F1 world champions to have never driven for Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton shocked the F1 world by announcing a switch from Mercedes to Ferrari for the 2025 season before the 2024 campaign had even begun.   

It means the seven-time world champion will add to the long list of F1 legends to have driven in the iconic Ferrari red as part of one of the biggest driver transfers in the history of the series.  

Hamilton said he has fulfilled a childhood dream of driving for Ferrari and to some there would have been something missing from the 39-year-old’s CV if he had never made that switch.  

Driving for Ferrari is a dream almost all drivers have and some, like Michael Schumacher, have left world championship machinery to make it happen. Hamilton’s move also means that, at the time of writing, every driver with four or more F1 championships will have driven for Ferrari at some point in their career.  

However, there are still some world champions to have never competed for the Scuderia – so who are the five most successful drivers to have not made the switch?  

Most successful F1 world champions to have never driven for Ferrari  

At the age of 26, Verstappen still possibly has a long career ahead, which leaves the potential for him to move to Ferrari, but currently he has no reason to leave Red Bull.  

Red Bull signed a 16-year-old Verstappen as a junior driver in 2014 before giving him his F1 debut with Toro Rosso in 2015. In doing so, he became F1’s youngest ever driver (17y166d) and the following year Verstappen also became its youngest winner (18y228d) when he won on his Red Bull debut at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix.    

Since then, Verstappen has become one of F1’s all-time greats, clinching three world championships and setting many records along the way, including most victories in a season (19 in 2023) and highest points tally in a year (575 in 2023).   

Verstappen has never really come close to joining Ferrari so far. The Scuderia did not approach him during his junior days, while Max’s father, Jos, once revealed that Ferrari showed initial interest after his rookie season but talks never happened.  

It also seems unlikely to happen in the future. Verstappen is currently contracted until at least the end of 2028, yet the world champion has publicly…