The History of Formula 1

On 14 August 1988, Enzo Ferrari died at the age of 90. Scuderia Ferrari has competed in every Formula 1 World Championship season since 1950 and remains the only team to have done so.

Ferrari had begun his career as a racing driver, but his lasting place in motor sport was built away from the cockpit. He founded Scuderia Ferrari in 1929, initially entering Alfa Romeo cars. In 1947, the 125 S became the first car to carry the Ferrari name. The Scuderia made its Formula 1 World Championship debut at Monaco in 1950.

Although he rarely attended Grands Prix in his later years, Ferrari remained the central authority from Maranello. He was demanding, fiercely competitive and often difficult. During his lifetime, the Scuderia won nine Drivers' Championships and eight Constructors' Championships in Formula 1.

Twenty-eight days after his death, Gerhard Berger and Michele Alboreto finished first and second at the Italian Grand Prix. It was the only race of the 1988 season not won by McLaren. For the team and the tifosi, the result became a farewell to the man who had created the Scuderia.

Enzo Ferrari left behind more than a successful racing organisation. He gave Formula 1 one of its defining identities, and the team bearing his name remains inseparable from the history of the World Championship.

🇮🇹

On this day in 1944, Divina Galica was born in Bushey Heath, Hertfordshire. Her path to Formula 1 followed an accomplished career as one of Britain’s leading alpine skiers.

Galica represented Great Britain at the Winter Olympics in 1964, 1968 and 1972, captaining the British women’s team at Grenoble and Sapporo. She finished eighth in the giant slalom in 1968 and seventh four years later, and also earned two FIS Alpine Ski World Cup podiums in downhill. Her achievements in skiing were recognised with an MBE. At the age of 47, she returned to the Olympic stage for the speed skiing demonstration event at Albertville in 1992. The following year, she set a British women’s speed skiing record of 124.709 mph.

Her motor racing career began in 1974, when she finished second in a celebrity race at Oulton Park. Two years later, she attempted to qualify for the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch in a Shellsport Whiting Surtees TS16. She later entered the 1978 Argentine and Brazilian Grands Prix with Hesketh. None of the three attempts produced a race start, but those entries placed her among the very small group of women to take part in a Formula 1 World Championship Grand Prix weekend.

Galica’s racing story continued well beyond those three entries. She finished fourth in the 1976 Shellsport International Series, recorded four Shellsport podiums in 1977, won ten Sports 2000 races that year and later spent many years as a driver coach.

Today, THOF1 joins its readers in wishing Divina Galica a very happy birthday 🌹

🇬🇧

On this day in 1978, Ronnie Peterson won the Austrian Grand Prix at the Österreichring. It was the tenth victory of the Swedish driver’s Formula 1 career.

Peterson started from pole after edging Lotus team-mate Mario Andretti by just 0.05 seconds. A light drizzle greeted the field, which began the race on slick tyres. As the rain intensified, several cars left the circuit and officials stopped the race after seven laps.

The Grand Prix resumed over a further 47 laps, with the final classification decided by combining the times from both parts. Peterson quickly established another advantage on the wet track. As conditions improved and drivers changed tyres, he remained in command on aggregate and was classified 47.44 seconds ahead of Patrick Depailler. Gilles Villeneuve finished third, earning the first podium of his Formula 1 career.

Peterson also set the fastest lap, completing the only weekend of his career in which he combined pole position, victory and fastest lap. Less than a month later, he lost his life following the accident at Monza. The Österreichring would remain the setting of his final Grand Prix victory.

🇸🇪

On 12 August 1952, Charlie Whiting was born in Kent, England. Over the next four decades, he became one of the most trusted and influential figures in Formula 1.

Whiting entered Formula 1 as a mechanic with Hesketh in 1977 and moved to Brabham the following year. He rose to chief mechanic during Nelson Piquet’s World Championship-winning seasons in 1981 and 1983, working alongside Gordon Murray at one of the leading teams of the era.

