With the perspective of time, it’s possible to distinguish the critical moments in the sport’s history and its evolution into the fantastic high-tech, highentertainment, high-drama show of today.
Where it began
The first Grand Prix race was held at Le Mans, France in 1906. The French initiated the event as a way around the three-car entry restriction imposed on each nation by the previous premier motor racing competition, the Gordon Bennett Cup. At the time, France was far and away the leading car producer in the world (times change, eh?) and took exception to being limited to just three cars. So with characteristic chauvinism (maybe times don’t change), the French devised their own competition – the Grand Prix – in which no such restriction existed and where honours would be fought out not between countries, but between manufacturers. It’s a lineage that continues to this day.
How it grew
Following France’s lead, other countries soon began staging their own Grands Prix, and the sport’s governing body devised a common set of rules that would be applied to all such races.
By the late 1940s, there were so many Grands Prix – some of them small-time events unworthy of the label – that the governing body specified a handful of “premier” Grands Prix that could be considered major national events.
The birth of a championship
Once the governing body of Formula One identified the major events, the sport was just one step away from combining the results of each of these races, via a points system, to determine a world champion. This system – and the World Championship – came into being in 1950.
Before 1950, there had been a European Championship in the 1930s. The new World Championship was very much like the European Championship, as each of its six Grands Prix were held on European soil. The championship lamely justified its “world” status by including the results of the American Indianapolis 500 race, a race for “Champ Cars”, a completely different breed from the Formula One cars of Europe, and fought out by a different set of competitors. This statistical anomaly remained until the late 1950s when the World Championship had ventured out of Europe and had even included a genuine American Grand Prix.
Where it began
The first Grand Prix race was held at Le Mans, France in 1906. The French initiated the event as a way around the three-car entry restriction imposed on each nation by the previous premier motor racing competition, the Gordon Bennett Cup. At the time, France was far and away the leading car producer in the world (times change, eh?) and took exception to being limited to just three cars. So with characteristic chauvinism (maybe times don’t change), the French devised their own competition – the Grand Prix – in which no such restriction existed and where honours would be fought out not between countries, but between manufacturers. It’s a lineage that continues to this day.
How it grew
Following France’s lead, other countries soon began staging their own Grands Prix, and the sport’s governing body devised a common set of rules that would be applied to all such races.
By the late 1940s, there were so many Grands Prix – some of them small-time events unworthy of the label – that the governing body specified a handful of “premier” Grands Prix that could be considered major national events.
The birth of a championship
Once the governing body of Formula One identified the major events, the sport was just one step away from combining the results of each of these races, via a points system, to determine a world champion. This system – and the World Championship – came into being in 1950.
Before 1950, there had been a European Championship in the 1930s. The new World Championship was very much like the European Championship, as each of its six Grands Prix were held on European soil. The championship lamely justified its “world” status by including the results of the American Indianapolis 500 race, a race for “Champ Cars”, a completely different breed from the Formula One cars of Europe, and fought out by a different set of competitors. This statistical anomaly remained until the late 1950s when the World Championship had ventured out of Europe and had even included a genuine American Grand Prix.
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