Formula 1 season #1 🏁 1950

 

Formula 1 season 1950 🏁

The 1950 Formula One season was the inaugural FIA World Championship of Drivers, which was contested over seven races between 13 May and 3 September 1950. The only one outside of Europe was the Indianapolis 500, which was run to AAA National Championship regulations. No Formula One drivers competed in the Indy 500 or vice versa.

 

Finally, the season also included several non-championship races for Formula One cars.

Alfa Romeo entered a supercharged 158, a well-developed pre-war design that debuted in 1938, and managed to win all six races they competed in.

But the Formula 1 Constructors' World Championship was only established in 1957, so italian Team AlfaRomeo never won any titles, despite dominating the first few seasons of Formula 1.

Italian Nino Farina and Argentine teammate Juan Manuel Fangio both won three races and set three fastest laps. But Fangio did not score points in the other three races, while Farina finished fourth in Belgium, handing him the championship and so he became the first Formula 1 World Champion.

Nino Farina 🇮🇹 
Age 44 years
🏆 World Champion 1950

In this season points were awarded to the top five classified finishers, with an additional point awarded for setting the fastest lap, regardless of finishing position or even classification. Only the best four results counted towards the championship. Shared drives result in half points for each driver if they finished in a points-scoring position. If more than one driver set the same fastest lap time, the fastest lap point would be divided equally between the drivers.

The 1950 British Grand Prix was the first Formula One race of the New born Formula One World Championship held on 13 May 1950 at the Silverstone Circuit.

It was the first race of seven in the 1950 World Championship of Drivers.

The 70-lap race was won by Nino Farina for the Alfa Romeo team, after starting from pole position, with a race time of 2:13:23.6 and an average speed of 146.378 km/h.

Luigi Fagioli finished second in another Alfa Romeo, and Reg Parnell third in a third Alfa Romeo.

24 drivers were entered for the first race with them competing in 22 different cars.

The biggest absence was the Scuderia Ferrari who would not compete in the opening race with Enzo Ferrari not sending any cars to Britain with the team debuting at the next round in Monaco, due to the small amount of appearance money the organisers were willing to pay him to participate.

Alfa Romeo 158 🇮🇹

This meant that Alfa Romeo were favourites with their four drivers Farina, Fangio, Fagioli, and British driver, Reg Parnell, while their main competition came from the Maseratis of the Scuderia Ambrosiana and Enrico Platé teams. Felice Bonetto also entered a Maserati but would not arrive for the race.

Talbot-Lago sent over two factory cars in the traditional French pale blue colour to be driven by Yves Giraud-Cabantous and Eugène Martin. Other private Talbots were entered by Louis Rosier, Philippe Etancelin, and Belgian Johnny Claes in a car painted in Belgium's national yellow colour. The rest of the field was made up of local machinery, which included four ERAs and two Altas in British racing green. 

Qualifying took place on Friday and saw the Alfa Romeos end up on the front row of the grid as Farina claimed the first pole position in the history of Formula One with a time of 1:50.8. Fagioli and Fangio and Parnell would fill the remaining spots on the front row of the grid. Prince Bira was the fastest non-Alfa, 1.8 seconds back with the two Talbot's cars filling in the second row. 

On 13 May, 21 drivers from 9 countries were represented at the old Silverstone airport, 4 from France, 2 from Italy, 1 each from Belgium, Ireland, Monaco, Argentina, Thailand and Switzerland. The UK was represented by 9 drivers. The race drew 200,000 spectators and the attendi g of Queen Elisabeth too.

At the start of the race, Farina took the lead with Fagioli and Fangio in pursuit, while Cabantous got a poor start and lost 4 positions. In the early laps, they switched around between themselves several times to keep everyone amused. Fangio retired with engine troubles caused by a broken oil pipe and so Farina led Fagioli home by 2.5 seconds with Parnell a distant third, despite hitting a hare during the race. The nearest challenger was Giraud-Cabantous two laps down, with Bira having retired with a fuel problem. Crossley and Murray duelled at the back before retiring, de Graffenried had done so on lap 34, while Chiron was demoted to the role of the viewer 10 laps earlier.

