8. Alfa Romeo 158/9 Alfetta
The Alfa Romeo 158 was originally built in 1937, some 13 years before the birth of F1, for voiturette racing. In the years before World War Two, Alfa Romeo ran the car in several grands prix with a small, supercharged 1.5-litre straight-eight engine designed by Goiacchino Colombo – he of Ferrari V12 fame. And yet, even before it arrived as an F1 car in 1950, the 'Alfetta' proved to be a dominant performer. Indeed it won 37 of the 41 races it entered before the start of the war.
As motorsport began to return in 1947, the Alfetta was also put back into action, albeit with an upgraded, and far more powerful version of its straight-eight engine. Now producing more than 350PS (261kW). When the time finally arrived for it to make its F1 debut in 1950, the car had been honed to become the class of the world. The front row of the grid was made up of Guiseppe Farina, Juan Manuel Fangio, Luigi Fagioli and Reg Parnell, all driving Alfa Romeo 158s. Come the chequered flag, Farina, Fagioli and Parnell filled the podium.
It was a dominance that continued for the rest of the season, as Alfa Romeo won all six of the races it entered. In fact the only reason the Alfetta doesn’t hold the record for most dominant F1 car of all time is that it didn’t enter every eligible race that season. It skipped the Indy 500 and therefore ‘only’ won 85 per cent of the races in the 1950 season.
The fact it maintained its superiority in 1951 says it all. With the aid of a further fettled 420PS (313kW) engine fitted with more substantial superchargers, Juan Manuel Fangio claimed three victories and the first of his fives F1 drivers' championships.