The 1950 British Grand Prix, formally known as The Royal Automobile Club Grand Prix d'Europe Incorporating The British Grand Prix, was a Formula One motor race held on 13 May 1950 at the Silverstone Circuit in Silverstone, England. It was the first World Championship Formula One race, as well as the fifth British Grand Prix, and the third to be held at Silverstone after motor racing resumed after World War II. It was the first race of seven in the 1950 World Championship of Drivers. The 70-lap race was won by Nino Farina for the Alfa Romeo team, after starting from pole position, with a race time of 2:13:23.6 and an average speed of 146.378 km/h (90.955 mph). Luigi Fagioli finished second in another Alfa Romeo, and Reg Parnell third in a third Alfa Romeo. The race followed the non-championship Pau Grand Prix and San Remo Grand Prix (both won by Juan Manuel Fangio), the Richmond Trophy (won by Reg Parnell), and the Paris Grand Prix (won by Georges Grignard).

Background

Early Formula One racing

In 1946, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile's Commission Sportive Internationale first defined the "International Formula", a premier single-seater racing series to start in 1947. While the first Formula One race was the 1947 Pau Grand Prix, the 1950 British Grand Prix was the first Grand Prix of the new World Championship of Drivers. Four non-championship races were held all across Europe in 1950 prior to the Grand Prix: Juan Manuel Fangio won the races in Pau and San Remo, Reg Parnell won in Douglas, and Georges Grignard won in Paris.

The First World Championship race

The 1950 edition of the British Grand Prix was fifth held since 1926 and the third held at Silverstone Circuit since its first time in 1948. It was also the designated European Grand Prix for the year, making it the 11th time the circuit has held the title since the first race in 1923. The race was also supported by an international 500cc Formula Three race the same weekend, which was won by Stirling Moss driving a Cooper-JAP. There was also a demonstration run for the BRM P15, which was due to enter the sport later in the year. The race was attended by George VI, Queen Elizabeth, Princess Margaret, and the Earl & Countess Mountbatten of Burma.

Entries

24 drivers were entered for the first race with them competing in 22 different cars. The numbers 7 and 13 were not assigned. The biggest absence was the Scuderia Ferrari who would not compete in the opening race with Enzo Ferrari not sending any cars to Britain with the team debuting at the next round in Monaco, due to the small amount of appearance money the organisers were willing to pay him to participate. This meant that Alfa Romeo were favourites with their four drivers Farina, Fangio, Fagioli, and British driver, Reg Parnell, while their main competition came from the Maseratis of the Scuderia Ambrosiana and Enrico Platé teams. Felice Bonetto also entered a Maserati but would not arrive for the race. Talbot-Lago sent over two factory cars in the traditional French pale blue colour to be driven by Yves Giraud-Cabantous and Eugène Martin. Other private Talbots were entered by Louis Rosier, Philippe Etancelin, and Belgian Johnny Claes in a car painted in Belgium's national yellow colour. The rest of the field was made up of local machinery, which included four ERAs and two Altas in British racing green.

Qualifying

Qualifying took place on Friday and saw the Alfa Romeos end up on the front row of the grid as Farina claimed the first pole position in the history of Formula One with a time of 1:50.8. Fagioli and Fangio and Parnell would fill the remaining spots on the front row of the grid. Prince Bira was the fastest non-Alfa, 1.8 seconds back with the two Talbot's cars filling in the second row.

Qualifying classification

Race

On 13 May, 21 drivers from 9 countries were represented at the old Silverstone airport, 4 from France, 2 from Italy, 1 each from Belgium, Ireland, Monaco, Argentina, Thailand and Switzerland. The UK was represented by 9 drivers. The race drew 200,000 spectators. At the start of the race, Farina took the lead with Fagioli and Fangio in pursuit, while Cabantous got a poor start and lost 4 positions. In the early laps, they switched around between themselves several times to keep everyone amused. Fangio retired with engine troubles caused by a broken oil pipe and so Farina led Fagioli home by 2.5 seconds with Parnell a distant third, despite hitting a hare during the race. The nearest challenger was Giraud-Cabantous two laps down, with Bira having retired with a fuel problem. Crossley and Murray duelled at the back before retiring, de Graffenried had done so on lap 34, while Chiron was demoted to the role of the viewer 10 laps earlier. Nino Farina led for 63 laps (1–9, 16–37 and 39–70). Luigi Fagioli led for 6 laps (10–15). Juan Manuel Fangio led for 1 lap (38). Nino Farina achieved the fastest lap of the race, with a 1:50.6 on Lap 2.

Shared drives

Joe Fry drove car #10 for the first 45 laps, then Brian Shawe-Taylor took over for 19 laps for a total of 64 laps, a distance of 297.536 km. Peter Walker drove car #9 for 2 laps, then Tony Rolt drove for an additional 3 laps, totaling 5 laps, a distance of 23.245 km.

Race classification

Championship standings after the race