1950 British Grand Prix

1950 British Grand Prix
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Round	1 of 1950
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1949 Configuation of the Silverstone Circuit
Race Details
Date	May 13, 1950
Official Name	1950 British Grand Prix
Location	Silverstone Circuit Silverstone, Northamptonshire
Course	Permanent racing facility 4.649 km (2.889 mi)
Distance	70 laps, 325.43 km (202.213 mi)
Pole Position
Driver	Giuseppe Farina Alfa Romeo
Time	1:50.8
Fastest Lap
Driver	Giuseppe Farina Alfa Romeo
Time	1:50.6 on lap 2
Podium
First	Giuseppe Farina
Second	Luigi Fagioli
Third	Reg Parnell
Lap Leaders

The 1950 British Grand Prix was the inaugural round of the first Formula One World Championship. It was held on 13th May 1950 at the Silverstone Circuit.

The race was won by polesitter Giuseppe Farina, who also set the fastest lap. Alfa Romeo dominated the event, locking out the four-car front row and taking all three podium positions.

Background

Following the Second World War, the Formula One category was established in 1947 for grand prix racing. After a couple of transitional years, the Formula One World Championship was established for the 1950 grand prix season.

The season marked the return of the Alfa Romeo marque, the Italian outfit had dominated grand prix racing up until its withdrawal in 1948. The team returned with its aged but nonetheless highly competitive Alfetta 158. Doctor Giuseppe Farina, was selected to lead the team, the former racing apprentice of the great Tazio Nuvolari and a member of the original Scuderia Ferrari squad had returned to the great Alfetta to lead the squad in 1950. The team's second driver was Luigi Fagioli; an Italian Grand Prix racing veteran who was one of the last remaining drivers who raced in the dominant German Silver Arrows cars of the 1930's. At 52, Fagioli was one of the oldest drivers on the grid, however he remained a reliable pair of hands for the powerful Alfa's. Alfa Romeo's third signing was late and somewhat unexpected. After he dominated a non-championship event at San Remo at the beginning of 1950, Alfa Romeo signed Argentina's best racer Juan Manuel Fangio to the team. After dominating in Argentina, the Automobil Club of Argentina sent Fangio to represent them in Europe where he quickly made his mark. As a one-off invitational drive, the fourth Alfa Romeo was piloted by one of Britain's best up and coming talents following the conclusion of the war, Reg Parnell, for his home grand prix.

Race	Sunny

Alfa Romeo's main rivals, Ferrari were notably absent from the entry list of the British Grand Prix. Enzo Ferrari withdrew his cars from the event, unhappy with the starters money the British were willing to pay the teams. The Ferrari squad instead competed in a Formula Two event at Mons.

The Maseratis made up the majority of entrants into the British Grand Prix. Only Louis Chiron, the grid's most experienced driver who had been on the grand prix scene since the 1920's, was representing the works squad. Scuderia Ambrosiana had hired local drivers, David Hampshire and David Murray, to race their 4CLT/48 chassis. The Enrico Platé team entered the semi-professional royals, Baron Emmanuel de Graffenried of Switzerland and Prince B Bira of Thailand. Felice Bonetto entered a self-modified Maserati, entered as the Maserati 4CL/50 for his Scuderia Milano team. Meanwhile, local driver Joe Fry, a successful hillclimb racer, entered an outdated 4CL chassis.

Talbot-Lago made their return as a works team, with Anthony Lago hiring many of the manufacturer's customer clients to race for the reformed works team. Yves-Giraud Cabantous and Eugene Martin entered updated chassis of their T26C whilst Louis Rosier and Philippe Étancelin raced in the standard chassis. Belgian racer Johnny Claes was the sole driver to enter a Talbot-Lago as a privateer.

The final entries on the grid were made up of the British machinery. Cuth Harrison and Bob Gerard entered old pre-war Type B ERA chassis, while entering the more modern E-Type chassis was Peter Walker and Leslie Johnson who was hired by another British racer, Taso Mathieson to race in his own E-Type car. ERA founder, Raymond Mays, had also entered the event, however he opted to cancel his entry, prior to arrival. Racing the nimble little Alta's were Joe Kelly and Geoffrey Crossley.

