The 1950s Overview:

The 1950s opened with Italian domination of the tracks yet closed with the British built cars taking the lead in the championships and in the technical revolution. Front-engined cars became obsolete in favor of the light and well-balanced mid-engined British Cooper-Climax and Vanwall.

Tragedy and heroism marked the era when drivers drove heavy front engined cars at high speeds in just shirts and leather caps. Drivers like Juan Fangio, Stirling Moss, Jack Brabham, Giuseppe Farina, Alberto Ascari, Peter Collins, Tony Brooks, and Mike Hawthorn set the standards to which future drivers in the next decades would be measured. They also helped move Formula One to the forefront of international racing and set it on the path of glory that it remains on today.

The statistics for the 1950s, including race wins, pole positions, fast laps, and world champions can be found here: Formula One: Statistics of the 1950s.

The Tracks of the 1950s:

1950

The first modern Formula 1 Championship was run in 1950 and every single race that year was won by Alfa Romeo. The glory of having won the first title went to their driver Giuseppe Farina after having won three of the six races held that year, the other three going to Juan Manuel Fangio.

The first race of the new championship was held at Silverstone and was won by Farina leading a one, two, three finish for the Alfas. Fangio was able to take advantage of a multicar crash at Monte Carlo to take the win ahead of Alberto Ascari in a Ferrari. Farina stuck back at Bremgarten with another win retaking the lead in the championship due to Fangio failing to score. This would often be the case of this season, one man winning while his opponent failed to do so, feast or famine so to speak.

The season continued this way with the Alfa Romeos dominating by winning all pole positions and all races. Farina was able to win the championship by three points because in addition to his three wins he had a fourth place finish in contrast to Fangio's three wins and no other points paying positions. Alberto Ascari was a distant fourth place in the championship for Ferrari (Alfa having claimed the top three spots) followed by the Talbot of Louis Rosier who had won the 24 Hours of Le Mans that year.

1951

The season opened much as last year had left off with Fangio winning two of the first three races and Farina picking up one race respectively. Then the amazing happened. At Silverstone the Alfa Romeos were beaten for the first time in almost five years. Frolian Gonzalez won the race for Ferrari and another Ferrari driven by Luigi Villoresi was third. It looked as if the Alphas finally had some competition.

Turns out the Alpha Romeo team did have a challenge from Ferrari. The next race at the long and twisty Nurburgring was won by Alberto Ascari for Ferrari and Ferraris also finished in third through sixth place. The only Alpha up front was Fangio who finished second. Ascari then went on to win at Monza and Ferrari again dominated the points paying positions. Fangio was able however to strike back and win the final race of the year in Spain and secure his first championship.

The next season promised to be a Ferrari year because Alpha Romeo had announced its retirement from Formula One at the end of the year. Ferrari had however dodged a potential threat due to the fact that Mercedes had been planning to return to Formula One but the impending rule changes regarding engine size stopped them from doing so. It looked as if Ferrari would have no competitor the next year.

1952

As expected 1952 was controlled by Ferrari. Their cars taking the first four spots in the championship and finishing in at least the top two spots every race except one when a Maserati finished second at Monza.

The season started with Piero Taruffi wining at Bremgarten for Ferrari while team leader Alberto Ascari was away in America running at the Indianapolis 500 for Ferrari (he was forced to retire from eighth place). When Ascari returned to Europe nobody could touch him. He won every race for the rest of the season and easily took his first driving title.

At the last race of the season however Maserati unveiled its latest six-cylinder car and were able to take a second place finish with it at Monza. It appeared that in the next season it would again be a battle of the Italian giants.

1953

Ascari was able to claim the title of being the first repeat champion of the world by the end of 1952. Development of the cars was slow because of the fact that the engine formula would be changing again for the next year so the cars were basically the same with slight modifications as time allowed. Fangio was also able to pull Maserati back up into the winner's circle by years end thus preventing Ferrari from having two perfect seasons in a row.

Ascari won five races this year with Farina and Mike Hawthorn each picking up one for Ferrari also. Fangio's sole win of the year came in the final race in Italy at Monza but this single win does not show his true competitiveness in the latter part of the year where he had four top two finishes in five races. Included in these finishes was his amazing duel with Hawthorn at Rheims where he was beaten by a slim two meters.

By the end of the year the teams had all prepared for the upcoming season and new formula. Ferrari and Maserati had new cars and Lancia and Mercedes were joining the circus and they all were starting from a clean slate.

1954

Of the major teams expected to do well in this season only Ferrari and Maserati were ready to race at the start with their new cars. Mercedes and Lancia would debut their cars midseason and released their drivers to run other teams cars early on. It was this strange practice that allowed Fangio to become champion while winning for both Maserati and Mercedes in the same season.

Fangio was able to win the first two races of the season in his Maserati including his home grand prix in Argentina. Then at the third grand prix of the year he was able to take victory in the new Mercedes W196 appeared and was unbeatable at the fast Rheims track. Fangio won easily.

