

 

 

Giugiaro was very motivated and excited to start this project, so he immediately worked on 1:10 scale sketches. Those sketches were turned into a 1:1 scale model using the Italdesign-Giugiaro VR Design Center in April 2005. Just two months later, a working prototype was finished. Back then, it was a revolutionary design and it would not surprise us one bit if Pininfarina took inspiration from the car when designing the Ferrari FF.

‘’I wanted to make a Ferrari for myself that I could use with my family”

That was Giugiaro’s goal, so he did. Most of the interior design elements are similar to the Ferrari 612 Scaglietti, but the outside completely changed. The body is around 10 cm (4’’) shorter and received a differently shaped front, sides and rear. Some tiny updates made a big impact, such as the smaller head-lights, fog lights and front grille. The car looks a lot more balanced than the 612 Scaglietti from the side, mainly because of its sportier design. The roofline changed as well; whereas the 612 makes a big dive into its trunk, the GG50 is a bit curvier and reminds one of Alfa Romeo’s 8C. The back is more balanced as the rear lights and exhaust tips line up perfectly.

 

 

As mentioned before, the inside remained fairly unchanged. The steering wheel was replaced with a design reminiscent of old Ferrari single-seaters. Other unique elements include the dashboard and mid-console, which features a Pioneer satellite navigation system, and the rear seats can be folded down to create a space measuring 140 cm (55.1’’).

As this car was purely developed for design purposes, its engine and transmission stayed the same. This means you can find the same 5.7-L V12 under the hood as the 612 Scaglietti pushing about 540 bhp through the 6-speed sequential gearbox.

What do you think of the Ferrari GG50?

Join the conversation on Instagram
@ROSSOautomobili

 

US Grand Prix: Kimi Raikkonen gifts Ferrari well deserved win

Exactly eleven years ago, Kimi Raikkonen won his first Championship title and the last, to date, for Ferrari. Today, Kimi Raikkonen wins the US Grand Prix, nine years after his last win for the Prancing Horse and five years after his last win overall, at the age of 39.

An overall superb drive for the Iceman, taking the first place from Lewis Hamilton in Lap 1 and keeping it with an amazing defense strategy and excellent tyre management. Teammate Sebastian Vettel’s otherwise equally exciting drive has been unfortunately overshadowed by yet another mistake.

formula1.com
formula1.com

The starting grid

Lewis Hamilton starts from pole, followed by the two Finns, Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel. The German driver had qualified with the second fastest time, but was demoted to P5 after failing to comply with speed limitations in red flag regime on Friday’s practice. Lap 1 immediately sets the mood for an action-packed race: Raikkonen cleanly overtakes Hamilton, while the back of the grid is sent into a frenzy by two accidents, respectively involving Leclerc and Grosjean (both retired in different times) and Alonso and Stroll (the latter gets a drive-through penalty after causing the Spaniard to retire). Sebastian Vettel puts up a great fight with Daniel Ricciardo for fourth place, but, as we’ve seen maybe too many times this year, his aggressive approach has him spinning and falling back to P14. Ricciardo will however retire at lap 10 for an electrical failure, one the many during this season. To retrieve the Aussie’s car, a Virtual Safety Car is deployed at lap 11: surprisingly, Hamilton pits for Soft tyres, setting his pace for a 2-stop strategy.

The pit carousel

Every top driver except for the Brit opts for a one-stop strategy, starting to come into the after lap 20: Valtteri Bottas loses a position after Verstappen successfully performs an undercut on him, while Vettel prolongs his stint on Supersoft tyres in order to progress through the ranks. The last 25 laps of today’s race are probably the most tense we’ve seen this year, with all the five top drivers (Raikkonen, Verstappen, Hamilton, Bottas, Vettel) in extremely small intervals, and the top three actually been in their respective DRS zones. Despite that, Raikkonen keeps his cool and holds the young and hungry Verstappen back (which proved his talent once again, by nurturing Supersoft tyres until the chequered flag). Sebastian Vettel manages to get Bottas’s P4 just two laps before the end, keeping the championship fight open.

formula1.com
formula1.com

It all comes down to Mexico

Despite today’s race being incredibly important for the Prancing Horse’s morals, championship hopes are still extremely low. Lewis Hamilton still has a very solid 70 points lead (with 75 points available) and Mercedes is 66 points ahead in the Constructors’ Championship. At least for today, however, the guys in Maranello can celebrate with a new flag in their collection.

Spending My Sunday in the Ferrari 458 Spider

 

According to the nine awards the Ferrari 458 Spider received when it debuted, it’s one of the best cars of the early 2010s. I can now FULLY understand why… allow me to explain.

