The Early Years
Formula One was first defined in 1946 by the Commission Sportive Internationale (CSI) of the FIA, forerunner of FISA, as the premier single seater racing category in worldwide motorsport to become effective in 1948. It was initially known variously as Formula A, Formula I or Formula 1 with the corresponding "Voiturette" formula being titled Formula B, Formula II or Formula 2. When the 500c formula was internationally recognised as Formula 3 in 1950 it was never titled as "Formula C" so the three International Formulae were "officially" titled Formula 1, Formula 2 and Formula 3.
In the beginning, the formula was largely based on pre-war regulations defined by engine capacity. The regulation expected to bring a new balance between supercharged and normally aspirated cars. Non supercharged 4.5 litre pre-war Grand Prix cars were allowed to race against the pre-war 1.5 litre supercharged 'voiturettes' while pre-war supercharged 3 litre Grand Prix cars were banned. The first race under the new regulations was the 1946 Turin Grand Prix held on 1 September, the race being won by Achille Varzi in an Alfa Romeo 158 Alfetta.
Championships for drivers or constructors were not introduced immediately. In the early years there were around 20 races held from late Spring to early Autumn (Fall) in Europe, although not all of these were considered significant. Most competitive cars came from Italy, particularly Alfa Romeo. Races saw pre-war heroes like Achille Varzi, Jean-Pierre Wimille and Tazio Nuvolari end their careers, while drivers like Alberto Ascari and Juan Manuel Fangio rose to the front.
Read more about this topic: History Of Formula One
Famous quotes containing the words early years, early and/or years:
“Even today . . . experts, usually male, tell women how to be mothers and warn them that they should not have children if they have any intention of leaving their side in their early years. . . . Children don’t need parents’ full-time attendance or attention at any stage of their development. Many people will help take care of their needs, depending on who their parents are and how they chose to fulfill their roles.”
—Stella Chess (20th century)
“We early arrive at the great discovery that there is one mind common to all individual men: that what is individual is less than what is universal ... that error, vice and disease have their seat in the superficial or individual nature.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“... a novel survives because of its basic truthfulness, its having within it something general and universal, and a quality of imaginative perception which applies just as much now as it did in the fifty or hundred or two hundred years since the novel came to life.”
—Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)