A number of cars were denied entry into the British event. Brian Shawe-Taylor had planned to enter a very old B-Type ERA and Tony Rolt planned to enter a Delage. Both cars were deemed unfit for race due to their significant age while George Abecassis attempted to enter his newly created HWM car, however was rejected on account of his car being too new. HWM was another new post-war British manufacturer trying to climb to the top of the sport. The newly designed HWM's had been largely untested against the modern grand prix machinery and much to the disappointment of team owners George Abecassis and John Heath were forced to withdraw their entries.

Entry List

The full entry list for the 1950 British Grand Prix is shown below:

No.	Driver	Entrant	Constructor	Chassis	Engine	Model	Tyre
1	Juan Manuel Fangio	Alfa Romeo SpA	Alfa Romeo	158 Alfetta	Alfa Romeo	159 LBC 1.5 L8s	P
2	Giuseppe Farina	Alfa Romeo SpA	Alfa Romeo	158 Alfetta	Alfa Romeo	159 LBC 1.5 L8s	P
3	Luigi Fagioli	Alfa Romeo SpA	Alfa Romeo	158 Alfetta	Alfa Romeo	159 LBC 1.5 L8s	P
4	Reg Parnell	Alfa Romeo SpA	Alfa Romeo	158 Alfetta	Alfa Romeo	159 LBC 1.5 L8s	P
5	David Murray	Scuderia Ambrosiana	Maserati	4CLT-48	Maserati	4 CL 1.5 L4s	P
6	David Hampshire	Scuderia Ambrosiana	Maserati	4CLT-48	Maserati	4 CL 1.5 L4s	P
8	Leslie Johnson	Taso Mathieson	ERA	E	ERA	ERA 1.5 L6s	D
9	Peter Walker	Peter Walker	ERA	E	ERA	ERA 1.5 L6s	D
10	Joe Fry	Joe Fry	Maserati	4CL	Maserati	4 CL 1.5 L4s	D
11	Cuth Harrison	Cuth Harrison	ERA	B	ERA	ERA 1.5 L6s	D
12	Bob Gerard	Bob Gerard	ERA	B	ERA	ERA 1.5 L6s	D
14	Yves Giraud-Cabantous	Automobiles Talbot-Darracq	Talbot-Lago	T26C-DA	Talbot	23CV 4.5 L6	D
15	Louis Rosier	Automobiles Talbot-Darracq	Talbot-Lago	T26C	Talbot	23CV 4.5 L6	D
16	Philippe Étancelin	Automobiles Talbot-Darracq	Talbot-Lago	T26C	Talbot	23CV 4.5 L6	D
17	Eugène Martin	Automobiles Talbot-Darracq	Talbot-Lago	T26C-DA	Talbot	23CV 4.5 L6	D
18	Johnny Claes	Ecurie Belge	Talbot-Lago	T26C	Talbot	23CV 4.5 L6	D
19	Louis Chiron	Officine Alfieri Maserati	Maserati	4CLT-48	Maserati	4 CL 1.5 L4s	P
20	Emmanuel de Graffenried	Enrico Platé	Maserati	4CLT-48	Maserati	4 CL 1.5 L4s	P
21	B Bira	Enrico Platé	Maserati	4CLT-48	Maserati	4 CL 1.5 L4s	P
22	Felice Bonetto	Scuderia Milano	Maserati	4CLT-50	Maserati	4 CL 1.5 L4s	P
23	Joe Kelly	Joe Kelly	Alta	GP	Alta	Alta 1.5 L4s	D
24	Geoffrey Crossley	Geoffrey Crossley	Alta	GP	Alta	Alta 1.5 L4s	D

Qualifying

With the Ferrari's absent, the Alfa's were unchallenged during Thursday practice. Giuseppe Farina took the first ever World Championship pole position, two tenths ahead of teammates Luigi Fagioli and Juan Manuel Fangio, who set nearly identical lap times. The local favourite, Reg Parnell, could only manage fourth, a little off the pace of the Alfa regulars.

Prince Bira was the highest of the Maserati's, beating Cabantous and Martin in the newer Talbot-Lago's. De Graffenried led Rosier and then came Peter Walker in the ERA. Walker, who had previously impressed in his E-Type, was the highest qualifier of the British cars. Louis Chiron was a disappointing eleventh, as his works Maserati was well off the pace. Johnson and Gerard were next in their ERA machinery, whilst Philippe Etancelin was well off in his works Talbot. Cuth Harrison was fifteenth with the Ambrosiana Maserati's of Hampshire and Murray a disappointing sixteenth and eighteenth, who sandwiched Geoffrey Crossley's Alta.

