He is the driver who replaced Alain Prost at Ferrari to race the ‘worst car’ of his Formula 1 career

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Ferrari are known as the pinnacle of motor racing and is by far the most storied team in Formula 1 history.

In their 75-year history as a Formula 1 team, Ferrari have won more than 30 drivers’ and constructors’ championships combined.

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc are the current incumbents at Ferrari, and are facing a seriously difficult task this season.

The SF-25 is proving to be very difficult to drive, and neither driver has recorded a Grand Prix victory this year.

Hamilton could become the fifth Ferrari driver since 1980 to miss out on scoring a podium if he doesn’t finish in the top three before the end of the campaign.

He would be in respected company with the likes of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa, and another driver who had a far more torrid spell racing for the Scuderia, Ivan Capelli.

READ MORE: He is the F1 driver who just lost his record for most Ferrari races without a podium to Lewis Hamilton

Who was former Formula 1 and Ferrari driver Ivan Capelli?

Ivan Capelli was born on 24 May, 1963 in Milan, Italy and started karting at the age of 15.

An Italian and European Formula Three champion, Capelli went on to win the 1986 International Formula 3000 championship ahead of the likes of Pierluigi Martini and the much maligned Philippe Alliot.

Capelli had already made his debut for Tyrrell in 1985, securing a memorable P4 at the Australian Grand Prix, before a short spell at AGS the following year.

The majority of Capelli’s 93-race F1 career was spent at Leyton House, where he earned all three of his podiums.

A best finish of seventh in the championship in 1988 preceded Capelli being signed by Ferrari in 1992.

Alain Prost decided to leave Ferrari, retiring from F1, only to return with Williams in 1993 to win his final championship.

That opened up a seat alongside Jean Alesi, but it turned out not to be the dream move that the Italian wished for.

READ MORE: Ranking the top 10 Ferrari F1 drivers of all time including Michael Schumacher vs Fernando Alonso

Why Ivan Capelli considered Ferrari’s 1992 Formula 1 car the ‘worst’ of his career

During Capelli’s 14-race spell with Ferrari, he was replaced by Nicola Larini for the last two rounds of the season, and he only scored three points.

Alesi fared slightly better, finishing the campaign in seventh with 18 points, while Capelli was languishing in 13th behind the likes of Karl Wendlinger and Erik Comas.

In an interview with Motorsport Retro, Capelli was asked about the best and worst cars of his career and said: “The 1988 Leyton House March for sure was the best Formula 1 car that I drove, and the worst one [was] the 1992 Ferrari, with the double flat bottom.”

The Italian was asked about his ‘most satisfying race’ and continued: “I think that for sure the French Grand Prix 1990, because from the beginning on Friday, as soon as we put the car on the circuit, I understood immediately that we could get a good result that weekend.

“We were positive for the whole three days, and the race was just fantastic. Unfortunately, not for the last two laps, but otherwise, it was great!”

Capelli was also asked what his ‘holy s—’ moment was in Formula 1, and again, this related to Ferrari.

He said: “I must say, unfortunately, Ferrari, because I didn’t have the opportunity to really feel comfortable with the car.

“And at the same time, I didn’t understand how much the pressure was around me, to be able to control it and to get from this pressure more energy to put into driving.

“I was not able to do that, and probably that is why I did not continue. There are some drivers that, from the pressure and tension around them they can get this and transform this into performance.

“Unfortunately, I was not able to, and this was probably my limit.”

Capelli also admitted that his outing at Monaco that season for Ferrari was the ‘most embarrassing’ moment of his F1 career, qualifying more than a second behind Alesi before spinning off in the closing moments.

Things got so bad that the Italian press started accusing Capelli of having anaemia, and he admitted: “My mother was shocked by the news because she was thinking I was hiding something from her, and this hurt a lot.”