Michael Schumacher's first Ferrari

310 (1996)

Michael Schumacher’s first Ferrai won three races — but it was a dog. His team-mate was Eddie Irvine (above).

“That car introduced me to the concept of pitch sensitivity,” recalls Irvine. “It affected brake balance, performance over bumps, and balance into, through and out of corners. Michael won in Spain, but in the wet you don’t have big changes in attitude. Aerodynamically it was awful — the twin-floor was the big issue. Eventually we smoothed off the edge, put a 5mm radius on it, and found 0.5sec around Monza.

“Also, we had the pitlane limiter set too sharp. When it came on, it set up a big reverse in that gear. One or two laps after every pitstop, the car would stop altogether. It took them a long time to figure it out, but it cost me five non-finishes in a row.” AC