Formula 1 History

By Author: Gustavo Roche
Total Articles: 10
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Formula One beginning has its roots from the European Grand Prix motor racing. The name which came from the set of rules that drivers must follow was formerly known as Formula A. It has rich start in the late 1930’s where the plans for the F1 drivers were laid. But due to the onset of World War II, the plans were shelved off for a while.

In 1946, the idea of forming a prestigious car racing game was rekindled along with the formulation of its foundation by Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile's (FIA's). Here the high esteemed regulatory board set the rules and made it standard. When everything was polished, it was in May 1950 that started the first world championship race which happened in Silverstone.

The organization of the championship was held across six of the 'major' Grands Prix of Europe, plus the Indianapolis 500. It was the Italian teams Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, and Maserati which were best positioned to dominate the initial years of the championship.

It was Alfa Romeo team which dominated in the 1950 season where Italian drivers Luigi Fagioli, Giuseppe Farina and Piero Taruffi and Argentine ...
... driver Juan Manuel Fangio were renowned. Giuseppe Farina won the inaugural title, but it was Juan Manuel Fangio who won the driver’s championship in the years 1951, 1954, 1955, 1956 and 1957 with five different manufacturers.

The beginning of FORMULA 1 was not that successful and easy. They were issues considering the lack of entrants. There were 20 constructors in 1950 but few only were retained due to high cost maintenance. It was Ferrari that sustained since then. It was also horrible years for the most coveted car racing competition as there were 13 drivers killed in the first decade.

1962 was seen as year for introduction of modern cars. Lotus team came with their Lotus 25 powered by the new Coventry-Climax FWMV V8 engine that has aluminium sheet monocoque chassis as a substitute for the traditional space frame design.

Lotus' Jochen Rindt won the driver’s championship in 1970 and then succeeded by young Brazilian Emerson Fittipaldi. The following years, cars became slicker and faster with innovative designs and features. Lotus has been tagged as the innovators with their ground-effect aerodynamics in the 70’s.

In that era, turbocharged cars were also introduced that gave vast improvement to speed and power. However, in spite of advancements, safety of the driver4s has been always controversial. Stewart retired on his final race after the death of his friend and teammate Francois Cevert in 1973 in US Grand Prix.

With many issues concerning the danger, restrictions were implemented following by banning of turbochargers in 1989. In the next two decades, there were hot controversies concerning new technology and FIA. In 1990’S Mc Laren and Williams rose in stardom.

Mc LAren and Williams garnered 16 championships. With death of Senna considerable increase in car racing safety were alleviated. Since then no driver died on the wheels of F1. From 19894 to 2008, Mc LAren, Renault, Williams and Ferrari surfaced in the world championship.

The contentious cost of F1 has set alarm to many constructors especially the small independents. During years of 1990 to 2008, several teams came and go but few only were retained. Michael Schumacher and Ferrari surfaced winning unparalleled five consecutive drivers' championships and six consecutive constructors' championships between 1999 and 2004.

From 2000, more manufacturers such as Renault, BMW, Toyota, Honda and Ferrari dominated in the championship. The expansion of Formula One continued with races in more profitable markets in the Middle East. The controversial topic for Formula One is that teams seem to break every year.

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