Allow me to get back to the first topic of this thread, the first driver to win the World Championship (F1) for Ferrari.
- Alberto Ascari won the World Drivers’ Championship (WDC) in 1952, in a Ferrari, but this was to Formula 2 specifications.
- Juan Manuel Fangio won the WDC in 1956, in a Ferrari, but this was developed, built and raced by Lancia in (the) previous season(s), and sold to Ferrari.
- Fangio was effectively gifted the 1956 title by teammate Peter Collins, who, in the final race, handed his car to Fangio, who had retired with his own car. In doing so, gave up his own shot at the title.
- Mike Hawthorn won the World Drivers’ Championship in 1958, in a Ferrari, but it the championship was not specified as a ‘Formula 1 World Championship’.
- It was argued that either Wolfgang von Trips or Phil Hill won Ferrari its first constructors’ title in 1961 by winning the British and Italian Grands Prix respectively, but the constructors’ title wasn’t specified as a world championship, since it was the ‘International Cup for F1 Manufacturers’.
- Eddie Irvine came third in the 1999 Japanese Grand Prix, claiming 4 points for Ferrari, which earned the team the Formula One World (Constructors’) Championship. (Michael Schumacher could be argued to have done so, too, since he came second in the same race, but without Irvine’s points, McLaren would’ve won the title with 7 victories to Ferrari’s 6.)
- Schumacher was the first driver to win the Formula One World (Drivers’) Championship for Ferrari, in 2000.
So I reckon there's six potentially correct answers to the original question. Or 7 wrong answers, whichever way you look at it. 
I thought I'd check out the 1982 case. In fact, it's not Andretti that took Ferrari's title winning points, but Tambay.
Patrick Tambay came second in the 1982 Italian Grand Prix, claiming 6 points for Ferrari, with which the team totalled 70 points. This was eventually enough for Ferrari to take the Formula One World (Constructors’) Championship, since McLaren, which was then still in contention, scored too few points in the final race.
Mario Andretti, of course, came third in the same race, claiming another 4 points for Ferrari, but even without those points, Ferrari would have been champion, with 70 points to McLaren's 69.
So that adds up to 7 potentially right answers, or 8 potentially wrong ones. 
Can I add a
9th esoteric possibility?
If we accept Bauble's contention that Ascari's two world drivers' championships don't count because the championship was held for Formula 2 cars, and work to the thread title which made no mention of F1, then the first World Championship that Ferrari won would then be the
1953 World Sports Car Championship.
Because of the best 4 results rule it is hard to determine exactly when Ferrari clinched the championship. At least one Jaguar was entered in the Carrera Panamericana. So,
if a Jaguar had won the Carrera Panamericana, and a Ferrari finished no higher than 4th or
if a Jaguar was 2nd and a Ferrari was no higher than 5th, then Jaguar would win the championship. The highest placed Jaguar was 9th and
Guido Mancini drove a Ferrari to 4th place confirming the championship for Ferrari. However, as the race was run in stages the Jaguar of
Guillerno Giron may have crossed the finishing line first or failed to do so in time to finish 2nd so he might have won the championship for Ferrari by failing to beat them.
It's all a silly statistical argument that depends what the question meant. My suspicion is that our friend Bauble didn't know himself and deliberately asked an ambiguous question and later decided what he might have meant.
Edited by D-Type, 17 November 2011 - 21:03.
