The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) created the inaugural World Drivers’ Championship in 1950 in response to the World Motorcycling Championship, which began in 1949. But, before the inaugural world championship race, how did racing go?
Around 1884, motor racing began to take shape in France, quickly evolving from basic races between villages to sophisticated tournaments. So, let’s have a look at what Formula One was like before the FIFA World Championship was established…
The very earliest races recorded in history
In 1900, James Gordon Bennett Jr., owner of the New York Herald and the Herald Tribune, organised the Gordon Bennett Cup in Europe, an annual race that drew international competitors from all over the world and allowed any country to enter up to three automobiles.
Millionaire William Kissam Vanderbilt II followed Bennett’s lead and established the Vanderbilt Cup in the United States. In particular, in 1904 in Long Island, New York.
Louis Chevrolet, a Swiss guy who worked for a French function Object() { [native code] }, was influenced by these competitions and decided to relocate to the United States. Since 1901, he has been a key figure in American country races, and he designed the General Motors vehicles that bear his name.
The inaugural Grand Prix
The Automobile Club of France (CAF) hosted the first Grand Prix in 1906, which lasted two days and took place in the month of June. The Le Mans track had a total length of roughly 105 kilometres (65 miles), and 32 drivers representing 12 different companies competed. Ferenc Szisz (1873-1944), a Hungarian, won the race after 1,260 kilometres in a Renault.
Without an official championship to bring them together, each country organised its own competitions, with different rules depending on the country.
All racers, however, had a mechanic on board, and no one save them and the drivers were allowed to repair or operate on the car. Renault’s success was largely due to the use of removable wheels (invented by Michelin), which allowed for wheel replacement without dismantling the vehicle.
World War II (WWII)
In 1925, the first World Championship was conducted, with only four races (the Indianapolis 500, the Grand Prix of Europe, France and Italy). However, it was merely a manufacturers’ championship, not a drivers’ championship.However, ten years later, the European Drivers’ Championship was held annually until the outbreak of World War I, thanks to an agreement between many federations.
The start order for the 1933 Monaco Grand Prix was determined by qualifying times for the first time in the sport’s history. All participating vehicles were painted in their respective national colours, though the Germans (Auto Union and Mercedes-Benz) ceased painting their cars in 1934 to reduce weight. The metallic colour is, of course, still used on Mercedes’ Formula One “silver arrows” today.
Auto Union and Mercedes-Benz dominated the period between 1934 and 1939, with the two Bavarian teams winning all but three races in six seasons, thanks to the German government’s participation in their finance.
Formula One’s inception
In the immediate aftermath of WWII, the Grand Prix category consisted of only four races. The rules for the World Championship had already been created prior to it, but it took another few years until the old AIACR was reorganised and renamed the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile in 1947. (FIA).
Based in Paris, it was announced at the close of the 1949 season that races would be combined in 1950 to form a Grand Prix World Championship for Formula One drivers. Seven races were deemed suitable for the championship after a scoring system was established. The World Championship began on May 13 at the Silverstone circuit in the United Kingdom.
Both the manufacturers and the drivers in these early World Championship races were Italians. Giuseppe Farina, driving an Alfa Romeo, was the first World Champion, while Ferrari competed in the second race at Monaco and holds the distinction of being the only manufacturer to compete throughout the sport’s history.