#f1 1950

[outdatedformula1tales]

French GP 1950: Grand Prix #6 in Formula 1 history

The race took place on 2 July 1950 in Reims and Alfa Romeo drivers were in the first three positions in qualifying, with Juan Manuel Fangio scoring pole ahead of Nino Farina and their team-mate being behind them as usual. Farina took the lead at the start though and led at the beginning of the race, before issues forced him to a minutes-long pitstop which dropped him out of the points. He recovered to p3 (behind his team mates), just to have to retire.

Alfa did a 1/2 with Fangio and Fagioli, with Peter Whitehead getting third position in a Ferrari. Robert Manzon from Simca Gordini was fourth and fifth was a Talbot-Lago from a shared drive: drivers were Philippe Etancelin and Eugene Chaboud: back in the days it was allowed, when a driver retired, to continue the race just by replacing a team-mate.

To make it easier to understand, it would be like nowadays Max Verstappen retired due to engine failure, Checo Perez was called back in the pits and had to get off the car to give it to Verstappen to allow him to race. In the end they would share the result, so in case Verstappen wins, both he and Perez are declared the winners and the points are split based on the laps percentage driven by the both. Such a mess, right? ;-)

[outdatedformula1tales]

Belgian GP 1950: Grand Prix #5 in Formula 1 history

In a only 14 cars grid, on 18 June 1950, three Alfa Romeo were starting from the first three positions as usual. Poleman was Nino Farina, followed by team-mates Juan Manuel Fangio and Luigi Fagioli, with Fangio who took the lead in the first stages of the race, to stay in the lead except at the moment in which he had a pitstop - all the Alfa stopped at some point.

Farina was second until he suffered some technical issues and dropped to fourth in the closing stages of the grand prix and Fagioli was promoted to p2. The last step of the podium went to Louis Rosier, Talbot-Lago driver, who already finished on the podium in the previous Swiss GP. It was the last time he was on a podium in Formula 1.

Ferrari, which entered with two cars driven by Alberto Ascari and Luigi Villoresi, ended up in p5 and p6, with Ascari the only of the two in the points as only the first five finishers scored points back in the days. They were ahead of the others finishers Talbot-Lago, the French team being hugely represented on the grid with half of the cars.

[outdatedformula1tales]

Swiss GP 1950: grand prix #4 in Formula 1 history

When racing in Switzerland still was a thing, Bremgarten was the place where the fourth round of 1950 season happened, on 4th June, but could be considered the third somehow, as in Indianapolis none of the usual teams or drivers entered the race. Alfa Romeo took the top-3 in qualifying with Juan Manuel Fangio, Nino Farina and Luigi Fagioli, followed by Ferrari cars of Luigi Villoresi and Alberto Ascari. Some Talbot-Lago and Maserati were well ahead of a third Ferrari, driven by Raymond Sommer.

All the three Ferraris were forced to retired due to technical reasons, with Ascari the first one, after attempting at the beginning to fight with the Alfas and ending up at some point in third behind Fangio and Farina but ahead of Fagioli. Fangio, at the beginning in the lead and later in second place behind team-mate Farina, was forced to retire too and Alfa Romeo managed to take "just" a 1/2 finish with Farina and Fagioli. Talbot-Lago took a podium with third place from Louis Rosier, while Prince Bira and Felice Bonetto, both Maserati drivers, took the last two scoring positions, fourth and fifth.

[outdatedformula1tales]

Indianapolis 500 1950: not a grand prix, but #3 in Formula 1 history

In the 50's with the newborn Formula 1 championship there was an attempt to make the European and American racing closer to each others, with the Indy 500 being included in the Formula 1 championship other than the American championship. Basically it was a part of two different series, with only drivers and teams from the American series to enter it.

