A History Lesson of F1

As humanity has come to know that Bruce Wayne is in fact Batman, Formula 1 was also originally known by another name - Formula A.

It slowly began to develop as a sport and engines could be heard throughout the land between the grenade launchers and Winston Churchill speeches.

Finally, after many dodging tactics, in May 1950 the first world championship race was held at Silverstone raceway (with the first race having taken place a month earlier in Pau)

The industry took the world by storm and there was no end to privateers entering their own cars into races. However, the top dogs were (and some might argue, still are) Ferrari, Maserati, Mercedes Benz and Alfa.
Ferrari is currently the only team to have competed in F1 since its inception.

Over the years the cars began to evolve technologically and where in the beginning one was driving an Alfa 158 normally aspirated engine with narrow tread tyres to complete the look, other motor heads like Cooper were developing rear-engined cars designed to take the races to a new level.

Through the 1970's the cars continued to evolve, becoming faster, slicker and sharper, with some ingenious design methods coming from Lotus, such as ground-effect aerodynamics - enabling the driver to almost fly around any corner - but sadly, privateers entering races had become non-existent as the costs to enter and maintain your car, soared.

There was also the ever-concerning factor of safety - this was not a sport you discussed with your mother, and as exciting as the feeling of wind in one's ears was, there was also the reality of high-impact crashes and even death.

In 1978 Lotus led the way again in new development by introducing side-skirting and underbody designs to give their cars more grip - sadly, only temporarily -  as the year also saw them lose their team mate Ronnie Peterson who was killed at Monza. This was the beginning of the end for Lotus and their last championship-winning year.

1978 also saw Bernie Ecclestone became the FOCA president (Formula One Constructor's Association) and he was a great pioneer in constructing overall team effort in racing.
In 1979 FISA (Fe'de'ration Internationale du Sport Automobile) was developed and immediately went to heads with FOCA over various regulations, so much so that FOCA ended up boycotting a race and threatened to breakaway from F1 completely. FISA then returned the favour by removing its sanction from races, and an uneasy truce, but a truce nonetheless, was formed in 1981 between the two groups under a new name: the Concorde Agreement.

Through the 1980's engines became turbo-charged but were eventually banned in 1989. In the early 90's semi-automatic gearboxes and traction control were a natural progression for most F1 engineering teams.

Ayrton Senna's death in '94 saw new safety measures put in place and to date, there has been no other fatality at the hands of an F1 wheel.

Nice artical. Tx

Thanks LeeBee for the inside info. As one follow the races year after year you start realizing how fast time is flying, even faster than F1 cars !!!
I remember camping a whole week, from the Monday to the Sunday to watch F1 races at the old Kyalami near Crowthorne corner. We had a caravan parked but did not sleep much during the week. 30 cases of beer also did not last the whole week.
Mentioning Senna's death 20 years ago - it was very close to another fatal accident with Jules accident. Not sure if he will fully recover, all we can do is hope for the best for him and his family.

Speaking of history, I think the greatest sportsman of all time in ANY sport would have to be Shumi.
He did more than any sportsman alive or dead and some of his records will NEVER be beaten.
Greatest racing driver ever.

Hi guys

Sorry I've been a bit quiet this week, internet has been wonky and filming bit hectic.

Glad you enjoyed the article, will be relaying further knowledge, info and insight soon.

Take care.