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The Prologue: F1 75 at the Festival of Speed

18th January 2025
Simon Ostler

Formula 1’s story begins some 25 years before the inauguration of the World Championship. The concept of international motorsport competition began with the World Manufacturers’ Championship, which was first held in 1925.

It was sanctioned by the Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus (AIACR), a precursor to the modern-day FIA, and is recognised as the first ever World Championship in motorsport.

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While not intrinsically linked to the F1 World Championship we know today, it’s the era when the foundations for all motorsport were laid down during those fledgling years, and we’ll recognise that fact during the F1 75 celebration at the 2025 Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard.

Set to be the grandest celebration in the history of the Festival of Speed, the 75th anniversary of the F1 World Championship will sit at the centre of all four days of activity both on and around the famous Goodwood Hill. As part of that showcase, we want to tell the story of how F1 was born, the Prologue.

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The first season featured four rounds, beginning with the Indianapolis 500, followed by Grands Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, Montlhéry and Monza, and it was Alfa Romeo, with the legendary P2 that took the original World Championship with two wins. Antonio Ascari and Gastone Brilli-Peri were the victorious drivers at the head of a field that included challengers from Delage, Sunbeam and Bugatti.

These early Grands Prix made use of an existing 2.0-litre engine formula, the Alfa Romeo P2 was powered by an in-line eight-cylinder engine producing somewhere in the region of 140-175PS (103-129kW).

The championship expanded to six rounds in 1926, with Grands Prix added in Lasarte, Spain and Brooklands for the inaugural RAC Grand Prix. Alfa Romeo pulled out of motor racing citing high development costs, and when the AIACR decided to adjust the regulations to a new 1.5-litre formula, it was the Bugatti Type 35 that became the class of the field.

This season was dominated by the French teams at Bugatti and Delage, but it was the Type 35, racing in modified 1.5-litre Type 39A guise, that took three victories and a second place to score its first World Championship triumph.

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Innovation and development were just as prevalent in the 1920s as they are 100 years later, and Delage arrived in 1927 with a brand-new twin-supercharged engine that completely blew away the relatively unchanged Bugattis. This was the first lesson learned in international motorsport, that the best car would not remain so for long. The Delage 15 S8 in the hands of Robert Benoist took four dominant victories in 1927, filling the podium in both France and Britain on its way to a comfortable Championship triumph.

The World Manufacturers’ Championship dwindled in 1928, with fewer races taking place, and the AIACR eventually undertook a revamp of the concept for 1931 with the new European Drivers’ Championship run to Formula Libre regulations.

Alfa Romeo returned to the fray alongside Bugatti, Maserati, Talbot and Mercedes-Benz, and it was the Alfa 8C 2300 that proved to deliver the best balance of performance and reliability, as Ferdinando Minoia took two podium finishes to take the championship.

This new European championship is where many of motorsport’s first generation of famous names begin to appear. The likes of Tazio Nuvolari, Louis Chiron, Achile Varzi and William Grover-Williams were all involved in this 1931 season.

The Italians continued their strong form in 1932, as Nuvolari scored two victories with the Alfa Romeo P3, a pioneering single-seater Grand Prix car powered by a twin-supercharged eight-cylinder engine, with power now in excess of 200PS (147kW). The Nürburgring was also added to the championship calendar for the first time as Germany began to take a greater interest in motorsport.

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By 1935, the juggernaut of Mercedes and Auto Union, funded by the German government, proved too difficult to suppress. Rudolf Caracciola was relentless in his pursuit of success, at the wheel of the Mercedes-Benz W25 he won in Monaco, Montlhéry, Spa, Bremgarten and Lasarte.

Bernd Rosemeyer was the other dominant force in the 1930s, as he drove the Auto Union Type C to three Grand Prix wins in 1936. Mercedes returned to the pinnacle a year later, however, with arguably the greatest racing car of the pre-F1 era, the W125.

Powered by a 5.6-litre straight-eight delivering almost 650PS (478kW), at a time when your standard road car might produce 25PS (18kW), the W125 was a mighty machine that won four of the five races in 1937, and was so powerful that the rules were changed for 1938.

Caracciola was the final European Drivers’ Champion, retaining his crown with the Mercedes W154 powered by a new supercharged 3.0-litre V12. By this time, the German dominance was confirmed, and the two-pronged assault of Mercedes and Auto Union was simply too much for the likes of Alfa Romeo and Maserati to handle.

World War II put a halt to the progress of motorsport for much of the next decade, but the groundwork had been laid down, and in 1946, a new set of regulations was drawn up for the premier category of single-seater motorsport, called Formula 1. They were tested for the first time at the 1946 Turin Grand Prix, which was won by Achile Varzi in an Alfa Romeo 158 ‘Alfetta’ as the Italians got straight back to winning ways.

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Several F1 events were held in the following years, including the Goodwood Trophy, which ran during the first ever motorsport meeting at the Motor Circuit. Reg Parnell won on that occasion, at the wheel of a Maserati 4CLT, and formed part of a new era of racing stars that included the likes of Juan Manuel Fangio, Giuseppe Farina, Luigi Fagioli.

These would be the drivers that lined up on the grid for the first ever F1 World Championship Grand Prix at Silverstone in 1950, a moment some 25 years in the making, and the one that led us all to this point as we celebrate the 75th anniversary of that day.

The Festival of Speed takes place from Thursday 10th-Sunday 13th July 2025. Tickets are on sale now, and you can save by completing your order before the early bird window closes.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.

  • Festival of Speed

  • FOS

  • FOS 2025

  • Event Coverage

  • F1 75

  • The Prologue

  • Formula 1

  • F1

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