F1
Origins
 The
Early Years
Motor
racing after World War II initiated a new formula
— originally called Formula A but soon to
be known as Formula 1 — for cars of
1,500 cc supercharged and 4,500 cc unsupercharged.
The minimum race distance was reduced from 500 km
(311 miles) to 300 km (186 miles), allowing the
Monaco Grand Prix to be  re-introduced
after a two-year interval in 1950. The FIA
(Federation Internationale de l'Automobile)
announced plans for a World Championship at a
meeting held that year. On 10 April 1950, Juan
Manuel Fangio, in a Maserati, won the Pau
Grand Prix, the first contest to be labeled an
"International Formula One" race. A
month later Silverstone hosted the British
Grand Prix, the first sanctioned championship
race for Formula One Grand Prix cars, and the
F1 World Championship was born!
Winner
at Silverstone in 1950 — adding the pole
and fast lap in the process — and the first
F1 champion, Giuseppe ("Nino") Farina
drove an Alfa Roméo 158, capturing the
Belgium, Swiss and Italian races as well, along
with  non-championship
wins at Bari and Donnington. Farina, who topped
Juan Manuel Fangio by three points in the
1950 season, is best remembered for his style
of driving; the relaxed, inclined position and
outstretched arms that was to influence a whole
generation of drivers. Even in post-war days,
many of his contemporaries still sat crouched,
fighting with the wheel. Leaving for Ferrari
in 1951, for the next two seasons Farina fought
a personal battle with Alberto Ascari,
a battle he was bound to lose, for Ascari was
by far the better driver; more controlled, faster
and more precise. Ascari won the F1 championship
in 1952-53 in the Ferrari 500.
But
it is Fangio, from Argentina, who epitomizes the
first decade of Formula One, winning five World
Championships for five different manufacturers
and four consecutively from 1954-57. When Mercedes
withdrew from motor racing after the horrific,
multi-car accident (which Fangio barely escaped)
at the 1955 Le Mans 24 Hours that left 85 people
dead, Fangio moved on to Ferrari (racing Lancias
for a year), winning in 1956 with five poles,
three wins and one 2nd in seven races.
 Nürburgring
was my favourite track. I fell totally in love
with it and I believe that on that day in 1957
I finally managed to master it. It was as if I
had screwed all the secrets out of it and got
to know it once and for all. . . For two days
I couldn't sleep, still making those leaps in
the dark on those curves where I had never before
had the courage to push things so far.
—
Juan Manuel Fangio —
Perhaps
Fangio's greatest race was the 1957 German GP
at the Nürburgring. Driving a Maserati
250F, he lost 56 seconds and the lead in a pit
stop, but returned to win by letting loose the
most spectacular pursuit of  his
life, bettering the track record for the 14.2
mile Nordeschlifer ("North Ring")
by an amazing 12 seconds on three consecutive
laps.
Fangio's
rival, erstwhile teammate and admirer was Stirling
Moss — perhaps the greatest F1 driver
never to win a championship — who finished
second to Fangio at Mercedes in 1955 in the famous
covered-wheel "Silver Arrows,"
with Maserati in '56 and then again with Vanwall
in '57. Moss became the first Briton to win the
British Grand Prix, at Aintree in 1955,
and the first to do so in a British car, the 1957
Vanwall VW5. His career declined, leading
to retirement, following accidents during the
1960 Belgium Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps,
where Moss was thrown from the car, breaking both
legs, after a rear axle broke at over 130 mph,
and an even worse shunt at Goodwood in
1962.
The
British Era
Wings, Shunts
& Ground Effects
The Turbo Era
The Active Cars
After Tamburello
Grooves
& The New Legends
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