The back of the grid was made up of Kelly's Alta, Fry's Maserati, and the Talbot-Lago of Johnny Claes. Felice Bonetto and his Maserati failed to turn up to the event and so his entry was withdrawn from the weekend.

Qualification Results

Pos	No.	Driver	Constructor	Time	Gap	%	Avg Speed
1	2	Giuseppe Farina	Alfa Romeo	1:50.8	—	100%	151.051
2	3	Luigi Fagioli	Alfa Romeo	1:51.0	+0.2	100.2%	150.778
3	1	Juan Manuel Fangio	Alfa Romeo	1:51.0	+0.2	100.2%	150.778
4	4	Reg Parnell	Alfa Romeo	1:52.2	+1.4	101.3%	149.166
5	21	Prince Bira	Maserati	1:52.6	+1.8	101.6%	148.636
6	14	Yves Giraud-Cabantous	Talbot-Lago-Talbot	1:53.4	+2.6	102.3%	147.587
7	17	Eugène Martin	Talbot-Lago-Talbot	1:55.4	+4.6	104.2%	145.029
8	20	Emmanuel de Graffenried	Maserati	1:55.8	+5.0	104.5%	144.528
9	15	Louis Rosier	Talbot-Lago-Talbot	1:56.0	+5.2	104.7%	144.279
10	9	Peter Walker	ERA	1:56.6	+5.8	105.2%	143.537
11	19	Louis Chiron	Maserati	1:56.6	+5.8	105.2%	143.537
12	8	Leslie Johnson	ERA	1:57.4	+6.6	106%	142.559
13	12	Bob Gerard	ERA	1:57.4	+6.6	106%	142.559
14	16	Philippe Étançelin	Talbot-Lago-Talbot	1:57.8	+7.0	106.3%	142.075
15	11	Cuth Harrison	ERA	1:58.4	+7.6	106.9%	141.355
16	6	David Hampshire	Maserati	2:01.0	+10.2	109.2%	138.317
17	24	Geoff Crossley	Alta	2:02.6	+11.8	110.6%	136.512
18	5	David Murray	Maserati	2:05.6	+14.8	113.4%	133.252
19	23	Joe Kelly	Alta	2:06.2	+15.4	113.9%	132.618
20	10	Joe Fry	Maserati	2:07.0	+16.2	114.6%	131.783
21	18	Johnny Claes	Talbot-Lago-Talbot	2:08.8	+18.0	116.2%	129.941

Note: all timing during the meeting was to ¹⁄₅ of a second, instead of the more commonplace timing to ¹⁄₁₀. This implies that equipment designed for horse racing was used.

Grid

Pos		Pos		Pos		Pos
Driver		Driver		Driver		Driver
						______________
				______________		1
		______________		2		Giuseppe Farina
______________		3		Luigi Fagioli
4		Juan Manuel Fangio
Reg Parnell
					______________
			______________		5
	______________		6		Prince Bira
	7		Yves Giraud-Cabantous
	Eugène Martin
						______________
				______________		8
		______________		9		Emmanuel de Graffenried
______________		10		Louis Rosier
11		Peter Walker
Louis Chiron
					______________
			______________		12
	______________		13		Leslie Johnson
	14		Bob Gerard
	Philippe Étancelin
						______________
				______________		15
		______________		16		Cuth Harrison
______________		17		David Hampshire
18		Geoff Crossley
David Murray
					______________
			______________		19
	______________		20		Joe Kelly
	21		Joe Fry
	Johnny Claes

Race

Pre-Race

Farina leads Fagioli at the British GP

The first world championship grand prix was welcomed by a crowd of 200,000 British spectators. The Royal Family was also in attendance to mark this prestigious occasion. King George VI, Queen Elizabeth, and the Earl & Countess of Mountbatten were introduced to the drivers and were given a tour of the circuit by Earl Howe, a successful British pre-war driver who had been instrumental in the design of the Silverstone circuit.

