Motor Racing Makes A Roaring Come Back After The War.

Legendary Formula 1 Drivers ignite their passions to begin an epic battle between Britain and Italy car manufactures to establish a new world order.

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Formula One Forever

12 min readSep 1, 2020

The last Motor Race to take place before the Second World War was held on September 3rd 1939, the very day on which Britain and France declared war on Germany.

It was the Yugoslav Grand Prix in Belgrade and it was won by Tarzio Nuvolari in a 3 litre supercharged D Type Auto Union. Manfred von Brauchitsch came 2nd in a W 154/163 Mercedes Benz and Hermann Muller 3rd in another Auto Union.

After this, all the racing cars fell silent for the duration of the war, but it was not long after the hostilities ended that motor racing resumed again.

While there was a minimal British culture of motor racing earlier, in effect it had long been Italy’s national sport. The moment wartime fighting had moved north, the old-time racers returned to work. Ferrari began building cars. Maserati, Alfa Romeo, Lancia and myriad backstreet marques rapidly emerged.

Into the early 1950s motor racing was simply Red — led by Maserati, then Alfa Romeo. State-backed German marques had, of course, dominated Grand Prix racing from 1934 to 39, but their factories had become rubble and the vengeful French-dominated FIA, banned Germans from racing internationally until 1950.

But post-war, it was a great time to be in British Motor Racing. Not only did they win the war, with a little help from their Allies; but they were to also celebrate both the Festival of Britain and the Coronation, conquer Everest, run the first 4-minute mile, and produce the world’s first jet airliner. The 1950s was also a great time to be a motor racing enthusiast.

At that time, the smartest way to go racing into the 1950s was to buy a car if you had the cash or to build one if you had the skills and the finance. Pre-war E.R.As (English Racing Automobiles) were the choice of numerous British privateers, while the more ambitious (and more shrewd) like Reg Parnell and Prince ‘Bira’ bought Italian — Maserati 4CLTs. French privateers commonly bought Talbot-Lagos or joined Gordini. BRM struggled, over-ambitious, over-complicated and underfunded.

The Grizzled Veterans

The star drivers of that era were mainly grizzled veterans, men who had learned their racing pre-war, bouncing back from six wartime years of sporting frustration.

The lost years had left them variably embittered, but equally case-hardened. ‘Nino’ Farina was regarded as quite the toughest of them all, a bullying thug on track. ‘Gigi’ Villoresi, snowy-haired, prematurely aged, was an artist-driver, rivalling the theatrical Louis Chiron, whose war in his native Monte Carlo had been relatively comfy.

Former champions Achille Varzi and Jean-Pierre Wimille would both die driving, in 1948–49, while pre-war bruiser Luigi Fagioli would also reappear, still elbows out, but much diminished by age.

The first race, post the war took place in Paris on September 9th 1945 and it was won by Jean-Pierre Wimille who roared down the Bois de Boulogne in a 1939 4.7 litres supercharged Bugatti.

In 1946 the International Association of Recognised Automobile Clubs became the Federation International de l’Automobile or FIA and decided to adopt Formula Libre for Grands Prix to enable pre-war racing cars of every description to race against each other.

The 1.5 Litres Supercharged & 4.5 Litres Un-Supercharged Era

In 1947 the FIA decreed that only cars of up to 1.5 litres supercharged and 4.5 litres un-supercharged would be eligible for Grand Prix events and so prepared the way for the first World Championship three years later.

The cars which dominated motor racing in the years immediately after the war were the 1.5 litre supercharged 158 Alfa Romeos which had been designed by Gioacchino Colombo. In 1938 they had been intended for Voiturette races but, after being hidden in a cheese factory for the duration, they emerged to take on the 4CL Maseratis, Talbots, Delahayes and British E.R.A.s on more than equal terms.

To begin with, there were the Alfa Romeos and E.R.A.s, dusted off after six years of enforced rest, and in 1952 the brief appearance of Hermann Lang in a 1939 Grand Prix Mercedes in Argentina.

Entirely new racing cars were being crafted in England, Italy and France in what was little more than a cottage industry and, also in the 1950s, Jaguar and Aston Martin echoed the epic victories of the ‘Bentley Boys’ at Le Mans.

