Formula One's first title race was Silverstone, 13 May 1950
F1 is the top open-wheel single-seater championship, scoring drivers' and constructors' titles across Grands Prix. Liberty Media bought commercial rights in 2017 for about eight billion dollars; the 2026 cost cap is 215 million dollars, though exclusions push real budgets higher.
Cars generate extreme cornering speeds via aerodynamic downforce, much from wings and underbodies, making them the fastest regulated road-course racers. Roots trace to 1920s–30s European championships; Giuseppe Farina won the inaugural 1950 drivers' crown for Alfa Romeo after Silverstone's opener. A constructors' title arrived in 1958.
Juan Manuel Fangio, whom Farina edged in 1950, took titles in 1951 and from 1954 to 1957, and won 24 of his 52 races; Stirling Moss, despite his reputation, never won the championship, finishing second four times between 1955 and 1961. Bugatti introduced the mid-engined layout, Jack Brabham proved it with titles in 1959, 1960 and 1966, and by 1961 every team had switched. Lotus followed in 1962 with an aluminium monocoque chassis, and six of today's eleven teams are based in Britain.
Sponsorship arrived in 1968, when Team Gunston ran its Brabhams in cigarette-brand colours at the South African Grand Prix on 1 January. That same season Colin Chapman fitted wings to the Lotus 49B at Monaco, and Lotus later pioneered ground-effect aerodynamics, which were banned from 1983. Renault brought turbocharging in 1977, and by 1986 a BMW turbo was estimated at over 1,300 horsepower in qualifying. Lotus debuted active suspension on the Lotus 92 in 1983, and Ayrton Senna won Monaco with it in 1987. Off track, Bernie Ecclestone bought Brabham in 1971, became president of the constructors' association in 1978, and fought the governing body over television money and rules. After Liberty Media took over, six new Grands Prix joined the calendar, including Miami, Las Vegas and Qatar.
Source: Formula One
