The Formula One series has its roots in the European
Grand Prix motor racing (
q.v. for pre-1947 history) of the 1920s and 1930s. The "
formula" is a set of rules which all participants and cars must meet. Formula One was a new formula agreed after
World War II in 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, Britain 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 races were held for many years but due to the rising cost of competition, the last of these occurred in 1983.
The sport's title, Formula One, indicates that it is intended to be the most advanced and most competitive of the many
racing formulae.
The return of racing (1950–1958)
The first Formula One World Championship 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 &
1957, his streak interrupted after an injury by two-time champion
Alberto Ascari of
Ferrari. Although Britain'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.
The period was dominated by teams run 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 treaded tyres and 1.5 litre supercharged or 4.5 litre naturally aspirated engines. The
1952 and
1953 world championships were run to
Formula Two regulations, for smaller, less powerful cars, due to concerns over the number of Formula One cars available. When a new Formula One, for engines limited to 2.5 litres, was reinstated to the world championship in 1954 Mercedes-Benz introduced the advanced
W196, which featured innovations such as
desmodromic valves and
fuel injection as well as enclosed streamlined bodywork. Mercedes won the drivers championship for two years, before withdrawing from all motorsport in the wake of the
1955 Le Mans disaster.
The 'Garagistes' (1959–1980)
The first major technological development,
Cooper's re-introduction of mid-engined cars (following
Ferdinand Porsche's pioneering
Auto Unions of the 1930s), which evolved from the company's successful
Formula 3 designs, occurred in the 1950s. Australian
Jack Brabham, World Champion in
1959,
1960 and
1966, soon proved the new design's superiority. By
1961, all competitors had switched to mid-engined cars.
The first
British World Champion was
Mike Hawthorn, who drove a Ferrari to the title in
1958. 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. Between
Jim Clark,
Jackie Stewart,
John Surtees,
Jack Brabham,
Graham Hill, and
Denny Hulme, British teams and
Commonwealth drivers won twelve world championships between 1962 and 1973.
In
1962, Lotus introduced a car with an aluminium sheet monocoque chassis instead of the traditional spaceframe design. This proved to be the greatest technological breakthrough since the introduction of
mid-engined cars. In
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 in the late 1960s. In the late 1970s Lotus introduced
ground effect aerodynamics that provided enormous downforce and greatly increased cornering speeds (though the concept had previously been used on
Jim Hall's Chaparral 2J in 1970). So great were the aerodynamic forces pressing the cars to the track, up to 5
g, that 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 in the road surface.
[2]The formation of the
Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile (FISA) in 1979 set off the
FISA-FOCA war, during which FISA and its president
Jean-Marie Balestre clashed repeatedly with the
Formula One Constructors Association over television profits and technical regulations.
Big business (1981–2000)
1981 saw the signing of the first
Concorde Agreement, a contract which bound the teams to compete until its expiration and assured them a share of the profits from the sale of television rights, bringing an end to the FISA-FOCA War and contributing to
Bernie Ecclestone's eventual complete financial control of the sport, after much negotiation.
The FIA imposed a ban on
ground effect aerodynamics in
1983. By then, however,
turbocharged engines, which
Renault had pioneered in
1977, were producing over 700
bhp (520
kW) and were essential to be competitive. By
1986 a BMW turbocharged engine achieved a flash reading of 5.5
bar pressure, estimated to be "over 1300 bhp" (970 kW) in qualifying for the
Italian Grand Prix. The following year power in race trim reached around 1,000 bhp (820 kW), with boost pressure limited to only 4.0 bar.
[3] These cars were the most powerful
open-wheel circuit racing cars ever. To reduce engine power output and thus speeds, the FIA limited fuel tank capacity in
1984 and boost pressures in
1988 before banning turbocharged engines completely in
1989.