Juan Manuel Fangio 🇦🇷

The 1950 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 21 May 1950 at Monaco. 

It was race two of seven in the 1950 World Championship of Drivers. 

The 100-lap race was held at an overall distance of 318.1 km  and was won by Juan Manuel Fangio for the Alfa Romeo Corse team after starting from pole position. Alberto Ascari finished second for Ferrari and Louis Chiron finished third for Maserati. 

It was also the first race for Scuderia Ferrari in Formula One.

After two qualifying sessions, on Thursday and Saturday, which Charles Pozzi, Yves Giraud-Cabantous, Pierre Levegh and Clemente Biondetti did not start, the race was dominated from start to finish by Juan Manuel Fangio, who scored his first ever victory in a World Championship event, driving an Alfa Romeo. The starting grid consisted of alternating rows of three and two, starting with three on the front row and continuing up to two on the 8th row. The first two rows of the grid (positions 1 to 5) were made up of the fastest five drivers from the Thursday qualifying session, with the remaining positions based on the other 16 drivers' times in the second session on the Saturday. This format meant that Luigi Villoresi started 6th, despite his time being fast enough for 2nd place on the grid.

Due to an accident in practice, Alfredo Piàn did not start the race, with Peter Whitehead another non-starter. The race was marred by a large pile-up during the first lap, when a wave from the harbour flooded the track at Tabac Corner. 

Nino Farina in 2nd, spun and crashed while Fangio managed to escape the chaos. Those who were behind them tried to stop or avoid the carnage, but eight more drivers (from a field of 19 drivers) crashed and retired. 

None of them was injured, but José Froilán González, who damaged his Maserati in the pile-up but was subsequently running second, crashed during the second lap. His car caught fire and he suffered burns.

The race went on with many cars going off at Tabac Corner, nearly causing other accidents. 

Ferrari driver Luigi Villoresi charged his way from the back of the field after being delayed by the pile-up, but did not finish.

Harry Schell's Cooper was the first rear-engined car to start in a championship race while Chiron's 3rd-place finish made him the only Monegasque driver to score points in Formula One until Charles Leclerc finished 6th in the 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix some 68 years later.

The 1950 Indianapolis 500 was round 3 of 7 on the 1950 Formula One World Championship. 

It was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Tuesday, May 30, 1950.

The event, however, failed to attract significant interest from any of the regular competitors on the Grand Prix circuit. Giuseppe Farina and Franco Rol submitted Maserati entries, but their cars never arrived, and the race took place without any European competitors.

 The race was originally scheduled for 200 laps (500 miles), but was stopped after 138 laps (345 miles) due to rain.

Race winner Johnnie Parsons earned 9 points towards the World Championship (8 points for first place, and 1 point for the fastest lap). Despite not competing in any of the other World Championship events, he finished sixth in the final season standings.

Drivers competing at the Indianapolis 500 in 1950 through 1960 were credited with participation in and earned points towards the Formula One World Championship of Drivers.

However, the machines competing at Indianapolis were not necessarily run to Formula One specifications and regulations.

The drivers also earned separate points (on a different scale) towards the respective AAA or USAC national championships. No points, however, were awarded by the FIA towards the World Constructors' Championship.

The 1950 Swiss Grand Prix was race four of seven in the 1950 World Championship of Drivers and was held on 4 June 1950 at Bremgarten. 

The 42-lap race was won by Alfa Romeo driver Nino Farina after he started from second position. His teammate Luigi Fagioli finished second and Talbot-Lago driver Louis Rosier came in third.

The race took place just three weeks after the series began at Silverstone and once again the event proved to be a battle between the Alfa Romeo factory 158s of Giuseppe Farina, Juan Manuel Fangio and Luigi Fagioli and the Scuderia Ferraris of Alberto Ascari, Luigi Villoresi,  Raymond Sommer and Peter Whitehead.

This was also the first and only World Championship Grand Prix for Nello Pagani, better known for his exploits in Grand Prix motorcycle racing.

