F1
Origins
The
modern era of Formula One Grand Prix racing began
in 1950, but the roots of F1 are far earlier,
tracing to the pioneering road races in France
in the 1890s, through the Edwardian years, the
bleak twenties, the German domination of the 1930s
and the early post-war years of Italian supremacy.
At
the birth of racing, cars were upright and heavy,
roads were tarred sand or wood, reliability was
problematic, drivers were accompanied by mechanics,
and races usually on public roads from
town to town were impossibly long by modern
standards. Regarded as the first motor race proper
was a 1,200 km road race from Paris to Bordeaux
and back in 1895, won by Émile Levassor
with
his Panhard et Levassor in 48 hours. One
of the most successful drivers of the early years
was Fernand Charron, who won the Paris-Bordeaux
race in 1899, also in a Panhard, at the blazing
average speed of 29.9 mph.
The
first race using the appellation "Grand
Prix" was 1901's French Grand Prix at
Le Mans, won by Ferencz Szisz with a Renault,
who covered the 700 miles at 63.0 mph. In 1908
the Targa Florio in Sicily saw the appearance
of "pits," shallow emplacements
dug by the side of the track where mechanics could
labor with the detachable rims on early GP car
tires themselves a major technical improvement
over the earlier technique of permanently attached
wheels and spokes. But even so, racing cars of
the early years were too heavy and fast for their
tires; Christian Lauteschalnger's winning Mercedes
shredded 10 tires in the 1908 French Grand Prix
at Dieppe!
In
1914, the massive 4 1/2 litre Mercedes of Daimler-Benz
dominated the French Grand Prix at Lyons
20 laps of a 23.3 mile circuit taking the
first three places and introducing control of
drivers by signal from the pits. During World
War I, racing was halted in Europe, and many drivers
participated in the U.S. Indianapolis 500. Enzo
Ferrari who's real fame was to follow
as a team manager and manufacturer with Scuderia
Ferrari, formed in 1929 to race Alfa Roméo
P2s - finished second in the 1920 Voiturette
race at Le Mans, the first international
road race in France in six years.
By
tradition the Italian racing driver in action
is an excitable character given to shouting, gesticulating,
waving his fists, baring his teeth and in general
giving way to his emotions. Tazio Nuvolari filled
this role splendidly.
The
Farmer's Son - Cyril Posthumus
The
first (and, until Dan Gurney's Eagle-Weslake
at Spa-Francorchamps in 1967, the only)
Grand Prix victory by an American-built car was
by Jimmy Murphy in the 1921 French Grand Prix
at Le Mans, driving a Duesnberg. Among
the best of the 1920s manufacturers were Bugatti,
whose straight-eight Type 35Bs won the French
and Spanish GPs in 1929 and the Monaco,
French and Belgian GPs in 1930, and Fiat,
which introduced the supercharger for the
first time in 1923.
The
Great Depression of the early 1930s led to a lack
of money and interest in Grand Prix racing, but
saw the emergence of the legendary Tazio Nuvolari,
whose wins in the Alfa Romeo P3 "Monza"
in the Mille Miglia, at Monaco and the
Italian GP at Monza were stunning. His
victory in the 1933 Monaco GP was the first in
which staring grid
positions were determined by qualifying times.
But in 1934, the balance of power in racing would
begin to shift from Italy to Germany, with the
emergence of factory teams from Auto Union
(now Audi) and Mercedes-Benz, behind massive
financial support from the Third Reich government
on orders from Adolph Hitler.
These
powerful and beautiful German machines introduced
aerodynamics into Grand Prix car design
and ran on exotic, secret fuel brews. Driving
the sleek, silver 3-litre V12 Auto Union in his
trademark canary yellow jersey, Nuvolari achieved
new greatness with these incredibly well-engineered
automobiles but nothing to top his 1935
German GP victory at the Nürburgring,
where he defeated nine modern German cars in a
four-year old Alfa Roméo.
The
Early Years
The
British Era
Wings,
Shunts & Ground Effects
The
Turbo Era
The
Active Cars
After
Tamburello
Grooves
& The New Legends
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