The next race at Silverstone was a strange one. Not due to the fact that is was won by a Ferrari but by the fact that due to the timing only being to the tenth of a second a total of seven drivers tied for fastest lap. Gonzalez, and Hawthorn in Ferraris, Sterling Moss, Ascari, and Marminón in Maseratis, Fangio in a Mercedes, and Behra in a Gordini all ran a lap of one minute fifty seconds! Fangio easily won the next three evens in succession with Hawthorn taking the season ending race in Spain. The amazing event at Spain however was the fact that Ascari had set the fastest lap on full tanks in the new Lancia.

In the end the Mercedes proved to be almost unbeatable in their W196s with the interchangeable body (the car ran both as a covered streamlined version for high speed and a roadster for slow speed tracks). The Lancia proved to be a fast car and when fully developed could pose a threat to the revived "Silver Arrows".

1955

1955 is a year that will go down in infamy in motor racing. In a single year the lives of Alberto Ascari and Bill Vukovich (two time winner of the Indianapolis 500) were lost and the terrible Le Mans disaster occurred. Racing in the world came to a virtual standstill and much of the Formula One season was canceled as a result.

The season opened with Juan Manuel Fangio winning his home grand prix in amazing heat. Only two drivers finished the race without relief, Fangio and Roberto Mieres who were both Argentineans. Some cars had as many as five drivers due to the exhaustion caused by racing in a climate that was thirty-seven degrees Celsius in the shade (about ninety nine degrees Fahrenheit)! Driving in the hot sun in cars where there was minimal heat shielding and where the exhausts either ran under the floor or along the cockpit is almost unimaginable. How Fangio and Mieres were able to last the whole race is amazing.

The amazing season continued at the next race in Monaco where Alberto Ascari plunged his car into the Monte Carlo harbor after taking the lead of the race. Maurice Trintignant went on to take the one and only win for Ferrari in this short season. Four days later in a test at Monza Alberto Ascari was killed at the Vialone curve, which has since been named after this talented driver and champion. After Ascari's death Gianni Lancia decided to withdraw his team from racing and donated all of his equipment and cars to Ferrari who would then continue to develop the Lancia-Ferraris as they were called for several years.

Fangio dominated the rest of the year winning all the races but one. That one he did not win was the British Grand Prix, which was won by the man who was to give Fangio a strong challenge in future years, Stirling Moss. This was also the first time an Englishman had won his home grand prix, albeit for a German team. Fangio clearly won the championship over Moss, Castellotti, and Farina. This season was run under a cloud however and the French, Swiss, and German races were canceled mid season. Switzerland even banned racing for several years within its borders. Mercedes also withdrew from all forms of racing at the close of the year due to the fact that it was a Mercedes that had crashed into the crowd at Le Mans killing so many. Mercedes left an impressive history in just the two years they raced in the 1950s taking home nine wins in only fourteen points paying grand prix starts.

1956

After the departure of Mercedes it looked as if the control was back to the Italian teams of Ferrari and Maserati. Fangio and Moss went different ways with Fangio going to Ferrari and Moss to the other Italian giant, each hoping to gain an advantage over the other. However for the first time in a long while British cars began to make themselves a force on the track. BRM returned after many years of absence with an extremely quick car that suffered many mechanical problems and Vanwalls were gaining ground as well.

However it was still the Italian teams taking home the wins with Fangio and Peter Collins taking home a total of five wins to Ferrari and Stirling Moss taking back two wins to Maserati. An interesting event however happened at the opening race in Argentina. Local sporting star Carlos Menditeguy who was a tennis, polo, and golf ace tried his hand at Formula One in an older model Maserati. He then went on to lap the whole field and was apparently on his way to an amazing and easy victory until his axle broke allowing Fangio to take the win. Moss then won at Monaco with Peter Collins taking the next two races in Belgium and France. The French race however was also the scene of history. It was Bugatti's final race in Formula One. The once great mark entered a car for the final time and though its design was revolutionary it was unable to compete with the more modern cars and after the race Bugatti disappeared from the racing world forever.

At Silverstone the new BRM appeared and led the beginning of its debut race until a mechanical fault forced it to retire. Fangio then led the German Grand Prix start to finish but Moss was able to pull up a surprising win at Monza for the Maserati camp. His win however was not without controversy due to the fact that at one point his car had run out of fuel and was given a push by another Maserati. Fangio then won his fourth world title at the age of forty-five but he was beginning to face strong competition from all sides in drivers like Hawthorn, Moss, and Collins.

1957

Fangio again switched teams this year, moving to Maserati. Moss joined the Vanwall team and by the end of the year the British outfit was able to give the Italian teams an extremely strong challenge with Moss winning in England and Italy at Pescara and Monza which was a major upset to the Italian teams to not win on their home soil.

The season started off with Fangio taking another win in his home country and then moved to Monaco where he won again. However at this race in Monaco a strange new type of car appeared. The small Cooper-Climax Type 43 driven by Jack Brabham came onto the scene and started what was to be the mid-engine revolution. Moss' victory in England was an amazing feat due to the fact that he fell from the lead to ninth place on the eighteenth lap when he had to change cars. He then fought his way all the way back to the front to take the lead and win.