In the race, on the first lap Ascari managed to get among the Alfa Romeos but he quickly slipped back and it was left to the Alfa Romeo to battle. 

Fangio led early on but then Farina went ahead through a faster refuelling stop. 

Fagioli was unable to keep up and after both Villoresi and Ascari retired. It was left to Prince Bira to run fourth, but he had to refuel and so Philippe Étancelin in a Talbot-Lago was able to move into fourth place. 

Shortly afterwards, factory Talbot-Lago driver Eugène Martin crashed heavily and was seriously hurt when he was thrown from the car. Étancelin later went out with gearbox trouble and so Talbot-Lago factory driver Louis Rosier moved into fourth. He was promoted to third when Fangio retired on lap 33 with an electrical problem. 

Farina became the first driver to win multiples Grands Prix, after winning the inaugural World Championship Grand Prix.

Alfa Romeo took their third front row lockout of the season at the Belgian Grand Prix at the speedy 14.0 km Spa Francorchamps circuit, that was held on 18 June 1950 at Spa Francorchamps, while the Ferrari of Villoresi shared the second row with the privateer Talbot Lago of Raymond Sommer. The Alfas were once again untouchable at the start of the race, but when they stopped for fuel, Sommer emerged as an unlikely race leader. His lead, however, was short lived, and he was forced to retire when his engine blew up. Fangio ultimately took the victory, ahead of Fagioli, who again finished second. Rosier again made the podium in his Talbot Lago. He had been able to pass the polesitter Farina when the Italian picked up transmission problems towards the end of the race. It was not all bad for Farina, however, as he picked up the point for fastest lap. Fagioli and Fangio closed the gap to Farina in the points standings, Fagioli was just four points adrift, while Fangio was a further point behind.

Alfa Romeo was largely unchallenged at the French Grand Prix, held at the high-speed Reims Gueux circuit, due to the withdrawal of the works Ferraris of Ascari and Villoresi. The Alfas produced yet another lockout of the front row of the grid, with Fangio taking pole for the third time in six races. The power of the Alfas suited this public road circuit made up entirely of long straights, and Farina, starting from second, led for the first quarter of the race before fuel problems put him to the back of the field. He fought back to third before he was forced to retire and he was ultimately classified seventh.

Fangio picked up the fastest lap on his way to his second consecutive victory. Fagioli finished second for the fourth time out of five starts, while Peter Whitehead, in a privateer Ferrari, took a maiden podium in his first start of the season. Fangio took the championship lead as a result of his victory. Fagioli remained in second, while Farina dropped to third, four points behind his Argentinian teammate.

Ferrari 275 F1 🇮🇹

The final championship round of the season was the Italian Grand Prix at the Monza Autodrome near Milan, and all three of the regular Alfa Romeo drivers were in contention for the title. If Fangio finished first or second, he would win the title, regardless of where his teammates finished. If Farina failed to score at least five points, he would be unable to take the title. Fagioli's only chance of becoming World Champion was if he won the race and set the fastest lap; even then, he would need Farina to finish no higher than third, and Fangio would have to score no points at all.

Fangio again took pole position, but Alfa Romeo could not make it a fifth front row lockout of the season, as Ascari qualified second for Ferrari. Farina started from third, while Consalvo Sanesi completed the front row in an additional Alfa Romeo. Fagioli could only manage fifth on the grid, alongside the fifth Alfa of Piero Taruffi, the second Ferrari of Dorino Serafini, and Sommer in a Talbot Lago. Farina took the lead early on, with Ascari and Fangio not far behind. Ascari briefly held the lead but was forced to retire when his engine overheated. Two laps later, Fangio also retired due to problems with his gearbox. Taruffi's car, which was now running in second, was taken over by Fangio, although the Argentinian was forced to retire for the second time in the race, this time with engine problems. Ascari took over Serafini's car and ultimately finished second behind Farina, whose victory clinched the title by taking him three points clear of Fangio. Fagioli finished third in the race, and clinched the same position in the Drivers' Championship standings.