Three-quarters of a century. One legendary sport.

The 75th anniversary of the first-ever round of the Formula 1 World Championship for Drivers gives those of us who have been immersed in the sport a moment to pause and reflect on that milestone — and all that has occurred in the three-quarters of a century since.

Silverstone Circuit hosted the first of seven World Championship events on May 13th 1950, a far cry from the 24 races that fill today’s busy calendar. The circuit had been used for racing since 1947, first hosting a Grand Prix in 1948, with both its infrastructure and layout dictated by its origins as a Second World War airfield.

It was back in 1943 that Silverstone became home to ‘Number 17 Operational Training Unit’ for the Royal Air Force, training crews to fly the Vickers Wellington long-range medium bomber. When hostilities ceased, the RAF remained on site until 1946 before leaving behind its classic three-runway layout and perimeter track.

It was a group of locals who staged the first race in 1947, unkindly remembered as the “Mutton Grand Prix” following the demise of a sheep which made the mistake of straying onto the circuit. The offending car was a write-off.

Initially, racing was held on the runways but, not long after the Royal Automobile Club leased the site, racing was moved onto the perimeter roads. The rest is history — yet the circuit’s origins are recalled by the famous Hangar and Wellington Straights.

The inaugural Formula 1 World Championship for Drivers event was notable not only for the racing. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth were present, along with their daughter, Princess Margaret, while in the commentary box, a 26-year-old Murray Walker helped fans follow the action. Little could Murray have known that half a century of commentary brilliance lay before him — a one-man broadcasting phenomenon who captivated generations of Formula 1 fans long before Netflix’s Drive to Survive brought in a wave of more recent followers.

A nice coincidence, too, that Murray’s successor as the primary English-language voice of F1, Martin Brundle, received his OBE from the Prince of Wales on today’s 75th anniversary.

That first race, carrying the joint title of the British Grand Prix and the Grand Prix d’Europe, was won by the Italians — not by Ferrari, but by Alfa Romeo, and the man who would go on to win that first Drivers’ title: Giuseppe “Nino” Farina.

Back then, the ‘Three Fs’ referred not to drivers swearing on the radio, but to Farina and his teammates, Luigi Fagioli and Juan Manuel Fangio. Their Alfa Romeo 158s may have been 13 years old, but the war had suspended race car development, leaving it the class of the field. Although Fangio retired from the race, a fourth Alfa Romeo driven by Britain’s Reg Parnell claimed the final step on the podium behind Farina and Fagioli.

In the 75 years that have followed, Formula 1 has become firmly established as one of the world’s most prestigious sports — the pinnacle of global motorsport. It has been a time of constant change, development, refinement, and innovation.

Initially, the cars had their engines at the front — the traditional place for horsepower. John Cooper showed the world the benefits of a mid-engined layout. Those first race car bodies were crafted by hand from sheet metal; today, the shape is defined by the very air that flows across a carbon-fibre shell.

Engineers once used stopwatches to measure performance, and feedback was provided by the driver — the primary sensor being the seat of his pants. Clipboards, pencils, and notebooks have given way to data-driven decision-making.

Hundreds of sensors now gather terabytes of data, transmitted from car to pit lane and, within milliseconds, to race strategy rooms on the other side of the planet. Formula 1’s data scientists now use predictive analytics, simulation tools, and AI to develop winning strategies — based on knowledge rather than hope.

For all the technology, success in F1 has always been about teamwork. The ability of humankind to use technology to achieve previously impossible outcomes is part of Formula 1’s appeal. There can be no better example of this than in the sport’s safety transformation.

In the first 45 years of the sport’s development, more than 30 drivers lost their lives in World Championship events — but the number of fatalities was even higher due to tragedies involving track marshals and spectators. In the last three decades, only one driver has lost his life — the much-missed Jules Bianchi — thanks to a safety revolution led by Formula 1, its regulator the FIA, the teams, drivers, race promoters, and circuit owners. That revolution has been technical, operational, and cultural — embracing risk and managing it in parallel with performance.

On this significant anniversary, with the sport in robust commercial health and enjoying a closely fought World Championship among ten highly professional, well-funded teams, it’s worth reflecting on the journey to date. Most especially, to remember those who paid the ultimate price in pursuit of a sport we all enjoy.

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