The difference between driving for Ferrari and driving for any other team, Jody Scheckter says, is that when you drive for Ferrari, you are driving for an entire country. And that, he says, is the experience that Fernando Alonso is undergoing as he prepares for his third season with the Italian team.

Two years ago Alonso, a double champion with Renault in 2005 and 2006, failed to emulate Scheckter's feat in winning the title in his first season at the wheel of a Ferrari, although he did keep the team's spirits up by winning five grands prix in 2010. Last season, however, there was only a single victory, although at least it came at Silverstone, giving an outfit who sometimes seem a victim of their own history a reason to celebrate the 60th anniversary of their first world championship grand prix success.

But the car was generally off the pace, leading to changes in the design department and a firm resolve, under their new technical chief, the former McLaren engineer Pat Fry, to go into this season with a less conservative approach. During early tests the angular F2012 seemed nervous in its responses, still with ground to make up on the new McLaren and Red Bull.

Scheckter does not think the 30-year-old Spaniard is the best driver on the grid. "Fernando's one of the top drivers, of course, but I don't rate him as the best of the bunch," the 1979 champion says. "I see him as a steady performer who is capable of bringing in a result as long as you give him the right car.

"Then again, how long did it take Michael [Schumacher] to win the title after he joined Ferrari? Five seasons? But of course he was always there or thereabouts, always looking like winning." Indeed he was, with three wins in 1996, his first season, followed by five in 1997, six in 1998 and two in 1999 before the first of five consecutive championships came the German's way. So perhaps all Alonso needs to do is be patient and wait for Ferrari's gestione sportiva to produce the right piece of machinery.

As for Felipe Massa, who was only 20 seconds away from becoming the 2008 champion on his home ground in São Paulo at the end of his third year with the team, Scheckter shares the general view that the 30-year-old Brazilian is not quite the driver he was before a spring from his compatriot Rubens Barrichello's car hit him during qualifying in Hungary in 2009, forcing him to miss the remainder of the season.

"He was certainly good before his accident. At the end of Michael's time at Ferrari Felipe was starting to look like the faster of the two of them. But he definitely hasn't been as good since he came back, although he seemed to be picking up a bit towards the end of last season."

Many people have said that the F2012, with its step nose, is the worst looking Ferrari single-seater in many years. At home on his organic farm in Hampshire, however, Scheckter has the 312T4 with which he won 1979 title at Monza, in the third of his victories that year, and which many believed to be another of Ferrari's rare deviations from aesthetic beauty.

"When I was driving it," he says of the car he bought from Enzo Ferrari for $80,000 at the end of the season, "I didn't think about whether it was beautiful or not. Now I look at it and it looks pretty good to me." Fernando Alonso will be hoping that at some time in the distant future he will be opening his garage doors, looking at the F2012, and thinking along the same lines.

Fernando's forerunners

Phil Hill 1958-62

The only driver born in America to win a Formula One title, Hill brought Ferrari their first constructors' crown in one of their most difficult seasons. Team-mate Wolfgang von Trips - also in contention for the 1961 championship - was killed during the penultimate race at Monza. But Hill had proved his speed by setting pole in five of the eight rounds, winning three.

Niki Lauda 1974-77

The Rat claimed two of his three world titles with the Scuderia after new manager Luca di Montezemolo took a risk signing the inexperienced Austrian. He took second on his debut and victory a handful of races later, going on to claim the first of his drivers' championships in only his second year with the team.

Jody Scheckter 1979-80

The last man to win a drivers' championship for Ferrari until Michael Schumacher, the South African Scheckter saw out his career with the Scuderia. Despite going close to title glory with Tyrrell and Wolf, it was with Ferrari's ground-effect car that he did the business. He now runs an organic pig farm.

Nigel Mansell 1989-90

The last driver to be chosen by Enzo before his death in 1988, Mansell spent only two seasons at Ferrari but Italians called him il Leone for his brave drives. In each of the races he finished in '89 he was on the podium but retirements, disqualifications and a race ban left him fourth in the standings.

Michael Schumacher 1996-2006

Five of the German's seven titles came during his partnership with the Italians, during which his natural skill and the team's technical abilities could rarely be bettered. Their dominance was such that the era was one that many fans, not to mention rivals, came to dislike.