13/05/2010
FEATURE BY MIKE LAWRENCE
I keep receiving press releases about 60 years of Formula One and I cannot understand why because they are four years late. Formula One, originally called Formula A, did not officially come into force until 1947, but three races were run to the formula in 1946. Unlike the PR bumf, this is fact.
The first Formula One race was the Gran Premio del Valentino held in Turin on 1st September, 1946. True, it did not count to a championship but among the drivers were Louis Chiron, Giuseppe Farina, Emanuel de Graffenreid, Tazio Nuvolari, Reg Parnell, Harry Schell, Raymond Sommer, Achille Varzi and Jean-Pierre Wimille. I submit that no GP this year will field nine drivers who will be regarded with such respect sixty years hence.
Nuvolari is still regarded by some as the greatest driver of all. In Italy in the 1930s, however, Varzi had an equal following and Auto Union chose him above Nuvolari as their politically expedient Italian. Farina became the first World Champion and inspired drivers of the quality of Moss and Brooks to imitate his style, while Wimille was widely regarded as the greatest of the immediate postwar era.
The supporting cast was pretty good as well and included Franco Cortese. who would win the 1951 Targa Florio; Count Carlo Trossi, President of Scuderia Ferrari and winner of the 1947 Italian GP and the 1948 Swiss GP; and the privateer, Peter Whitehead, winner of the 1938 Australian GP and two F1 races in 1950. Two greats who were forbidden to race were Lang and Stuck, German drivers were banned from international events until 1950.
The race was comparatively short at just over two hours, 35 minutes, but fuel was at a premium in 1946. In Britain, the petrol ration allowed for about thirty miles a week.
In the late 1930s, Grand Prix racing and the AAA Championship in America adopted similar rules: 3000cc supercharged, 4500cc unsupercharged. That's it, the entire rule book. The AAA Championship was in a bad way apart from the Indianapolis 500, in 1938, for example, there were only two rounds. In 1936 and 1937 the Vanderbilt Cup attracted European entries and were won, respectively, by Tazio Nuvolari (Alfa Romeo 12C-36) and Bernd Rosemeyer (Auto Union C).
By adopting the Grand Prix formula and dispensing with details such as the maximum size of the fuel tank and insisting on pump fuel, the AAA hoped to attract European participation. The speed of ocean liners made it possible for Europeans to race on the East Coast within striking distance of New York without disrupting their regular season. During WWII the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth were used as troop ships and they crossed the Atlantic unescorted because nothing could keep up with them.
That there was some degree of cultural exchange can be gauged by the fact that in 1939 and 1940, Wilbur Shaw won the Indianapolis 500 in a Maserati 8CTF. The two sides of the Pond were moving closer together.
In the aftermath of war, the FIA took a pragmatic view. There were normally-aspirated 4.5-litre cars left over from the 1938/39 Grand Prix formula, but most of the three-litre supercharged cars were either tucked away by Mercedes-Benz or in the Russian Zone. One Mercedes-Benz W154 was 'liberated' from Czechoslovakia and competed at Indianapolis in 1947 and 1948. Incidentally, it is a fact that the bomb bay of a Lancaster will accommodate a Bugatti. This would have been of hypothetical interest to anyone wishing to liberate such a car and transport it swiftly to, say, Scotland. Perish the thought.
As well as the, mainly French, 4,500cc cars, there were the 1.5-litre supercharged cars built for the prewar Voiturette formula, chiefly ERAs and cars from Alfa Romeo and Maserati . The first Formula One combined the two sources of machinery and a formula imposed by expediency actually worked quite well.
When the World Championship began in 1950, there were six races in Europe, plus the Indianapolis 500. Both formulae included 4500cc cars so that made perfect sense, even though the supercharged alternative was different.
Alfa Romeo announced its withdrawal from racing from the end of 1951 and BRM could not be relied upon to even turn up for a race, which left only Ferrari with a competitive F1 machine and so the World Championship was run to the 2-litre Formula Two in 1952 and 1953, though there were still a sprinkling of F1 races.
This is important: Formula One continued, and BRM even won the odd race. The World Championship was run to Formula Two. PR people try to gloss this over to make a neat easily digestible package: 'World Formula One Drivers' Championship'.
I own a copy of 'Formula One For Dummies' and have never opened it. It was sent to me by the publisher because I was asked to oversee the contents at draft stage. At my request, my name was removed from the credits though, naturally, I cashed the cheque.
It is not only PR people who blur history, there are some journalists who do. I do not think that they have been corrupted by money, it is more a case that they are not very bright.
What was less clear is why the Indianapolis 500 continued to be part of the World Championship until 1960. Alberto Ascari missed the 1952 Swiss GP to compete at Indianapolis with a Ferrari 375. Enzo knew that America would be his main market and no doubt Tony Hulman, owner of the Brickyard, made it worth while. At the time, you only needed to get one top driver from overseas in any race, anywhere, for the organisers to boast of an international entry.
We take it for granted today that any professional category will have an international entry, but the wounds of WWII were far from healed though the establishment of the United Nations offered hope for the future.