After leaving Brabham at the end of 1987, Whiting joined the FIA’s technical department in 1988. He became Formula 1 Technical Delegate and, in 1997, was appointed Race Director and Safety Delegate. His responsibilities included race control, circuit inspections, technical and procedural matters, drivers’ briefings and race starts. Across more than two decades in that role, he directed the running of 400 Grands Prix.

Whiting also played an important part in Formula 1’s continuing work to improve safety. He helped advance circuit and car safety standards and strongly supported the introduction of the halo, which became mandatory in 2018.

The drivers valued his willingness to listen. Sebastian Vettel remembered him as their intermediary, someone whose door was always open. When Whiting died suddenly in Melbourne on 14 March 2019, Formula 1 lost a figure whose influence had reached almost every part of a Grand Prix weekend.

Today, THOF1 remembers Charlie Whiting and his lasting contribution to Formula 1.

🇬🇧

On 11 August 1916, Johnny Claes was born in Fulham, London. The son of a Belgian father and a Scottish mother, he would represent Belgium during the formative years of the Formula 1 World Championship.

Before racing, Claes had built a very different career as a jazz trumpeter and bandleader. His group, Johnny Claes and the Clay Pigeons, performed in Britain through the war years. His fluency in French later made him a useful informal interpreter for British drivers competing on the Continent. In 1948, he made his own competitive debut in a Talbot-Lago entered under the Écurie Belge name.

On 13 May 1950, Claes took part in the first Formula 1 World Championship Grand Prix at Silverstone. He finished 11th in the Talbot-Lago T26C seen in this photograph. He would make 23 World Championship starts between 1950 and 1955.

Claes’s strongest results came beyond the World Championship. He won the 1950 Grand Prix des Frontières at Chimay, claimed victory in the 1953 Liège-Rome-Liège Rally, and shared third place at the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans with Jacques Swaters in a Jaguar D-Type.

By 1955, tuberculosis was limiting his racing. Claes died in Brussels on 3 February 1956, aged 39. On the 110th anniversary of his birth, THOF1 remembers a musician turned racing driver who became part of Formula 1’s earliest chapter.

🇧🇪

On 10 August 1986, the first Hungarian Grand Prix to count towards the Formula One World Championship was held at the newly built Hungaroring near Budapest. It was also the championship’s first race staged behind the Iron Curtain, bringing Formula One into a part of Europe it had never previously visited.

Ayrton Senna started from pole position in the Lotus-Renault, with Nelson Piquet alongside him in the Williams-Honda. Their contest defined the afternoon. Piquet first took the lead on lap 12, but the pit-stop sequence returned Senna to the front and brought the two Brazilians together again.

Piquet attacked at Turn 1 on lap 55, briefly passing before running wide and allowing Senna back through. Two laps later, he tried the outside line. Braking late, the Williams slid sideways as Piquet crossed in front of the Lotus, yet he held the car and completed one of the most celebrated overtaking moves in Formula One history.

Piquet went on to win by 17.673 seconds. Senna finished second, while Nigel Mansell completed the podium in the other Williams. An estimated 200,000 spectators attended the race, filling the new circuit and its surrounding banks.

The inaugural World Championship Hungarian Grand Prix marked a historic expansion of Formula One’s calendar. Forty years later, the Hungaroring remains a permanent part of the championship.

🇭🇺

On 9 August 1944, Patrick Depailler was born in Clermont-Ferrand, France. He became one of the leading French drivers of the 1970s, combining a successful junior career with eight seasons in Formula 1.

After winning the 1971 French Formula Three Championship, Depailler made his World Championship debut for Tyrrell at the 1972 French Grand Prix, held at Charade near his home city. He joined the team full-time in 1974, the same year in which he became European Formula Two Champion. At the Swedish Grand Prix, he claimed his only Formula 1 pole position and finished second behind teammate Jody Scheckter.

Depailler became closely associated with the six-wheeled Tyrrell P34. He scored seven podiums in 1976 and finished fourth in the Drivers' Championship. His first Grand Prix victory came at Monaco in 1978. After moving to Ligier, he won again at the 1979 Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama.

A hang-gliding accident later that year caused serious injuries to both legs and interrupted his career. After a long recovery, Depailler returned with Alfa Romeo in 1980. On 1 August, he lost his life during a private test at Hockenheim, eight days before his 36th birthday.