Fangio retired from third with 8 laps to go

Before the race commenced, Raymond Mays publically unveiled the BRM V16 to the British public. The inaugral BRM car, funded by the British government and based on the design plans of the all-dominant pre-war German Mercedes cars, was the first serious attempt for a British manufacturer to challenge the dominance of the Italians in grand prix racing. Mays announced the V16 would make its racing debut in August at the BRDC International Trophy, before challenging in the world championship for 1951. 

Race

The start saw the Alfa Romeo's predictably pull away, their grid order remaining the same. Farina led Fangio, Fagioli and Parnell. Immediately distanced from the leaders, Bira led the midfield with De Graffenried, Martin, Giraud-Cabantous, Rosier and Etancelin following behind.

Behind the Maserati's and Talbot-Lago's, the small British manufacturers trailed behind. The new E-Type ERA's were not fairing well, and as if to prove this fact, Leslie Johnson became the first retirement when his supercharger spectacularly blew up on the second lap. Shortly thereafter, the second ERA of Walker pulled into the pits with gearbox issues. He swapped cars with Tony Rolt to see if he could make an improvement. However, after a few laps the shared car of Walker and Rolt was out of the race. Five laps in, and the fastest British manufacturers were out.

Eugene Martin's Talbot-Lago had been struggling with failing oil pressure since the beginning of the race, and he became the next retirement on lap 10. At the front, the Alfa's continued to dominate the field. The battle for the lead remained tight however, with Farina only being able to hold a very narrow lead over Fangio and Fagioli. Parnell had begun to drop back from the regular Alfa driversm although he maintained a significant gap over Bira in fifth.

Chiron's uncompetitive race for Maserati came to an end on lap 26 when he retired with clutch failure whilst battling the two B-Type ERA's of Bob Gerard and Cuth Harrison for tenth. De Graffenried, another Maserati driver, pulled out of the race on lap 36 with engine failure. Geoffrey Crossley in the little Alta retired on lap 43 with transmission problems; he and fellow Alta racer Joe Kelly had been trundling along at the back of the pack in their underpowered cars.

At the midpoint of the race, most of the cars came into the pits for fuel. The order was left largely unchanged; the Alfa Romeo pit crew impressively getting the cars refuelled in a sub-30 second pit stop. Etancelin lost ninth to the ERA's of Gerard and Harrison when he had to change a spark plug during his stop. Other changes in the pit-stop phase saw Joe Fry swap out of his ERA to allow Brian Shawe-Taylor to finish the race. At the end of the pit-stop phase, Farina continued to lead Fangio and Fagioli whilst a distanced Parnell remained in fourth.

Bira, who had been the only competitive Maserati in the race, lost his fifth position to the Talbot-Lago's of Giraud-Cabantous and Rosier when he encountered engine problems. On lap 49, his car ground to a halt whilst going down the Hangar Straight.

After trailing Farina the whole race, Fangio made his challenge for the lead on lap 60. Exiting the Hangar Straight, Fangio attacked on the entry to Stowe, however his car ran wide and collided with one of the straw bales at the exit of the corner. The move had cost him second place to Fagioli, and then worse still, an oil pipe had been cracked and he was forced to pull into the pits to retire on lap 62.

For the remainder of the race, Fagioli continued to hound the tail of Farina, however he would not find a way past and Farina took the first world championship grand prix victory. Fagioli followed him 2.6 seconds adrift whilst Parnell was on the final step of the podium a further 50 seconds back. It was a perfect start to the season for Alfa Romeo with a 1-2-3 finish. The nearest non-Alfa cars of Giraud-Cabantous and Rosier were fourth and fifth, two laps adrift in their Talbot-Lago's.

Gerard and Harrison finished the race in sixth and seventh, their B-Type ERA's having battled throughout the whole race. Etancelin was disappointed to be eighth following his reliability problems. Rounding out the finishers at the back of the field was David Murray in his outdated Maserati, the shared car of Fry and Shawe-Taylor and Claes's Talbot-Lago. Joe Kelly had also managed to get his Alta to the finish, however clutch problems had seen him 13 laps adrift of the leaders and he was denied classification amongst the finishers.

It had been a dominant start to the season for Alfa Romeo. Farina left Silverstone a happy man with the full array of points, taking victory and the extra point for fastest lap, not to mention the £500 he received in prize money for his race win.