Not very much of the race, which took place on 30th May, is reported by current sources and it turns like that:

- many many many entrants attempted to qualify, with 33 qualifiers (which is the usual at Indy) and around 30+ non qualifiers, one of whom was future winner Bill Vukovich;

- rookie Walter Faulkner scored pole for Kurtis Kraft at his first attempt but didn't manage to lead a single lap, finishing the race in 7th place;

- the race lasted 138 laps instead of the canon 200 being redflagged for rain;

- winner Johnnie Parsons, also with Kurtis Kraft, started 8th, was the driver who led the most with 2nd and 3rd placed the only other two drivers who led some laps, Bill Holland and Mauri Rose, who had won the 1949 event and the 1947+48;

- according to some rumours, Parsons' car engine couldn't make all the 200 laps so he tried to get the prize money for the most laps led by knowing he couldn't last 200 laps, but apparently it was fake;

- also, some gossip, 12th place finisher Duane Carter was married to Parson's ex wife Azra.

[outdatedformula1tales]

Monaco GP 1950: Grand Prix #2 in Formula 1 history

Weird thing, while you can put a title entering by desktop version, you can't do the same by app. Anyway you can use different format for the title, so that's fine!

Well, let's talk about Montecarlo, which was the second official grand prix of Formula 1 history and the first Formula 1 grand prix attended by Ferrari, which is very important for the story of my country as (unfortunately) no one cares about other Italian teams... just Ferrari, at the point that non italian speakers use the term "tifosi" to identify Ferrari fans.

"Tifosi" doesn't mean "Ferrari supporters" in Italian, it just means "supporter" and very important is a PLURAL format. You're not *a tifosi*, you're a tifoso or a tifosa. Anyway we have a term for "Ferrari supporters" which is "ferrarista" (singular, same declination for every gender) with plural form "ferraristi".

Ok let's come back on topic, Montecarlo was on 21 May the second race of 1950 season and the first one for Ferrari which had three cars driven by Alberto Ascari, Luigi Villoresi, and Raymond Sommer, with Villoresi the best qualifier in sixth place. Alfa Romeo still was the team to beat, with Juan Manuel Fangio getting pole position ahead of team mate Nino Farina, which anyway the latest retired in a pile-up accident at the beginning of the race with took out almost half of the grid included Alfa of Luigi Fagioli.

Fangio find himself in the lead ahead of Ascari and later Villoresi which was set for third until his own retirement, which meant that Monegasque driver Louis Chiron ended up in third position and took podium in his own race. Top-five was extended to Sommer, in fourth place, while in fifth it was classified Chiron's Maserati team mate (well, actually not, Chiron was Maserati team entry, this one was racing for a private team in a Maserati) Prince Bira, with ERA sixth with George Bernard, which meant once again outside of the point scoring position of those days.

In Italy we say "il buongiorno si vede dal mattino", an idiomatic expression used often in ironic sense, which I think the English version is "a good beginning bodes well" so I would like to point out that Ascari finished second. FERRARI'S FIRST POSITION IN FORMULA 1 WAS A SECOND PLACE as the best of the rest, something isn't ever supposed to change!

[outdatedformula1tales]

British GP 1950 - Grand Prix # 1 in Formula 1 history

Grand prix racing was a thing in Europe since some decades, with the first Grand Prix taking place in 1906 in France, which was together with Italy and Great Britain one of the countries most involved in Grand Prix racing at the beginning.

So no surprise that, when the Formula 1 championship had its first outing, all the teams were Italian, French or British. Also, the first official grand prix of Formula 1 history happened in Great Britain, in Silverstone, on 13 July 1950 (with some videos showing the background and some race scenes - you can easily find it on Youtube), with a mostly European field of drivers. Exception were Argentinian Juan Manuel Fangio and Thai Birabongse Bhanudej Bhanubandh best known as Prince Bira (which was actually the name he entered the races with).

Alfa Romeo was the team to beat and none was able to beat them. They were on their way to a 1/2/3/4 finish, but Fangio ended up retiring due to technical failure while in third positions behind his team mates, Italian drivers Giuseppe Nino Farina and Luigi Fagioli, which meant their other team mate Reg Parnell ended the race on the podium in third place.

Points were back in the days only for the top-five and fourth and fifth place were taken by French team Talbot Lago, with drivers Yves Giraud-Cabantous and Louis Rosier, after another retirement from Bira's Maserati who could otherwise have ended the race in fourth. British team ERA followed, but no points awarded for them.

So, in the end, Farina took the first victory of Formula 1 history, which hardly could be considered winning at the debut, though, as he was very well active in grand prix racing long before 1950.

[lcferrera]

50′s

Live fast, die fast

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