Ken Tyrrell later said, "He loved being a racing driver more than any other driver I've ever known." Today, THOF1 remembers Patrick Depailler on the 82nd anniversary of his birth.

🇫🇷

On 8 August 1953, Nigel Mansell was born in Upton-upon-Severn, England. Today marks the 73rd birthday of the 1992 Formula 1 World Champion.

Mansell's path to the highest level was shaped by persistence long before his first Grand Prix victory. He left his job as an aerospace engineer and sold most of his personal belongings to finance his move into Formula Ford. He and his wife, Rosanne, later sold their house to fund his progression to Formula Three. In 1977, Mansell sustained a serious neck injury. Two years later, another crash left him with broken vertebrae in his back. Both accidents placed his career in serious doubt, but his performances earned him a test role with Lotus and, ultimately, a Formula 1 debut at the 1980 Austrian Grand Prix.

His first victory came with Williams at the 1985 European Grand Prix. He finished second in the World Championship in 1986 and 1987. After returning to Williams in 1991, he ended that season as runner-up once more. One year later, he won nine of the 16 races in the Williams-Renault FW14B and secured the title with five rounds remaining.

In 1993, Mansell joined Newman/Haas Racing in the CART-sanctioned Indy Car World Series. He won five races and the championship in his first season, becoming the first and still the only driver to hold the Formula 1 and Indy Car titles simultaneously.

His attacking style, visible determination and success on both sides of the Atlantic secured his place among the defining drivers of his generation. Today, THOF1 joins its readers in wishing Nigel Mansell a very happy birthday.

🇬🇧

7 August 1926: Britain Hosted Its First Grand Prix

On this day 100 years ago, Brooklands in Surrey hosted the first official British Grand Prix. Organised by the Royal Automobile Club, the race was the fourth round of the 1926 World Manufacturers’ Championship.

Nine cars started the 110-lap contest on a special 2.61-mile layout of Brooklands. It combined sections of the banked circuit with the Finishing Straight, where two temporary sandbank chicanes had been constructed. Only three cars completed the full distance.

The winning Delage 15-S-8 was shared by Robert Sénéchal and Louis Wagner. On his 83rd lap, heat inside the cockpit forced Sénéchal to stop. Heat from the Delage’s exhaust made the floorboards and pedals intensely hot, burning the drivers’ feet. Wagner, whose own Delage had already retired, took over and repeatedly stopped to cool his feet in water before continuing.

After just over four hours, Wagner brought car number 14 home first. Malcolm Campbell finished second in a Bugatti 39A, while Robert Benoist and André Dubonnet took third in another Delage.

Brooklands hosted the British Grand Prix once more in 1927. Twenty-four years later, the 1950 British Grand Prix at Silverstone became the opening round of the inaugural Formula 1 World Championship. The event held on 7 August 1926 marks the beginning of Britain’s Grand Prix history.

🇬🇧

6 August 1961: Stirling Moss’s Final World Championship Victory

On this day in 1961, Stirling Moss won the German Grand Prix on the 22.810-kilometre Nürburgring Nordschleife. Driving the Lotus 18/21-Climax entered by Rob Walker Racing Team, he finished 21.4 seconds ahead of Wolfgang von Trips, with Phil Hill third in the second Ferrari.

The Ferrari 156 was the dominant car of the season, and the long Nürburgring gave its V6 engine room to use its power. Moss’s four-cylinder Lotus had around 30 bhp less. Before the start, however, he made a decisive choice. He kept Dunlop D12 rain tyres on the car despite warnings that they could overheat if the circuit dried.

Jack Brabham briefly led from the start before sliding off at Hatzenbach on the opening lap. Moss then led at the end of every lap. As the track dried, Hill and von Trips began to close, reducing his advantage to seven seconds. Rain returned with three laps remaining. Moss’s tyre choice became an advantage again, and he pulled clear.

The race was the 100th round in World Championship history. It gave Moss the 16th and final championship victory of his career, as well as his 24th and final podium. The result reflected his speed, his judgement and his ability to manage changing conditions.

🇬🇧