Results

Pos	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Avg Speed	Grid	Pts
1	2	Giuseppe Farina	Alfa Romeo	70	2:13:23.6	146.378	1	9
2	3	Luigi Fagioli	Alfa Romeo	70	+ 2.6s	146.330	2	6
3	4	Reg Parnell	Alfa Romeo	70	+ 52.0s	145.433	4	4
4	14	Yves Giraud-Cabantous	Talbot-Lago	68	+ 2 laps	142.171	6	3
5	15	Louis Rosier	Talbot-Lago	68	+ 2 laps	141.053	9	2
6	12	Bob Gerard	ERA	67	+ 3 laps	140.055	13
7	11	Cuth Harrison	ERA	67	+ 3 laps	140.048	15
8	16	Philippe Étancelin	Talbot-Lago	65	+ 5 laps	134.794	14
9	6	David Hampshire	Maserati	64	+ 6 laps	133.165	16
10	10	Joe Fry	Maserati	64	+ 6 laps	132.232	20
		Brian Shawe-Taylor
11	18	Johnny Claes	Talbot-Lago	64	+ 6 laps	131.773	21
Ret	1	Juan Manuel Fangio	Alfa Romeo	62	Oil Leak		3
NC	23	Joe Kelly	Alta	57	+ 13 laps		19
Ret	21	B Bira	Maserati	49	Out of Fuel		5
Ret	5	David Murray	Maserati	44	Engine		18
Ret	24	Geoffrey Crossley	Alta	43	Transmission		17
Ret	20	Emmanuel de Graffenried	Maserati	36	Engine		8
Ret	19	Louis Chiron	Maserati	26	Clutch		11
Ret	17	Eugène Martin	Talbot-Lago	8	Oil Pressure		7
Ret	9	Peter Walker	ERA	5	Gearbox		10
		Tony Rolt
Ret	8	Leslie Johnson	ERA	2	Compressor		12

• Shared drive contributions:
  • Car number 10: Joe Fry: 45 out of 64, Brian Shawe-Taylor: 19 out of 64 (10th)
  • Car number 9: Peter Walker: 2 out of 5, Tony Rolt: 3 out of 5 (Ret)

Fastest Laps

Pos	No.	Driver	Constructor	Lap	Time	Gap	Avg Speed	Race
1	2	Giuseppe Farina	Alfa Romeo	2	1:50.6	—	151.324	1
2	14	Yves Giraud-Cabantous	Talbot-Lago	41	1:53.4	2.8	147.587	4
3	15	Louis Rosier	Talbot-Lago	10	1:55.4	4.8	145.029	5
4	16	Philippe Étancelin	Talbot-Lago	31	1:57.4	6.8	142.559	8
5	18	Johnny Claes	Talbot-Lago	29	2:08.8	18.2	129.941	11

Lap Leaders

Lap-by-Lap

Stint	Driver	Laps	Total	Distance
1	Giuseppe Farina	01 – 09	09	41.841 km
2	Luigi Fagioli	10 – 14	05	23.245 km
3	Juan Manuel Fangio	15 – 15	01	4.649 km
4	Giuseppe Farina	16 – 37	22	102.278 km
5	Luigi Fagioli	38 – 38	01	4.649 km
6	Giuseppe Farina	39 – 70	32	148.768 km

Totals

Pos.	Driver	Laps	Distance
1	Giuseppe Farina	63	292.887 km
2	Luigi Fagioli	06	27.894 km
3	Juan Manuel Fangio	01	6.419 km

Standings

Drivers' World Championship
Pos.	Driver	Pts	+/-
1	Giuseppe Farina	9	—
2	Luigi Fagioli	6	—
3	Reg Parnell	4	—
4	Yves Giraud-Cabantous	3	—
5	Louis Rosier	2	—

Milestones

• First World Championship Pole Position: Giuseppe Farina, Alfa Romeo, Pirelli, Car 2, Shell
• First World Championship Fastest Lap: Giuseppe Farina, Alfa Romeo, Pirelli, Car 2, Shell
• First World Championship Victory: Giuseppe Farina, Alfa Romeo, Pirelli, Car 2, Shell
• First Hat Trick: Giuseppe Farina, Alfa Romeo, Pirelli
• First World Championship Podium: Giuseppe Farina, Luigi Fagioli, Reg Parnell, Alfa Romeo, Pirelli, Car 2, Shell 
• Final World Championship Podium: Reg Parnell
• Final Race: Joe Fry, Leslie Johnson

External links

• Colour footage of the race

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