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It was due to the fact Ferrari never won the WDC and took the no1 instead. When Prost moved to Ferrari with the WDC the numbers were swapped with the Mclarens so they became 27 and 28 and Ferrari became 1 and 2.
Same reason that Tyrell were 3 and 4 for ages...
Cannot recall exactly when it changed to the WCC allocating the driver numbers..
In the olden days (pre 1996?) the new WDC swapped numbers with the previous WDC, the rest of the grid stayed as they were.
Ferrari had cars 1 and 2 in 1980 (Schekter won the WDC in 1979). In 1980, Alan Jones won the WDC driving car 27. So in 1981, Jones' team (Williams) had cars 1 and 2, and Ferrari inherited the old Williams numbers of 27 and 28.
They next changed numbers when Prost brought number 1 with him in 1990 and McL took 27 & 28. Interestingly they swapped back to 27 & 28 in 1991 when Senna won the WDC. They stuck with those numbers until Schumacher brought the number 1 in 1996. From then on, the number changed each year with the WCC rankings.*
So the reason Ferrari stuck on 27 and 28 wasn't sentimental or superstition, it was because they didn't have a WDC driver.
The old method applied in 2010 would give Jensen's team (McLaren) 1 and 2, and Brawn would stay on 22 and 23.
ps - Villeneuve drove both numbers 11 and 12 in 1977. He drove number 12 in 78 & 79, number 2 in 80, and 27 in 81 and 82.
*edit - corrected the bit about Prost.
Last edited by Richard on 23 Nov 2009, 14:31, edited 2 times in total.
