Top 10 F1 cars of the 1950s
After the top 10 F1 drivers of each decade, it is only logical to move on to the top 10 F1 cars of each decade. Starting with the 1950s, it is a competitive field of Italian grandfathers, German technological advancements and British engineering feats
Autosport Retro
Telling the forgotten stories and unearthing the hidden gems from years gone by.
Autosport has already picked out the greatest Formula 1 drivers in each decade and we thought it was time that the cars took the spotlight.
For the first list in the series, we’ve selected the most successful and significant machines that appeared during the first decade of the world championship.
The main criteria is each car’s level of achievement, but we have also factored in innovation, the quality of the opposition, and their impact on grand prix racing.
And for those who like to look even further back than the 1950s, we’ve already selected the greatest pre-Second World War grand prix cars.
Note: Stats below are for world championship grands prix; non-championship successes are not included.
10. BRM P25
Bonnier on his way to the BRM P25's one and only F1 win
Photo by: Motorsport Images
Wins: 1
Poles: 1
Titles: 0
BRM had become something of a joke in the early 1950s. Its powerful 1.5-litre supercharged V16 had bags of potential but was too complicated and the world championship had switched to F2 regulations by the time it was working.
There were financial troubles too, and Alfred Owen bought the company. The P25 was BRM’s answer to the 2.5-litre unsupercharged F1 regulations, and the inline four-cylinder engine was far simpler than its predecessor.
The P25 also had disc brakes, but handling and reliability were problematic in the early days. Mike Hawthorn led the 1956 British GP on the car’s world championship debut but appearances were patchy and the P25 didn’t finish a round until the 1958 Monaco GP.
There were some non-championship successes, including a 1-2-3 at the 1957 BRDC International Trophy, and the efforts of Harry Schell and Jean Behra helped BRM to a distant fourth in the 1958 constructors’ title, but the real breakthrough came the following year.
By now, handling and reliability had improved. Following extensive testing at Zandvoort, Jo Bonnier took pole and won the Dutch GP. BRM generally lacked a top driver in 1959 and Cooper had started the rear-engined revolution, though Stirling Moss took his BRP-entered P25 to second at the British GP.
The P25 only scored that one points-paying success, but it laid the foundations for BRM’s title double in 1962. Its pace in historic competition also underlines its place as one of the fastest front-engined GP cars.
9. Ferrari 375
Gonzalez's 1951 British GP win in the Ferrari 375 began to halt the Alfa Romeo dominance
Photo by: Motorsport Images
Wins: 3
Poles: 3
Titles: 0
It didn’t win a championship, but the 4.5-litre V12 Ferrari 375 is significant. It ended the Alfa Romeo domination of grand prix racing and was the first Ferrari to win a world championship race.
Ferrari really started making progress across 1950-51 as it pursued the policy of a big normally aspirated engine to defeat the thirsty, supercharged Alfas. The Aurelio Lampredi design had scored a brace of 2-3s prior to the breakthrough at the 1951 British GP.
An inspired Jose Froilan Gonzalez took pole at Silvertone and outran the Alfas to get Ferrari off the mark. Alberto Ascari then took pole at the Nurburgring and battled Juan Manuel Fangio’s Alfetta in the race, the frugality of the Ferrari proving decisive.
Another Ascari win at Monza put the Italian in with a good chance of the world title and he took another pole for the Spanish GP finale. But Ferrari’s infamous gaffe of changing to smaller wheels ended his hopes and meant the 375 didn’t get the crown it deserved.
It’s worth noting that the 375 continued to set the pace in F1 races into 1952 and 1953 even as the world championship was run to F2 regulations.
8. Ferrari 246
A slow start ended in triumph as Hawthorn took the 1958 drivers' crown
Photo by: Motorsport Images
Wins: 5
Poles: 7
Titles: 1 (1958 drivers’)
Ferrari had gone winless in 1957, defeated by Maserati and Vanwall, and something new was needed. The V6-engined 246 was the answer, even if the 1958 season didn’t start brilliantly.