The development of electronic driver aids began in the 1980s. Lotus began to develop a system of
active suspension which first appeared in 1982 on the F1
Lotus 91 and
Lotus Esprit road car. By 1987 this system had been perfected and was driven to victory by
Ayrton Senna in the
Monaco Grand Prix that year. In the early 1990s, other teams followed suit and
semi-automatic gearboxes and
traction control were a natural progression. The FIA, due to complaints that technology was determining the outcome of races more than driver skill, banned many such aids for
1994. However, many observers felt that the ban on driver aids was a ban in name only as the FIA did not have the technology or the methods to eliminate these features from competition.
The teams signed a second Concorde Agreement in 1992 and a third in 1997, which is due to expire on the last day of 2007.
On the track, the
McLaren and
Williams teams dominated the 1980s and 1990s. Powered by
Porsche,
Honda, and Mercedes-Benz, McLaren won 16 championships (seven constructors', nine drivers') in that period, while Williams used engines from
Ford, Honda, and
Renault to also win 16 titles (nine constructors', seven drivers'). The rivalry between racing legends
Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost became F1's central focus in
1988, and continued until Prost retired at the end of
1993. Tragically, Senna died at the
1994 San Marino Grand Prix after crashing into a wall on the exit of the notorious curve Tamburello, having taken over Prost's lead drive at Williams that year. The FIA worked to improve the sport's safety standards since that weekend, during which
Roland Ratzenberger also lost his life in an accident during Saturday qualifying. No driver has died on the track at the wheel of a Formula One car since, though two track marshals have lost their lives, one at the
2000 Italian Grand Prix, and the other at the
2001 Australian Grand Prix.
Since the deaths of Senna, Ratzenberger & Gilles Villeneuve, the FIA has used safety as a reason to impose rule changes which otherwise, under the Concorde Agreement, would have had to be agreed upon by all the teams - most notably the changes introduced for
1998. This so called 'narrow track' era resulted in cars with smaller rear tyres, a narrower track overall and the introduction of 'grooved' tyres to reduce mechanical grip. There would be four grooves, on the front and rear - although initially three on the front tyres in the first year - that ran through the entire circumference of the tyre. The objective was to reduce cornering speeds and to produce racing similar to rain conditions by enforcing a smaller
contact patch between tyre and track. This was to promote driver skill and provide a better spectacle.
Results have been mixed as the lack of mechanical grip has resulted in the more ingenious designers clawing back the deficit with aerodynamic grip - pushing more force onto the tyres through wings, aerodynamic devices etc - which in turn has resulted in less overtaking as these devices tend to make the wake behind the car 'dirty' preventing other cars from following closely, due to their dependence on 'clean' air to make the car stick to the track. The grooved tyres also had the unfortunate side effect of initially being of a harder compound, to be able to hold the groove tread blocks, which resulted in spectacular accidents in times of aerodynamic grip failure e.g. rear wing failures, as the harder compound could not grip the track as well.
The more innovative teams have found ways to maximise this dramatic change. In 1997 an
F1 Racing photographer noticed that the rear brakes of the
McLarens were glowing red in an acceleration zone of the track. The magazine discovered through investigation that McLaren had installed a second brake pedal, selectable by the driver to act on one of the rear wheels. This allowed the driver to eliminate
understeer and reduce wheelspin when exiting slow corners, dubbed "brake steer". Ferrari's protestations to the FIA led to the system being banned at the
1998 Brazilian Grand Prix.
[4]Drivers from McLaren, Williams, Renault (formerly
Benetton) and Ferrari, dubbed the "Big Four", have won every World Championship from
1984 to the present day. Due to the technological advances of the 1990s, the cost of competing in Formula One rose dramatically. This increased financial burden, combined with four teams' dominance (largely funded by big car manufacturers such as
Mercedes-Benz (DaimlerChrysler)), caused the poorer independent teams to struggle not only to remain competitive, but to stay in business. Financial troubles forced several teams to withdraw. Since
1990, 28 teams have pulled out of Formula One. This has prompted former
Jordan owner
Eddie Jordan to say that the days of competitive privateers are over.