Photography: Max Lammers

To Spider or not to Spider

Convertibles have never been my favourite type of Ferrari. I spent a significant amount of time in an F430 Spider and there’s just too much wind noise to have a proper conversation, plus it can get chilly fairly quickly (depending where you are) if you don’t turn on the heater. A day in the Ferrari 458 Spider drastically changed my mind. Having no roof over my head the whole day made me feel so much more connected to the outside world as we drove through picturesque Dutch villages and hilly forest roads.

 

 

The initial plan was to take some pictures of the car and carry on with my day. The owner, who is also one of the founders of a local Ferrari club, had other plans. He wanted to drive the whole route for an upcoming tour of the club. I didn’t stand in the way of his plans for a second because this meant I could spend my whole day in the passenger seat of a 458. Who would say no to that?

Exploring the countryside

We took off and the owner wasn’t shy about putting all 570 horses on the tarmac. A Maserati tailing us had a hard time keeping up. We took the scenic route through amazing parts of the western Netherlands, where we scared cows and cyclists before stopping for a nice lunch in Laren.

 

 

The three exhaust pipes (inspired by the F40) of Ferrari’s last naturally aspirated production Spider sounded heavenly, with their beautiful and instantly recognizable high-pitched scream.

The 458’s red line starts at 9000 rpm and gives you 7 gears to play with; there’s no doubt it must be a joy to drive. The driver began our journey with the infamous Manettino dial in sport. When I asked if he could switch it into race, I felt an instant change in the cars’ behaviour: up shifts were quicker, down shifts were more aggressive and the acceleration blew me away.

The first of many videos

 

 

Around five weeks ago, I started a degree in Creative Business at a university in Amsterdam. My favourite subject is Storytelling & Video, where I’ve become more familiar with editing in Premiere Pro. I uploaded a small video of my day in the Ferrari 458 Spider on YouTube. Please remember it’s only my fifth video and everything was filmed on my iPhone 8 Plus. Do let me know what you think of it or have tips or feedback!

Thanks to the owner for allowing me to join. I truly enjoyed and appreciated the car, our lunch, good conversations and the photo results!

 

Kimi Räikkönen: the last Scuderia Ferrari champion

Today marks the 39th birthday of one of the most influential, talented and loved Formula 1 drivers of all time: Kimi Räikkönen. For the occasion, ROSSO relives the 2007 season, the last winning season for Ferrari, the first with Kimi holding the steering wheel.

The Iceman’s numbers

The Finn is universally considered as one of the best F1 drivers in the history of the sport, and statistics definitely confirm a successfull career. 290 Gran Prix entered (and counting, considering he will stay in the circus for the next two season), 20 race wins, 18 pole positions, 46 fastest laps, 100 podiums, for a grand total of 1761 points to his name. Despite nearing the end of his career, in a season where a good 3/4 of his competitors are at least 10 years younger than him, Kimi also set the record for the fastest lap in the history of F1, in Monza this year (a lap I was lucky enough to see in person). His professionalism, his undeniable talent and his dry-witted character make him a fan favourite, with a poll stating that Kimi is the second most-loved driver (after Michael Schumacher) among Ferrari’s tifosi.

The 2007 season

After five years in McLaren, in which Raikkonen got close to the World Title twice (2003, 2005), he was signed to Ferrari for a three-year term partnering Felipe Massa. The Fin immediately proved his worth in the historical team, snatching a grand chelem (pole position, fastest lap and race win) at the Australian Grand Prix, being the second Ferrari driver ever (after Nigel Mansell) to win in his first race. After two third places in the following races (Malaysia, Bahrain) and a string of bad luck for him and for Ferrari (Monaco, Canada and, partially, USA), Raikkonen was trailing Championship leader Lewis Hamilton by 26 points with ten races to go. In France, after a great move on Hamilton himself and later on teammate Massa, he gained his second race win of the season and the first Ferrari 1-2 on the podium for 2007, followed by another win at Silverstone. After a retirement in the European Grand Prix and a string of podium finishes (but no wins), Kimi took his fourth win at his most beloved track, Spa-Francorchamps. After another Raikkonen win in China, the circus arrived at Interlagos for the last race weekend with a three-way title fight between the Finn, Hamilton and Alonso, something that had not happened since 1986. An action-packed race saw the Iceman take his sixth win of the season and the title, only one point ahead of both Alonso and Hamilton, respectively ending the race in P3 and P7.

Despite having an up-and-down history with Ferrari, which will officially end when the 2018 season wraps up, Kimi Raikkonen is and will always be a fundamental part in the Prancing Horse history. Not only that: Kimi Raikkonen is and will always be one of the most influential personalities to ever join the F1 circus and the reason why so many people from my generation fell in love with this sport. When the day will come that Kimi no longer races, it will be a hard blow for many, many supporters.