Rob Walker-run Coopers won the opening two GPs and Vanwall took the next two races, at Zandvoort and Spa. But Hawthorn kept his points tally ticking over and really hit his stride at Reims, leading all the way from pole and setting fastest lap at the French GP. Team-mates Peter Collins and Hawthorn then finished 1-2 at Silverstone, putting the latter into the lead of the drivers’ championship and Ferrari further ahead in the constructors’ race.
But tragedy had already struck the Ferrari team, Luigi Musso having been killed in the French GP, and things got worse in Germany. Chasing Tony Brooks’s Vanwall for the lead, Collins went off at the Nurburgring – right in front of friend Hawthorn – and died of his injuries after being thrown out.
A distraught Hawthorn battled on and, though there were no more Ferrari wins, three second places ensured he beat Moss to the drivers’ crown. Vanwall nevertheless defeated Ferrari in the constructors’ battle.
Hawthorn had been instrumental in getting disc brakes fitted to the 246 and the car continued to be developed into 1959, when Brooks joined as team leader. He added two more poles and a brace of victories to the car’s tally. With a little more luck, Brooks could have been champion but finished as runner-up to Cooper’s Jack Brabham.
The front-engined Ferrari was finally outclassed by the rear-engined revolution in 1960, though Phil Hill did win the Italian GP as the British teams boycotted the race due to the use of Monza’s banking. It was the last world championship success for a car with the engine in front of the driver.
7. Lancia D50
The Lancia D50 run by Ferrari became an instant hit
Photo by: Motorsport Images
Wins: 5
Poles: 8
Titles: 1 (1956 drivers’)
In some ways the Lancia D50 was the most exciting F1 design of the decade. Its V8 engine was a stressed element of the chassis and it had distinctive pannier fuel tanks to improve weight distribution.
Vittorio Jano’s car was late but took pole on its debut at the 1954 Spanish GP. Ascari then led until the clutch failed.
Ascari and the D50 should have provided strong competition to the Mercedes attack of Fangio and Moss in 1955. But Ascari was killed testing a Ferrari sportscar shortly after throwing a possible victory into the Monaco harbour and Lancia was in financial difficulties.
Eugenio Castellotti took a remarkable pole, ahead of Fangio and Moss, at Spa, but it wasn’t until the cars were handed over to Ferrari that success finally arrived. Aside from two Moss wins for Maserati, the Ferrari D50s won every championship GP in 1956 and Fangio took the drivers’ title.
Ferrari’s final evolution of the theme, the 801, was not a success. There were podiums but no wins in 1957 and the design was finally retired at season’s end.
6. Alfa Romeo 158/159
Farina, driving the 158 at the 1950 British GP, was a linchpin to Alfa's dominance in the early years of the decade
Photo by: Motorsport Images
Wins: 10
Poles: 10
Titles: 2 (1950-51 drivers’)
The ‘Alfetta’ is far more impressive than its world championship stats suggest. Gioacchino Colombo’s design was a successful Voiturette (very loosely equivalent to F2) before the Second World War. It was then the dominant GP car in the immediate post-war era, before F1 had even been created.
When the world championship for drivers began in 1950, the straight-eight, supercharged Alfa Romeo was still the car to beat. It finished 1-2-3 in the first points-paying race at Silverstone, while Fangio and Giuseppe Farina won every race between them (excluding the Indianapolis 500), with Farina becoming champion.
The much-developed final version of the car, the 159, produced around 420bhp but at the cost of horrendous fuel consumption. It still kept on winning – until Ferrari finally got things right with the 375 in the second half of 1951. Gonzalez’s British GP was the first Alfa defeat for five years.
Ascari won the next two rounds and probably should have won the title. But Ferrari’s catastrophic decision to change wheel sizes handed the race and crown to Fangio. Alfa Romeo thus ended on a high before withdrawing from F1.
The glorious-sounding Alfetta is a truly great racing car but can’t climb higher on our list for two main reasons. The first is that much of its success was scored prior to this ranking’s 1950-59 focus. And the second is that it faced little serious opposition aside from Ferrari, which ultimately saw it off.
