As Lewis Hamilton finally scores his first Ferrari F1 win, who took even longer?

Lewis Hamilton has finally done it. At the 31st time of asking, the seven-time world champion has taken his maiden victory for Ferrari.

A look at the history books shows only three drivers have required even more time before they first triumphed with the Scuderia.

Carlos Sainz won at his 32nd attempt, one more than Hamilton. Like his successor, Sainz went winless in his first campaign at Ferrari in 2021, but at least he did collect four podium finishes. The Spaniard’s breakthrough came at the 2022 British Grand Prix, but he would win just three more races over four years at Maranello. 

Eddie Irvine had to wait even longer, as he first won with Ferrari in his 50th race for the team. That’s despite a podium on debut, which turned out to be his only top-three finish in the 1996 season.

Across his first three campaigns as Michael Schumacher’s team-mate, Irvine achieved 14 podium finishes, but only in the 1999 Australian Grand Prix did he finally break his duck. Three more victories would follow that year, before he was replaced by Rubens Barrichello. 

Jean Alesi, Ferrari 412T2, takes his first win

Photo by: Sutton Images

However, Jean Alesi is unchallenged when it comes to this statistic. The Frenchman joined Ferrari in 1991 as one of the biggest talents of his generation, but arrived amid difficult times in Maranello. Alesi did perform, but still needed a whopping 68 grands prix to celebrate his first success at the 1995 Canadian Grand Prix – coincidentally on his birthday.

This turned out to be his sole F1 win. Alesi eventually left Ferrari after five years and switched to Benetton as Schumacher moved to Maranello.

Looking at the overall picture, most Ferrari drivers needed fewer than 10 races to win. Many, like Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso, won on debut.

Meanwhile, the likes of Sebastian Vettel, Niki Lauda and Michael Schumacher required two, four and seven grands prix respectively.