[5] The manufacturers return (2000–2006)
A sign displaying that the safety car (SC) is deployed. Safety is of paramount concern in contemporary F1.
and Ferrari won an unprecedented five consecutive drivers’ championships and six consecutive constructors’ championships between 1999 and 2004. Schumacher set many new records, including those for Grand Prix wins (91), wins in a season (13 of 18), and most drivers' championships (7).
[6] Schumacher's championship streak ended on September 25, 2005 when Renault driver
Fernando Alonso became Formula One’s youngest champion. In 2006, Renault and Alonso won both titles again. Schumacher retired at the end of 2006 after 16 years in Formula One.
During this period the championship rules were frequently changed by the FIA with the intention of improving the on-track action and cutting costs.
[7] Team orders, legal since the championship started in 1950, were banned in 2002 after several incidents in which teams openly manipulated race results, generating negative publicity, most famously by Ferrari at the
2002 Austrian Grand Prix. Other changes included the qualifying format, the points scoring system, the technical regulations and rules specifying how long engines and tyres must last. A 'tyre war' between suppliers
Michelin and
Bridgestone saw lap times fall, although at the
2005 United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis seven out of ten teams did not race when their Michelin tyres were deemed unsafe for use. At the end of 2006 Max Moseley outlined a ‘green’ future for Formula One, in which efficient use of energy would become an important factor. And the tyre war ended, as Bridgestone became the sole tyre supplier to Formula One for the 2007 season.
Since 1983, Formula One had been dominated by specialist race teams like Williams, McLaren and Benetton, using engines supplied by large car manufacturers like
Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Renault and Ford. Starting in 2000 with Ford’s creation of the largely unsuccessful
Jaguar team, new manufacturer-owned teams entered Formula One for the first time since
Alfa Romeo and Renault in 1985. By 2006, the manufacturer teams – Renault,
BMW,
Toyota, Honda and Ferrari – dominated the championship, taking five of the first six places in the constructors' championship. The sole exception was McLaren, which is part-owned by Mercedes Benz. Through the
Grand Prix Manufacturers Association (GPMA) they negotiated a larger share of Formula One’s commercial profit and a greater say in the running of the sport.
Outside the World Championship
Currently, the terms "Formula One race" and "World Championship race" are effectively synonymous; since 1984, every Formula One race has counted towards the World Championship, and every World Championship race has been to Formula One regulations. This has not always been the case, and in the earlier history of Formula One many races took place outside the world championship.
European non-championship racing
In the early years of Formula One, before the world championship was established, there were around 20 races held from late Spring to early Autumn (Fall) in Europe, although not all of these were considered significant. Most competitive cars came from Italy, particularly Alfa Romeo. After the start of the world championship these non-championship races continued. In the 1950s and 1960s, there were many Formula One races which did not count for the World Championship (e.g., in 1950, a total of 22 Formula One races were held, of which only 6 counted towards the World Championship). In 1952 and 1953, when the world championship was run for
Formula Two cars, a full season of non-championship Formula One racing took place. Some races, particularly in the UK, including the
Race of Champions,
Oulton Park International Gold Cup and
International Trophy, were attended by the majority of the world championship contenders. These became less common through the 1970s and 1983 saw the last non-championship Formula One race: The 1983 Race of Champions at Brands Hatch, won by reigning World Champion Keke Rosberg in a Williams Cosworth in a close fight with American
Danny Sullivan.
South African Formula One championship
South Africa's flourishing domestic Formula One championship ran from 1960 through to 1975. The frontrunning cars in the series were recently retired from the world championship although there was also a healthy selection of locally built or modified machines. Frontrunning drivers from the series usually contested their local World Championship Grand Prix, as well as occasional European events, although they had little success at that level.
British Formula One Series
The old fashioned DFV helped make the UK domestic Formula One series possible between 1978 and 1980. As in South Africa a generation before, second hand cars from manufacturers like Lotus and Fittipaldi Automotive were the order of the day, although some, such as the March 781, were built specifically for the series. In 1980 the series saw South African
Desiré Wilson become the only woman to win a Formula One race when she triumphed at Brands Hatch in a Williams.
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