However, Lauda briefly wrestling his P160E up to second at the start of the ’73 British GP had persuaded Enzo that the Austrian was the way to go, after positive noises from sole Scuderia driver Clay Regazzoni.

“It was he [Regazzoni] who encouraged me in my choice of the racer I had been considering since the British Grand Prix to fill a gap in the team for 1974,” said Enzo afterwards.

And so it was. Lauda came in like a whirlwind: “When I first drove the B3 at Fiorano I told Piero Lardi, who was translating for his father Mr Ferrari, that the car was shit. Piero nervously told me that I really should pull my punches.

“So I said that it had too much understeer, which it did. So Mr Ferrari told me that I had a week in which to lap one second faster round Fiorano, otherwise I was out. So we made the modifications and delivered the result. It was a piece of cake, actually.”

In little time, Lauda and the Scuderia’s technical guru Mauro Foghieri hauled the team back to the front. Four seasons brought two drivers’ titles, three constructors’ crowns and 15 race wins for the Austrian. He might have left at the end of ’77, exasperated with his treatment from Enzo following his horrifying ’76 Nürburgring crash, but he was already a Maranello legend.

Michael Schumacher: 1996 – 2006

Much like Lauda before him, Michael Schumacher came into a Ferrari team that was at a low ebb. Unlike the Austrian, Schumacher was on top of the world before he arrived.

Fresh from two F1 titles with Benetton where driver and team were quite clearly the class of the field, the German moved over to Italy in search of the classic ‘new challenge’. The Scuderia had been treading water for years, its 640 in the hands of Nigel Mansell being arguably the last time it had a car really capable of challenging for the title. Alain Prost, in contrast, would take an inferior car to the championship fight.

In 1995 Ferrari had finished a distant third to Benetton and Williams in the title race, a sole fortuitous win coming for Jean Alesi in Canada.

Schumacher, along with Eddie Irvine, replaced Gerhard Berger and Alesi. Jean Todt, mastermind of Peugeot’s early ’90s Le Mans success, had moved in a few years prior, and soon technical director Ross Brawn would follow Schumacher from Benetton to form a new dream team. He explained the move to Motor Sport in 2007.

“At Benetton Michael was only a driver: a top-class driver, a winner, but not as deeply integrated into the team as he became at Ferrari, because he’d come into a team that already had a structure. When he arrived at Ferrari the team was at sea, they were looking for some reference points, and Michael was a very good reference point.”

It took a few seasons to build up steam, but what would eventually result was a devastating run of success. Five consecutive drivers’ titles from 2000-2004, and six constructors’ crowns from 1999 to 2004.

Eventually the brilliant organisation of Schumacher, Todt, Brawn and others was broken up with the German retiring at the end of 2006. The team would win the double with Kimi Räikkönen in 2007 and the constructors’ championship again in 2008, still enjoying the residual processes set up by its former famous three, but it has never again touched those incredible heights as seen with Schumacher.

Ferrari’s saviour F1 drivers: when it went wrong

Alain Prost: 1990 – 1991

Alain Prost won out against McLaren team-mate Ayrton Senna in controversial circumstances for the 1989 title fight. First with their clash in the season finale at the Suzuka chicane – which ended the Frenchman’s race – and Senna’s disqualification for apparently cutting said corner following the race, handing the championship to Prost.

It was a fitting conclusion to what was then F1’s most toxic championship – until 2021 and ‘Hamilton vs Verstappen’ came along.

After the the storm in Woking, Prost fancied sunnier climes for 1990, thinking he’d be able to help take things up a level in Maranello.

Following constructors’ crowns in ’82 and ’83, Ferrari hadn’t been an also-ran, but wasn’t much better than that.

John Barnard, the technical director who along with Ron Dennis transformed McLaren into a winning machine during the 1980s, had been lured to Ferrari in 1987.

In 1989 he produced the 640, what would eventually become the blueprint for all modern F1 cars. Light, nimble and with several technical innovations, it won on its debut with Nigel Mansell, but was held back by terrible reliability making a championship out of the question.

Prost thought he could come in and get the job done, but it didn’t quite work out. Barnard had left before he arrived in 1990, though the Frenchman hauled his 641 car to five wins before being taken out by Senna, again at Suzuka. With the car being little more than a light update of the 640 though, it was always going to be a losing battle.

The team fired him towards the end of the following season when he told reporters “today, a truck would have been easier to drive”, following the ’92 Japanese GP.

Fernando Alonso: 2010 – 2014

A Scuderia switch had been long-rumoured before Fernando Alonso moved from Renault to Ferrari for 2010. It started in the best possible way, but perhaps the initial result was ominous.

The Spaniard won on his debut at Bahrain, but only after Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull had broken down while leading.

What would play out from there was reminiscent of Prost’s Scuderia tenure 20 years earlier. Ultimately, the team was no match for Red Bull or McLaren on pace, and operational mistakes were creeping in.

Alonso wouldn’t win again until the German GP ten races later – aided by Felipe Massa famously being told “Fernando is faster than you” – but hauled himself back into contention with another three wins thereon.

Going into the final round at Abu Dhabi, he actually led the championship by eight points from Mark Webber and 15 points from Vettel.

Alonso was running fourth in the opening exchanges – easily enough for the title – until an early pit call put him behind Renault’s Vitaly Petrov. And he stayed there.

The Spaniard spent 39 frustrated laps behind the Russian, as Vettel won the race and nicked an unlikely title from under his nose.

Two years later Alonso was again in prime position near the front of the field in Brazil, looking to clinch the title as Vettel found himself at the back after an early incident. However the Red Bull driver brilliantly fought back to again claim the championship, and a year later Alonso was out of Ferrari.

Sebastian Vettel: 2015 – 2020

After the negativity of Alonso’s exit at Ferrari, Sebastian Vettel’s arrival was viewed as the feel-good factor it needed. Unfortunately for Ferrari fans, things would all play out in very similar circumstances.

Again the new driver won early on, Vettel taking three wins as the Scuderia looked to challenge the new dominant team, Mercedes.

2016 wasn’t as fruitful, but for 2017 and 2018 the team produced a title-challenging car.

Its German leader, looking to emulate his hero Michael Schumacher, locked horns with Hamilton, but in both seasons a combination of driver errors and operational team fumbles meant its challenge wilted – despite the fact it often had the faster car.

Similar to Prost’s tenure and in some ways Alonso’s too, Ferrari blamed its lead pilot as negativity set in. First Räikkönen was allowed qualifying priority at Monza ’18 with Vettel fighting for the title, then a similar scenario played out with Charles Leclerc at the same race a year later – it was clear who was the new favourite.

The Italian team the stunned Vettel prior to 2020 by announcing that Carlos Sainz would replace him in ’21. Once more, it all ended on a very sour note.