F1 world champions who 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.  

But there are still some three-time world champions to have never competed for the Scuderia – so who are the five most successful drivers to never make the switch?

Jack Brabham

Ferrari was never really a possibility for Brabham, who made his debut at the 1955 British GP with Cooper. It was the same team that Brabham clinched his maiden world championship with in 1959 before going back-to-back in 1960.  

However, 1960 was also the year Ferrari tried to start negotiations with Brabham but it failed miserably.   

Brabham told F1 Racing magazine: “I loved beating Ferrari, just loved it. It was the greatest satisfaction. In 1960 they invited me to come to Italy and meet Enzo and talk about driving for him, and I never went. I wasn’t interested. I was only interested in beating them, not joining them. It’s one of those things.”  

Brabham still followed in the footsteps of Enzo, though, by creating an F1 constructor in his own name. The Brabham team made its debut in 1962 and it was the outfit Jack clinched his third championship with in 1966, where he finished ahead of John Surtees, who started the year at Ferrari before going to Cooper.  

The Australian retired at the end of 1970, while his team continued until 1992, having won three additional drivers’ championships in 1967, 1981 and 1983.  

Jackie Stewart