Formula One is the
highest class of single-seat auto racing that is sanctioned by the Fédération
Internationale de l'Automobile . The FIA Formula One World Championship has
been the premier form of racing since the inaugural season in 1950, although other
Formula One races were regularly held until 1983. The "formula",
designated in the name, refers to a set of rules, to which all participants'
cars must conform. The F1 season consists of a series of races, known as Grands
Prix, held throughout the world on purpose-built F1 circuits and public roads.
The results of each race are evaluated using a points system
to determine two annual World Championships, one for drivers, one for
constructors. The racing drivers are required to be holders of valid Super
Licences, the highest class of racing licence issued by the FIA. The races are
required to be held on tracks graded 1, the highest grade a track can receive
by the FIA. Grand Prix racing began in 1906 and became the most popular type
internationally in the second half of the twentieth century. The Formula One
Group is the legal holder of the commercial rights.
With the cost of designing and building mid-tier cars being
of the order of $120 million, Formula One's economic effect and creation of
jobs is significant, and its financial and political battles are widely
reported. Its high profile and popularity have created a major merchandising
environment, which has resulted in great investments from sponsors and budgets
in the hundreds of millions for the constructors. Since 2000 the sport's
spiraling expenditures and the distribution of prize money which favors
established top teams have forced complaints from smaller teams and led several
teams to bankruptcy.
History
The Formula One series originated with the European Grand
Prix Motor Racing of the 1920s and
1930s. The formula is a set of rules which all participants' cars must meet.
Formula One was a new formula agreed upon after World War II during 1946, with
the first non-championship races being held that year. A number of Grand Prix
racing organisations had laid out rules for a world championship before the
war, but due to the suspension of racing during the conflict, the World
Drivers' Championship was not formalised until 1947. The first world championship
race was held at Silverstone, United Kingdom in 1950. A championship for
constructors followed in 1958. National championships existed in South Africa
and the UK in the 1960s and 1970s. Non-championship Formula One events were
held for many years, but due to the increasing cost of competition, the last of
these occurred in 1983.
Return of racing
The first World Championship for Drivers was won by Italian
Giuseppe Farina in his Alfa Romeo in 1950, barely defeating his Argentine
teammate Juan Manuel Fangio. However Fangio won the title in 1951, 1954, 1955,
1956 and 1957, his streak interrupted by
two-time champion Alberto Ascari of Ferrari. Although the UK's Stirling Moss
was able to compete regularly, he was never able to win the world championship,
and is now widely considered to be the greatest driver never to have won the
title. Fangio, however, is remembered for dominating Formula One's first decade
and has long been considered the "Grand Master" of Formula One.
This period featured teams managed by road car manufacturers
Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, and Maserati; all of whom had competed
before the war. The first seasons were run using pre-war cars like Alfa's 158.
They were front-engined, with narrow tyres and 1.5-litre supercharged or 4.5-litre
normally aspirated engines. The 1952 and 1953 world championships were run to
Formula Two regulations, for smaller, less powerful cars, due to concerns over
the paucity of Formula One cars available. When a new Formula One, for engines
limited to 2.5 litres, was reinstated to the world championship for 1954,
Mercedes-Benz introduced the advanced W196, which featured innovations such as
desmodromic valves and fuel injection as well as enclosed streamlined bodywork.
Mercedes drivers won the championship for two years, before the team withdrew
from all motorsport in the wake of the 1955 Le Mans disaster.
The Garagistes
The first major technological development, Bugatti's
re-introduction of mid-engined cars, occurred with the Type 251, which was
unsuccessful. Australian Jack Brabham, world champion during 1959, 1960, and
1966, soon proved the mid-engined design's superiority. By 1961, all regular
competitors had switched to mid-engined cars. The Ferguson P99, a four-wheel
drive design, was the last front-engined F1 car to enter a world championship
race. It was entered in the 1961 British Grand Prix, the only front-engined car
to compete that year.
The first British World Champion was Mike Hawthorn, who
drove a Ferrari to the title during the 1958 season. However, when Colin
Chapman entered F1 as a chassis designer and later founder of Team Lotus,
British racing green came to dominate the field for the next decade. Including
Brabham, Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, John Surtees, Graham Hill, and Denny Hulme,
British teams and Commonwealth drivers won twelve world championships between
1962 and 1973.
During 1962, Lotus introduced a car with an aluminium-sheet
monocoque chassis instead of the traditional space-frame design. This proved to
be the greatest technological breakthrough since the introduction of
mid-engined cars. During 1968, Lotus painted Imperial Tobacco livery on their
cars, thus introducing sponsorship to the sport.
Aerodynamic downforce slowly gained importance in car design
from the appearance of aerofoils during the late 1960s. During the late 1970s,
Lotus introduced ground-effect aerodynamics
that provided enormous downforce and greatly increased cornering speeds.
So great were the aerodynamic forces pressing the cars to the track, extremely
stiff springs were needed to maintain a constant ride height, leaving the
suspension virtually solid, depending entirely on the tyres for any small
amount of cushioning of the car and driver from irregularities of the road
surface.
Part Two tomorrow...
Tipster Street.
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