Ferrari reprises azzurro blue for Miami Grand Prix

Now, the team is about to bring the colour back on its return to US soil, with a special edition collection from PUMA that is expected to be worn by the star drivers, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, as well as other team members during the race weekend.

To mark this occasion, we delved into the history of Ferrari in blue – and this is what we found…

Sommer stars in Monaco

In 1950, Raymond Sommer became the first driver to compete in F1 in a blue Ferrari when he raced a 125 in the Monaco Grand Prix. Officially entered by Scuderia Ferrari themselves, the car was on loan to the French driver, who painted it in his national racing colours of light blue and ended up fourth in his only ever F1 finish.

Earlier that year, however, Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio had already driven a blue Ferrari – not in F1 but in winter races back home. The Ferrari 166, chassis 011F, was originally painted red on its victorious debut in the 1949 Monza Grand Prix but it was then bought with the support of the Argentine government, repainted in the nation’s racing colours of blue with a yellow engine cover, and raced in South America until 1952. It now lives in the Argentine Motor Museum: www.aca.org.ar/promociones/museo/catalogo/34.html

Back in F1, French driver Louis Rosier began racing a Ferrari in 1952 painted it in his light blue national colours, competing with his own outfit, Team Ecurie Rosier. Initially driving a Type 500 F2 and subsequently a 500/625, he raced through to the 1954 season, entering 17 F1 races and achieving a top finish of seventh in the Netherlands in 1953.

Blue for America

In 1959, the field for the US Grand Prix at Sebring included four Ferraris, one of which was painted blue. The team entered cars in traditional Italian red for English drivers Tony Brooks and Cliff Allison and German Wolfgang von Trips, but American Phil Hill’s Dino 246 sported his national racing colours – blue, with a white nose. Sadly, he failed to finish as clutch problems put Hill out by lap eight.

That was not the end of American blue and white, however, and two years later came the most famous blue Ferrari of all. It was the end of the 1964 season and, after a battle with the sport’s governing body over the rules, Enzo Ferrari withdrew his team from the final two races of the year and pledged to never race again in Italy’s national colours.

It was a political move, however, and although the official Ferrari team was missing in…