Ferrari may not have had much to shout about in recent years, but they remain by far the most successful team in Formula 1 history. With 16 constructors' titles successes, they remain six clear of McLaren even despite the latter having won back-to-back championships in the last two years.

The Scuderia have been in F1 since the start of the World Championship back in 1950, when the constructors' title did not yet exist. If it did, they would have taken championships in '52 and '53 when Italian racer Alberto Ascari dominated the competition, and again in '56 when three-time champion Juan Manuel Fangio was hired and won his fourth of five crowns overall by representing the red outfit.

But when the actual constructors' championship was introduced in 1958, British carmakers Vanwall and Cooper were the ones to enjoy early success. By the time the final race of the 1960 season arrived, the latter had already secured back-to-back titles with drivers' champion Jack Brabham and team-mate Bruce McLaren behind the wheel.

Ferrari ended any worries about a winless year in the penultimate round, on familiar territory. They pitched up at Monza where race organisers opted to use the full circuit, including the oval connected to the familiar layout still used for the Italian Grand Prix today. Top teams Cooper, BRM and Lotus all decided against competing on the dangerous banked oval section, leaving the field open for future World champion Phil Hill to take his first Grand Prix victory.

Despite that success, legendary company founder Enzo Ferrari had lost interest in the season. Given that any hopes of the title had long since vanished. Facing the prospect a long trip to California for the final round of the year, which was essentially a dead rubber, he elected instead to withdraw entirely from the event.

He felt the time and cash it would cost to send the cars and personnel out to the west coast of the United States would be better spent on development of their 1961 machines. New engine rules were set to come into force and Ferrari felt a head-start was preferable to travelling all the way to California for what was, in the grand scheme, a largely pointless event. Drivers Hill and Wolfgang von Trips were permitted to enter the race with other teams, but only Hill managed to score a point in a borrowed Cooper.

It turned out to be a brilliant decision on two fronts. First, the US Grand Prix was a disaster - just 25,000 people showed up to watch despite the field containing American Dan Gurney, who was from the city of Riverside where it was held.

There were likely several factors, but perhaps the biggest was race promoter Alec Ulmann alienating local media by boasting that his F1 race would draw a much larger crowd than the 70,000 who turned out to watch a sportscar race earlier in the year, which had happened to be sponsored by the Los Angeles Times.

And, second, the Ferrari cars proved dominant the following year. They won five of the eight World Championship races held in 1961, sealing the constructors' crown by the fifth of those rounds before Hill became the first American drivers' champion.

He secured it with victory at the Italian Grand Prix, though the occasion was marred by one of F1's deadliest ever tragedies when team-mate Von Trips and 14 other spectators were killed when he crashed and his Ferrari flew through a fence, rolling into the crowd.