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.