by Simon Wright

Created on: May 27, 2007   Last Updated: November 24, 2008

I was lucky enough quite recently to win a day out at the Williams Formula One team headquarters. The day included a tour of the cars that they have run since their entry into the sport. What this brought home to me was the ongoing quest for engineering and motoring perfection and how much the cars have changed in the last 20 years, partly due to scientific enhancements and partly due to regulation changes.

The sport of Formula One (F1) has its routes in the road races that were run in Europe from the 1890s through to the 1940s. The first race to be called a 'Grand Prix' was the 1901 French Grand Prix which was held at Le Mans. Le mans, of course remains to this day a very prestigious road race, though it is not part of F1.

The actual Formula One entity is deemed to have commenced in 1946 with the standardisation of rules by the Fdration Internationale de l'Automobile's. In April 1950, Juan Manuel Fangio won the Pau Grand Prix, which was the first ever 'Formula One' race. Fangio went on to be considered one of the greats of the sport. Another Grand Prix was held a month later at Silverstone in England, and the F1 championship was well underway. For the record, an Italian, Nino Farina went on to win the inaugural championship, pipping Fangio to that title.

Formula One has always been closely tied to technology, and huge advances in the cars have occurred over the many years that F1 has been running. Many of the top car manufacturers have been involved in the sport, seeing it as a way to hone their technologies and gain publicity. The cars have become lighter and faster, and safety has also been substantially improved. The death of F1 legend, Ayrton Senna in 1994 also led to rule changes to ensure that driver safety was better provisioned for.

Michael Schumacher, of Germany, is the most successful F1 driver of all time with 7 titles, most of the won whilst with the Ferrari team. Fernando Alonso, of the McLaren Mercedes team, is the current champion, whilst the latest sensation to arrive into the sport in British driver, Lewis Hamilton.

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