Ranking Ferrari F1 drivers post-Michael Schumacher from worst to best

Since Michael Schumacher’s exit at the end of 2006, Ferrari have won the F1 drivers’ championship just once, with a number of heart-breaking near-misses.

Here’s our ranking of Ferrari’s drivers since 2007, from worst to best.

8) Luca Badoer

It’s easy to forget that Luca Badoer was drafted in at Ferrari in the middle of 2009 following Felipe Massa’s horrific accident at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

At one point, it looked like Schumacher would make a sensational return to F1 with the Scuderia, but that was put on hold after doctors expressed concern about the German’s neck injury.

This meant Ferrari turned to Italian veteran Badoer, who had made his F1 debut back in 1993. Badoer’s initial F1 career ended in 1999, without a point to his name, as he took up a test driver role with Ferrari.

Ten years later, Badoer would return to the F1 grid at the 2009 European Grand Prix. He qualified last on the grid, 1.5 seconds behind the 19th-placed driver, Jaime Alguersuari.

His second race at the Belgian Grand Prix didn’t go much better, as he avoided the Lap 1 carnage to finish 14th. Ferrari ultimately opted to replace him with Giancarlo Fisichella for the final stretch of the season.

7) Giancarlo Fisichella

Fisichella was the second stand-in for Massa during the 2009 season. The Italian had just finished on the podium with Force India at Spa before he got the phone call from Ferrari.

Fisichella was a proven race winner, assisting Renault to the constructors’ championship in 2005 and 2006. Despite Force India’s surge in competitiveness, joining Ferrari was an offer he couldn’t refuse.

In his five races with the team, Fisichella failed to score points as he struggled with the handling of the F60. Still, the move paid off, as Fisichella continues to be part of the Ferrari family, having raced for them in sportscars.

6) Carlos Sainz

Carlos Sainz was signed by Mattia Binotto for the 2021 season as Sebastian Vettel's replacement. Even though Sainz enjoyed two strong years at McLaren, the expectation was for the Spaniard to play second fiddle to Charles Leclerc.

Leclerc had destroyed Vettel during 2020 and firmly established himself as Ferrari’s team leader. To Sainz’s credit, he was able to out-score Leclerc across 2021.

Granted, Leclerc had a decisive edge across the qualifying and race head-to-heads, but Sainz proved to be a consistent, reliable performer in the second Ferrari.

Ferrari moved back into title contention in 2022, at least for the first half of the year, but Sainz struggled with the handling of the F1-75. He claimed his maiden victory at the 2022 British Grand Prix, although it was a race Leclerc deserved to win.

2023 was similar to 2021, with Sainz’s points-scoring ability impressive despite Ferrari’s race-day struggles. Sainz ended up being the only non-Red Bull driver to take a race victory, tactically coming out on top at the Singapore Grand Prix.

His final year at Maranello was his strongest, adding two more wins to his collection as Ferrari narrowly missed out on the F1 constructors’ Championship.

5) Felipe Massa

Felipe Massa is the third-most experienced Ferrari driver in history, only behind Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen. Signed for the 2006 season in place of fellow Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, Massa remained with the team until 2013.

There’s a clear divide in Massa’s Ferrari career. The first was full of success, taking 11 wins as Ferrari won two constructors’ Championships.

The second, after his accident, was a real struggle, failing to stand on the top step of the podium again. His peak came in 2008 as he narrowly missed out on the title to Lewis Hamilton.

The title battle between Massa and Hamilton was littered with errors from both drivers. While Massa was left to rue poor reliability in Hungary, costing him a guaranteed victory, and Singapore, where a fuel hose wasn’t removed from his car, he made too many unforced errors.

Australia, Malaysia, and Britain were all major blunders from Massa, who would go on to finish just one point behind Hamilton in the standings. His accident in 2009 proved to be a major turning point, returning for the following season alongside Fernando Alonso.

Alonso dominated the teammate war and soon had Ferrari on his side, as Massa was ordered to controversially move out of the way for the lead at Hockenheim in 2010. According to Massa’s race engineer Rob Smedley, this was the moment that impacted the Brazilian the most, not his accident.

Massa struggled for the following three years despite flashes of pace and was ultimately replaced for 2014 by Raikkonen. His peaks were higher than Sainz’s, mounting a title challenge in 2008, putting him ahead of the Spaniard in our ranking.

4) Kimi Raikkonen

Raikkonen’s lowly placement might come as a shock considering he still remains Ferrari’s most recent F1 world champion. As Schumacher’s replacement, Raikkonen remarkably took the title away from Hamilton and Alonso in the final race of the 2007 season.

Raikkonen was 17 points behind Hamilton with three rounds to go but made the most of Hamilton and McLaren’s strategy blunder in China, before winning the season finale in Brazil.

The reason for his position on this ranking was the fact he was out-performed by Massa during their time together as teammates. He would then be annihilated by Alonso in 2014, while Vettel had the upper hand between 2015 and 2018.

3) Charles Leclerc

Unlike some of his predecessors, Leclerc has not had the luxury of having a title-challenging car for an entire campaign.

The closest he got was in 2022, where Ferrari were a close match for Red Bull for the first half of the year before the infamous TD39 was introduced. There’s never been a question mark around Leclerc’s speed or ability, highlighted by his 26 pole positions – only Schumacher has more.

As the years have gone on, Leclerc has improved his consistency, cut out the errors, and upped his game in races, with his margin over Sainz greater on a Sunday than a Saturday.

Leclerc has all the qualities of a world champion - Ferrari just have to give him the tools to do so.

2) Sebastian Vettel

After a difficult final year with Red Bull, Vettel joined Ferrari for 2015. His first year with the team was arguably his best, taking three victories in the midst of Mercedes’ dominance.

After 16 of 19 races in 2015, Vettel was ahead of Nico Rosberg in the drivers’ standings, showing that the German was more than just a ‘Newey merchant’, as some critics described him. While 2016 was a step back for Vettel, his winless campaign was only down to poor strategy from Ferrari, which cost him potential wins in Australia and Canada.

2017 is Vettel’s most complete year as a Ferrari driver as he fought Hamilton for the drivers’ title. Vettel arguably outperformed Hamilton in 2017, with the British driver losing out to Valtteri Bottas too many times in the first part of the year.

Admittedly, Vettel threw away a win in Azerbaijan due to his road rage and deserves the majority of the blame for the Lap 1 carnage in Singapore. Regardless, it was poor reliability that put Vettel out of contention in the final races of the year.

We saw the best and worst of Vettel in 2018 – which arguably was the beginning of the end for him. His crash while leading the German Grand Prix effectively gave Hamilton the initiative in the title race.

Still, his 2015 and 2017 seasons are among the very best of his F1 career – and are still more impressive than Leclerc’s best, so far at least.

1) Fernando Alonso

Topping our list is Alonso. While a drivers’ title cruelly eluded Alonso during his five-year stint with the team, the Spaniard’s reputation was only enhanced.

Alonso won on his Ferrari debut as they stormed to a 1-2 finish in Bahrain. A poor strategy call in Abu Dhabi cost Alonso the title to Vettel.

He was superb in 2011 despite Ferrari clearly having the third-fastest car. His 2012 campaign was legendary, going down as one of the greatest seasons in the sport’s history, as once again he narrowly missed out on the title to Vettel.

2013 and 2014 didn’t see Alonso challenge for the title, but he continued to maximise his machinery before a poor decision to join McLaren-Honda.

There’s no doubt that Alonso has been the best Ferrari driver since Schumacher departed at the end of 2006.