By the end of the 1940s, motor racing had become firmly re-established in Europe, in spite of the absence of the great German teams and with no racing cars from England capable of competing on equal terms with the Italians.

The 1950s — The Golden Times For Motor Racing

The first post-war race to justify being called a “Grand Prix” was the Swiss Grand Prix which was held on June 8th 1947 at Berne. Spectators crowded along the grass verge at the side of the circuit, their toes often on the road itself, to watch the 158 Alfa Romeos of Jean-Pierre Wimille, Archille Varzi and Count Carlo Trossi claim the first three places in the Final.

The Alfas occupied the first four places in the European Grand Prix at Spa. Later on in the Lyons Grand Prix Louis Chiron, in absence of the Alfas was able to win the race in his 4.5 litres un-supercharged Lago Talbot. The Maseratis of Luigi Villoresi, Alberto Ascari and Baron Emmanuel de Graffenried all lost time during the race at Lyons through having to stop for fuel.

Alfa Romeo stayed away from the revived Monaco Grand Prix that year and the race was won by Giuseppe Farina in a Maserati from Louis Chiron’s Lago Talbot, a post-war French Simca Gordini finishing in fourth place.

The Alfa Romeos of Trossi and Wimille won the European Grand Prix, Varzi having been killed in practice before the race, and the Alfas took the first three places at Rheims.

Three entirely new 1.5 litres supercharged 12 cylinder Tipo 125 Ferraris made their debut in 1948 but, disappointingly, proved no match for the Alfa Romeos which, at the re-opened Monza circuit, took the first four places in the hands of Wimille, Trossi, Consalvo Sanesi, and Piero Taruffi.

The Alfas missed the Penya Rhin race in Spain and this allowed the honours to go to the 4CLT Maseratis of Luigi Villoresi and Reg Parnell. Both Brooklands and Donington Park had suffered as a result of being requisitioned for military purposes during the war and so the aerodrome circuit of Silverstone was chosen as the venue for the first British Grand Prix on 2nd October 1948.

Alfa Romeo stayed away, having no more to prove, and Bob Gerard came third in his beautifully prepared E.RA. to the 4CLT Maseratis of Luigi Villoresi and Alberto Ascari. Content to sit on its laurels, Alfa Romeo withdrew from motor racing altogether in 1949 and Juan Manuel Fangio won the San Remo Grand Prix in a 4CLT Maserati painted in the Argentinian colours of blue and yellow.

The Belgian Grand Prix at Spa proved to be Louis Rosier’s greatest win, driving his Lago Talbot, but it was Ferraris turn to receive the laurels next in Berne with Prince Bira and Villoresi leading Sommer’s Lago Talbot across the line.

The V12 1.5 litre supercharged Ferrari Tipo 125 had found reliability through the use of Vandervell Thinwall bearings, and this was to enable Tony Vandervell to buy green Ferraris with which to go motor racing.

Louis Chiron was the popular winner at Rheims in his Lago Talbot but Villoresi won the Dutch Grand Prix in an improved Ferrari with a two-stage supercharged engine and a longer wheelbase which improved its handling.

Then Ascari gave Enzo Ferrari the win that most mattered to him at Monza in the European Grand Prix. The second British Grand Prix, held again at Silverstone, went to Baron de Graffenried’s 4CLT Maserati with Bob Gerard’s E.R.A. second and Louis Rosier’s Lago Talbot third.

Though 1950 the inaugural World Championship comprised just six Grands Prix, plus the anachronistic Indy 500. Alfa Romeo won all six road races — Farina and new recruit Fangio three each — Farina becoming the champion.

Cars Dancing To The Tune Of The Tracks

The 4CLT Maserati looked exactly how a racing car ought to look and the big 4.5 litre Ferraris and Lago Talbots were mightily spectacular. H.W.M.s led the way from Britain to the Continental circuits, and in 1950 Raymond Mays struck a chord with the Britishers with the B.R.M. He intended it to be a world-beater and it certainly sounded like a winner, whenever it could be persuaded to fire on all 16 cylinders. The B.R.M. drew vast swathes of the British public to motor racing for the first time.

John Cooper’s little 500cc racers brought added interest and excitement to any race meeting and within ten years he produced the World Championship winning 2.5-litre Cooper-Climax. Such was the speed of change in Formula 1 in the course of the 1950s.

