October 21, 2007, stands as the last time Ferrari celebrated a Drivers’ Championship victory. Kimi Raikkonen’s dramatic title clinch at Interlagos that Sunday represents the end of an era that the Prancing Horse has spent 18 years desperately trying to recapture. What makes that Brazilian Grand Prix even more remarkable is how impossible victory seemed just weeks earlier, making it both Ferrari’s greatest modern triumph and the painful benchmark of their subsequent failures.
The 2007 season was absolute chaos. Spygate had engulfed Ferrari and McLaren in motorsport’s biggest espionage scandal. McLaren was eventually excluded from the Constructors’ Championship despite having the fastest car. Lewis Hamilton, in his stunning rookie campaign, held a 17-point advantage over Raikkonen with just two races remaining. The mathematics seemed insurmountable for the Finnish driver.
Then Shanghai happened. Hamilton only needed to finish the Chinese Grand Prix to effectively seal the championship. Instead, he got stuck in the gravel at pit entry, failing to score while Raikkonen won. Suddenly, impossibly, the title fight was alive heading to Brazil. Hamilton still held his fate in his own hands, needing just sixth place to become champion. Fernando Alonso needed victory with specific results around him. Raikkonen required perfection – first place, Alonso no higher than third, Hamilton no higher than sixth.
Felipe Massa delivered pole position, giving Ferrari the perfect platform. At the start, the Brazilian pair disappeared into the distance with Massa leading before Raikkonen’s superior strategy put him ahead. Behind them, chaos erupted immediately. Hamilton dropped to eighth after a Turn 4 mistake, then suffered mysterious gearbox problems on lap eight that dropped him to 18th. His championship dream was evaporating in real time.
Ferrari’s strategy was clinical perfection. They controlled the race from the front while chaos reigned behind. Hamilton’s McLaren recovered from the gearbox issue but could only climb back to seventh, a lap down and without the pace to challenge for the crucial fifth place that would have saved his championship. The final laps were torture for both teams as Nick Heidfeld, Robert Kubica, and Nico Rosberg battled wheel-to-wheel for positions that would decide Hamilton’s fate.
When Raikkonen crossed the line first, with Massa second and Alonso third, the mathematics were final. Raikkonen had 110 points. Hamilton and Alonso both finished on 109. Ferrari had pulled off the impossible, snatching the championship from McLaren’s grasp in the most dramatic circumstances imaginable.
The celebration was briefly delayed when stewards investigated fuel temperature irregularities in the Williams and BMWs that finished fourth through sixth. Had those cars been penalized, Hamilton would have been promoted to the sixth place he needed for the title. When the stewards decided no penalties were required, Stefano Domenicali finally confirmed the party could resume. McLaren’s subsequent appeal was denied on November 15.
What nobody realized that day in Interlagos was that Raikkonen’s championship would be Ferrari’s last for the next 18 years and counting. The Scuderia has endured near-misses, false dawns, regulation changes, and complete rebuilds. They came agonizingly close in 2024, losing to McLaren by just 14 points. But close doesn’t count in Formula 1.
Raikkonen’s 2007 title remains Ferrari’s benchmark of excellence and their reminder of failure. Every season without championships adds weight to that Interlagos victory, making it seem even more remarkable while highlighting how far Ferrari has fallen from those championship-winning standards.
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