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It wasn't always Formula 1, you know - and nor, for that matter, was it always the FIA. Close on a century ago, in 1922, the AIACR - Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus - formed an international commission to look after motor racing, and it came up with something called 'The Grand Prix Formula'. Not until 1947 was the AIACR reconstituted and renamed the FIA, at which point 'Formula 1' came into existence.
This Grand Prix Formula required only a slender rulebook, the stuff of dreams for people like Colin Chapman and Gordon Murray and Adrian Newey. Fundamentally teams competing at racing's highest level could build pretty much what they liked, but in 1934 a new rule called for a maximum weight limit of 750kg - indeed, this period, which lasted until the end of '37, became known as 'the 750kg formula'.
Going into the 1937 season Mercedes, in its ongoing fight with Auto Union, introduced the W125, whose supercharged 5.6-litre straight-eight engine produced around 600bhp, a startling figure for the time. Look at photographs of the car, of Rudolf Caracciola and Manfred von Brauchitsch scrapping at Monaco, and a big heavy beast it appears.
