This weekend's Spanish Grand Prix marked yet another Ferrari milestone. During Sunday's race Michael Schumacher set the 150th fastest race lap in Ferrari's Formula One history. This number is slightly arbitrary since it depends on the method you use. The criteria used here is that one race has only one fastest lap for a team, even when there are several drivers of the same squad with equal times.

It all started on 18th May 1952 at Bremgarten, where Piero Taruffi was the fastest driver of the field. Almost exactly 33 years later on 5th May 1985 at Imola, the late Michele Alboreto set the 100th fastest race lap in Ferrari history. And now on the verge of May 2002 it is time to commemorate the 150th.

Not surprisingly, the driver with the highest number of fastest laps behind a prancing horse emblemed steering wheel is Michael Schumacher. Nobody else came even close to his massive number of 23. Niki Lauda and Clay Regazzoni together have almost the same number. Other than those three only Jacky Ickx and Alberto Ascari managed to drive more than ten fastest laps with a Maranello product. Ascari however, had to share three of them with other drivers. But he was in good company: twice this other driver was José Froilan Gonzalez and once it was Juan Manuel Fangio.

Monza seems to be the best circuit for our beloved car, since this is the only circuit Ferrari scored more than ten fastest laps during race day. Five different circuits follow it with ten fastest laps each, and four of them still have a place on the current race calendar. Unfortunately the spectacular Zandvoort racetrack is not in F1-use anymore, and the only time you will see a Formula One Ferrari being driven around the dunes will be at the Italia a Zandvoort event when one of the privately owned F1 Ferraris will be demonstrated. Zandvoort still holds the most extreme record: during the 1961 event, all entrants finished the race without making any pit stops. Of course, Ferrari showed the field the way, with Wolfgang von Trips winning the race before teammate Phil Hill. And what to think about the 1979 event, where Gilles Villeneuve wondered whether a Ferrari three-wheeler would drive as fast as one with four. After an entire lap, he concluded it wasn't…

The Ferrari cars that were most productive to this list are the ones that are beloved by many tifosi. It seems that looks and speed go hand in hand. The 500F2 was used in more seasons.

The most successful years were the ones in which Ferrari was competitive. Reliability was not always as good as it was supposed to be, but the seasons with most fastest laps showed that Ferrari fought for the title in all those years, winning the drivers title five times (1952, 1953, 1958, 1975 and 1979) and an additional four constructors crowns (1975, 1976, 1979 and 1999)

Probably the list will grow this year, when you consider the competitiveness of this years Formula one car. So, when will we have reached the 200 barrier?

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