The 1950s also produced flights of fancy like the ‘Toothpaste Tube’ Connaught, and adventurous projects such as the transverse engined Bugatti. Space frames gave birth to the iconic 250F Maserati, the exciting D50 Lancia, the W196 Mercedes Benz, and the Vanwalls.

A works Aston Martin was actually driven along the public roads of England and France to compete at Le Mans. The astonishingly graceful XK 120 Jaguar of William Lyons gained instant success on the track and was followed in quick succession by the C Type and the D Type Jaguars.

The Monte Carlo Rally was an important annual event which really counted. It was often a battle against the elements with snow, ice and fog preventing many of the entrants from making it across the Alps to Monaco.

Ferrari and Maserati produced new cars annually, and the gull-winged 300SL Mercedes caused the motor racing world to draw its breath at Le Mans in 1952.

The Mille Miglia was the last of the great inter-city road races and it was justly considered to be the ultimate test of men and machines. There were many high points, such as the race-long duel between Juan Manuel Fangio’s Maserati and Mike Hawthorn’s Ferrari in the 1953 French Grand Prix; the epic victory of Tony Brooks in his Connaught at Syracuse in 1955; and that of Stirling Moss and Denis Jenkinson in the 1955 Mille Miglia.

With Alfa Romeo dominating motor races throughout Europe and Enzo Ferrari preparing to make a strong challenge, three ambitious projects were launched elsewhere in an effort to wrest from Italy its apparent stranglehold on motor racing.

The clinically named Type 360 was designed by Professor von Eberhorst and Dr Ferry Porsche, both of whom had been largely responsible for the D Type Auto Union. It was built by Cisitalia in Turin and its flat 12 1.5 litres supercharged engine was situated behind the driver. The car had a multi-tubular space frame and was years ahead of its time, but the project ran out of funds and it never actually raced.

In Britain Raymond Mays and Peter Berthon who, with Humphrey Cook had produced the E.R.A. before the war, set out to create a world-beating Grand Prix contender with their 1.5 litres supercharged 16 cylinders B.R.M.

If enthusiasm had been all that was required to achieve success the car would have been a winner and Mays persuaded 200 British firms to contribute to his project. The design was too ambitious and complex and when it had been developed to the point at which, in terms of sheer power and reliability, it might have achieved what its designer had intended, it was too late because the Grand Prix circus had moved on.

The Brave Young Drivers

In the years immediately after the war, racing cars were still operated by controls which any motorist would easily recognize today. Racing drivers were clearly visible in their open cockpits, often with only thin leather helmets to protect their heads.

National colours and large racing numbers made the cars and their drivers easy to identify as they sped past only yards away from where one stood.

The young British drivers such as Stirling Moss, Tony Brooks, Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins who, had they been born a few years earlier, might have flown Spitfires and Hurricanes in the Battle of Britain, but who instead faced perils which were real enough in their magnificent machines with which they all but flew around the most demanding of circuits. They were incredibly brave, fully knowing that the smallest error or mechanical defect could cost them their lives.

Sadly, Peter Collins was killed when his Dino Ferrari shot off the road at speed during the 1958 German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring, while Mike Hawthorn who, having retired from racing was still addicted to speed, died in the mangled wreckage of his 3.4-litre Jaguar on the Guildford bypass after showing Rob Walker’s 300SL Mercedes a clean pair of heels.

Peter Collins in Dino Ferrari — Peter Collins

Then there were the great Italian drivers like Alberto Ascari, Giuseppe Farina, Eugenio Castellotti and Luigi Musso, and the universally acknowledged Argentinian maestro Juan Manuel Fangio. They drove their fabulous cars on circuits that were lined by stout trees, unforgiving walls, and spectators who occasionally even ventured on to the course itself.

Each race could easily have proved to be their last, and too frequently was, as the danger was part of the thrill for them and the spectators alike.

The lowest point was the tragic accident at Le Mans in 1955 when Pierre Levegh’s 300SLR Mercedes, in avoiding Hawthorn’s D Type Jaguar, hit Lance Macklin’s Austin Healey and destroyed itself at the cost of eighty-two lives.

While the post-war era offered some great gladiatorial races with some fantastic partnerships of car manufactures and fearless drivers, many great racing drivers were to ultimately pay the highest price of losing their lives in their desire to re-ignite their passion for racing.

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