Next came the German race at the Nurburgring, which is often considered Fangio's greatest drive. At the beginning of the race he allowed Hawthorn and Collins to lead but then passed them on the third lap while setting a new lap record, and not the last record he was to set that day. Eventually Fangio was forced to pit for fuel and fell back to third place behind Hawthorn and Collins, who had set a new fast lap. Fangio drove like he had never driven before, chopping time off the Ferraris every lap and setting a new record for a lap of the Nurburgring at nine minutes and seventeen point four seconds. This smashed his previous record from the year before which had been a nine minute forty-one point six second lap. Fangio passed the Ferraris on the second to last lap and went on to victory.

Moss then went on to win both Italian events but it was still not enough to overtake Fangio who won his fifth and final world championship. At the end of the year Maserati pulled out of Formula One for financial reasons. It was also announced that in 1961 a new formula would be introduced into Formula One changing the engine size again. The teams had several years to prepare however.

Also of note in 1957 was the race held at the Monza oval course between American and European drivers. The race attracted little support in Europe however and was won by the American Jimmy Bryan.

1958

1958 was the first truly competitive year with five different drivers winning for three different teams. Stirling Moss had four victories for Vanwall and Cooper-Climax, Tony Brooks with three for Vanwall, with Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins winning one each for Ferrari, and Maurice Trintignant winning one for Cooper-Climax. However despite his wins Moss finished second to the consistent Hawthorn who had the honor of being England's first champion.

The year started with Moss in a private Cooper-Climax due to the fact that the Vanwalls and BRMs were not ready to race yet. Surprisingly the lightweight, nimble, mid-engined car was able to take victory. Next came the Monaco race where Trintignant took victory in a Cooper-Climax over the front engined cars again. Also of mention at Monaco was the appearance of a new team on the grid that was to become a force in Formula One, Lotus. Vanwall began to take charge again with Moss winning at Zandvoort and Brooks taking the Belgian event at Spa-Francorchamps.

Tragedy was soon to strike this season though. At Rheims Mike Hawthorn gave Ferrari the first win of the year but the even was marred by the loss of Luigi Musso who was killed when he lost control of his Ferrari while challenging Hawthorn for the lead. Also on a sad note the race at Rheims was the last for Fangio who retired from racing after his final fourth place finish. Peter Collins then won the British round at Silverstone for Ferrari but again tragedy was to strike Ferrari. Peter Collins was killed during the next event at the Nurburgring and Ferrari had now lost two top drivers in only four weeks.

Tony Brooks and Stirling Moss each won two of the final four events for Vanwall securing the British team the first ever constructor's title in Formula One though they pulled out of Formula One racing at the end of the year only to return briefly in 1959 and 1960. However it was Mike Hawthorn who went on to take his one and only title with only one win but also with five second place finishes and scoring points in all but two races. Tragedy was not yet done with Ferrari this year however. Mike Hawthorn was driving along a road in England when he was passing Rob Walker, the owner of the private Cooper-Climax supplied team that had won that year, Hawthorn waved and accelerated his Jaguar but seconds later he hit a wet spot on the road, lost control and was killed. Tragedy it seemed was to follow the prancing horse of Ferrari this year.

Also the second and final race between Americans and Europeans was held on the Monza oval. European support had grown but the Americans were more experienced at oval racing and Jim Rathman in a Zink Offenhauser won the event.

1959

1959 proved to be a turning point in Formula One design. For the first time a mid-engined car, the Cooper-Climax, was able to dominate the front-engined roadster and win a world championship. Jack Brabham was able to take the title for the first time over Tony Brooks in a Ferrari with Moss third. Though Moss was considered the greatest driver of the time his search for the perfect car led him to try almost every car in the paddock from BRM, to Cooper-Climax, to the new Aston-Martin that was obsolete by the time it raced (it had been designed in 1957) and this constant switching of teams made it impossible for Moss to be a challenge.

The season opened at Monte Carlo where the light and nimble Cooper-Climax was guided to victory by Brabham for his first win. Joakim Bonnier took BRM to their first win in the next race at Zandvoort while Brooks won in France for Ferrari. Brabham and Brooks split the next two races though Brooks' win was saddened by the loss of fellow Ferrari driver Jean Behra who crashed during a Porsche sports car race. Moss then regained his form and won the next two races. The final race of the season was the United States Grand Prix held at the Sebring track in Florida. The race was won by Bruce McLaren (who would later go on to manufacture his own cars and start the team that bears his name today) at the age of only twenty-two. Worth an amusing mention is the fact that the Indianapolis 500 winner of 1959, Roger Ward, competed in the American race in a Kurtis Midget and was completely outclassed.

Jack Brabham finished the season four points ahead of Brooks and in fourth place in the title was the American Phil Hill giving America their best performance yet. The 1950s came to a close with mid-engined British cars taking the lead in technology and starting the revolution in car design to come.