Essentially, the Indianapolis 500 had no place in the Championship after 1952, but it lingered, possibly as an invitation to America. It also gives we pedantic historians a few bouncers to bowl, though normally we only do that over a pint. Of course I am a pedant, as Bertrand Russell once said, pedantry is an insistence on getting things right.
PR people (often called Bekki or Jasper) are putting out bullshit about a sixtieth anniversary. The World Championship for Drivers did, indeed, begin in 1950, and the Constructors' Cup followed in 1958. A World Championship ran 1925-27, and included the Indianapolis 500. It was, however, for manufacturers. It was sanctioned by the FIA and called the World Championship - sorted.
A European Championship for drivers ran in the late 1930s and this was a World Championship in all but name. It was an additional honour, not the main event. People still had the sense to admire Rudolf Caracciola for the races he won, not for the points he scored.
The Drivers' World Championship was really not that important in the early days. It took on significance in 1958 when it came down to Hawthorn and Moss and that was because the two men appeared to represent different approaches to the sport. Mike Hawthorn seemed to be Jack the Lad, a guy who liked a pint, whereas Sir God, plain Mr God back then, represented dedication, it was amateur against professional.
Mike could be brilliant, when not suffering a hangover. He was in contention for the championship because Moss persuaded the stewards at the 1958 Portuguese GP not to disqualify him for a blatant breech of the rules, Stirling had the Championship in the palm of his hand and he reckoned that it was better to be gracious. That is why Moss is great and Schumacher, Prost and Senna are merely successful.
Bernie has a product to sell and he has deliberately confused Grand Prix, Formula One and World Championship as a marketing ploy. His knowledge of Grand Prix racing is immense and he owns important Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union cars of the 1930s. His knowledge is backed by serious investment, but he insists on twisting history for hoi polloi.
Put this another way. Bernie and the entire Formula One PR machine hold us in such low regard that they think that we will eat the shit they care to give us. I don't know about you, but on a matter of principle, I don't eat shit, not even with a drizzle of truffle oil and a light green salad.
Jim Clark was remarkable when he won seven World Championship races in 1965, but he actually won 12 Formula One races that year. When Alberto Ascari returned from Indianapolis in 1952, he won all remaining World Championship (Formula Two) Grands Prix, and also won another six. The French organised an eight-race series called, 'Grands Prix des France' and Ascari won four. In 1952, Ascari won 12 races run to that year's World Championship.
A Grand Prix was a Grand Prix, whether or not points were awarded. In the 1950s, Reims alternated with Rouen to bear the title of Grand Prix de l'ACF. In 1957 the Reims GP was longer and had a larger field than Rouen, which held the French GP, but it attracted no WC points so Luigi Musso doesn't make the record book.
Have you ever seen a World Championship point and weighed it in your hand? Jaime Alguersuari has one, for finishing tenth in Spain. Rudolf Caracciola never won a WC point even though he won the German GP six times and every time at the 'Ring, not some Mickey Tilke track. Tough, Rudi, Bekki and Jasper don't rate you.
Some believe that Nuvolari was the greatest of all, but Alguersuari will forever lead him in the points table, for finishing tenth. Nuvolari never won a World Championship point, so he must be as rubbish as Robert Benoist who was effectively World Champion driver in 1927. Bernd Rosemeyer never won a point either, though he lapped the 1937 Avusrennen at 171.78 mph, on skinny crossply tyres.
This is what happens when Bekki and Jasper get a hold of things.
I recall trumpets being sounded when drivers reached a certain total of points in their careers. That's something that is well and truly screwed. Under last year's points system, Fernando Alonso would now head the table, but that is sooo last year.
It really pisses me off when Bekki and Jasper assume they can tell me anything. It offends me that they send me their vapid balderdash.
I own a copy of 'Formula One Racing For Dummies' and it is unopened because I cannot bear to think what I may read. The publisher engaged me to correct the text, and I did. Without going into detail, I had my name removed from the credits, though naturally I cashed the cheque.
In the interest of accuracy, I have opened the wretched manual and have noted its inaccuracies (Mini Cooper with a hyphen, I ask you) and patronising tone (take money if you wish to buy food and drink, otherwise bring your own grub.) Without exposing myself too much, I have seen foul things because I was ignored.
The point of the Dummies series is that you do not assume the buyer to be thick, the title is a shared joke. The purchaser is someone seeking knowledge. The buyer of such a book must not be patronised as this junk manual patronises. I was mentored by Jenks and would be devastated if ever I thought that I patronised a reader. Go head to head in an argument, sure, but patronise, I hope never.
A difference between the ITV coverage of Formula One and the BBC team is that is Jake, Eddie and The MacChin, assume that we, the couch potato, are the fourth person in a conversation. We can't say much, but we are included.
Bekki and Jasper will never grasp that. They assume that we are fortunate to be allowed to share their Golden Thoughts,
It comes down to this, almost everything you will hear about the 60th anniversary is a load of shite. The subtle trick is to notice who repeats the shite because it will mark them out as not worthy of consideration.
Mike Lawrence
mike@pitpass.com
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