Ferrari named L’Équipe team of year

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On 27 December 2001, Ferrari was voted team of the year by L’Équipe. The Formula 1 powerhouse received almost 28 percent of the vote after another championship-winning season.

On 27 December 2001, Ferrari added another layer to one of the strongest periods in its modern history when it was voted team of the year by the French sports daily L’Équipe. The result underlined how far the Scuderia’s influence had stretched beyond Formula 1 itself. This was no longer only a dominant Grand Prix operation. It had become one of the defining sports teams in the world.

The vote share made that clear. Ferrari received 27.8 percent, comfortably ahead of the French Davis Cup-winning tennis team on 18.8 and Gérard Houllier’s Liverpool on 16.9. For a Formula 1 team to top that kind of multi-sport poll mattered, because it showed that Ferrari’s success had cut through to a broader sporting public, including in a country with its own strong national sporting loyalties.

Ferrari had just completed another title-winning campaign with Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello, confirming that the balance of power in Formula 1 had shifted decisively in Maranello’s favour. Under Jean Todt, with Ross Brawn, Rory Byrne and Schumacher at the centre of the sporting project, Ferrari had turned long-term rebuilding into sustained superiority. The team was no longer chasing its past. It was building a new golden era.

The L’Équipe recognition was not simply a popularity prize handed to a famous name. It reflected the scale, consistency and professionalism Ferrari had shown across the 2001 season. In Formula 1, title wins can come from a fast car or a favourable season. Wider sporting admiration usually requires something more enduring: authority, clarity and the sense that a team has become the benchmark.

Ferrari had reached that point by the end of 2001. Being named team of the year in one of Europe’s most respected sports newspapers confirmed that its success was being understood not just inside Formula 1, but across the wider sporting landscape.

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