5. Maserati 250F
Where to place the Maserati 250F in this list has been a hard task
Photo by: Motorsport Images
Wins: 8
Poles: 8
Titles: 1 (1957 drivers’)
Placing the 250F in this list is tough. On the one hand, it is regarded by many as the archetypal 1950s grand prix car, it was a mainstay of F1 grids and a beautifully balanced machine, and its stats put it in the top half of this list.
On the other hand, it was not technically innovative, was never dominant and only two drivers won world championship races in it: all-time greats Fangio and Moss.
Originally designed as a customer car, the 250F tasted success early thanks to Fangio’s wins in the 1954 Argentinian and Belgian GPs. But the Argentinian then switched to Mercedes and the 250F was not a match for the W196 – and was often beaten by Ferrari.
It was a similar story in 1955, Maserati scoring no wins, but constant developments, the withdrawal of Mercedes and the arrival of Moss improved things. Unreliability was a problem, but Moss managed two fine victories and split Ferrari drivers Fangio and Collins in the final championship standings.
Despite Maserati’s troubled financial state, it made a more organised effort in 1957 – and now had Fangio. He won the first three GPs before scoring his most famous victory at the fearsome Nurburgring, overhauling the Ferraris of Hawthorn and Collins after a slow pitstop. It meant the (now improved and lighter) 250F finally scored a title, but it was already struggling to contain the Vanwall challenge.
Maserati withdrew from running a factory assault for 1958 and, despite a lighter ‘piccolo’ model arriving, never won another world championship race.
It’s hard to argue that the 250F was ever the benchmark F1 car, certainly not in the way the Alfa Romeo 158/159 was, but it helped sustain grids and launched the careers of several drivers. Privateers continued to drive the car after 1957 and Bob Drake’s appearance in the 1960 United States GP meant the 250F was present at both the first and last race of the 2.5-litre era. Truly remarkable longevity.
4. Ferrari 500
A car that is not an F1 car on an F1 top 10!
Photo by: Michael Tee / LAT Images
Wins: 14
Poles: 13
Titles: 2 (1952-53 drivers’)
Yes, we know it’s not an F1 car. But the world championship was run to the two-litre unsupercharged F2 regulations across 1952-53, so we’ve decided it is eligible here.
Switching to F2 helped grids but it did nothing to stop the domination Ferrari would have enjoyed with the 375. Excluding the Indy 500s, which counted for the championship but ran to different rules, Ferrari won all but one of the points-paying GPs during the F2 era. Only Fangio avoiding chaos at the climax of the final round of 1953 at Monza, winning for Maserati, prevented a clean sweep.
Ascari dominated both seasons, taking 11 of the 15 GPs, with Piero Taruffi, Hawthorn and Farina scoring solo wins. Lampredi's four-cylinder design took 10 1-2s during the period and a 1-2-3-4 at the 1952 German GP.
The only things holding this car back in our list are a lack of innovation and, perhaps more importantly, relatively weak opposition. Aside from Maserati, which didn’t have Fangio’s services in 1952 thanks to a serious accident, Ferrari faced the under-funded Gordini operation and a string of privateers.
3. Vanwall
The Vanwall broke a run of Italian dominance
Photo by: Motorsport Images
Wins: 9
Poles: 7
Titles: 1 (1958 constructors’)
The teardrop-shaped, Frank Costin-designed Vanwall, with chassis work by Colin Chapman, arrived in 1956. It showed flashes of performance but wasn’t always reliable. By 1957, the car had been refined and had top-line drivers ready to take on the dominant Italian teams.
Moss was the only driver other than Maserati’s Fangio to win a world championship GP that season. He famously won the British GP after taking over Tony Brooks’s car to break Vanwall’s duck, then added victories on the epic Pescara road circuit and at Monza.
The Vanwall wasn’t the easiest car to drive but it was fast, scoring five poles and six wins from the nine GPs it started in 1958. That was enough for Tony Vandervell’s team to beat Ferrari to the inaugural constructors’ title, even though solo winner Hawthorn pipped four-time winner Moss to the drivers’ laurels.
Mission accomplished – and rocked by the death of driver Stuart Lewis-Evans in the season-ending Moroccan GP – Vandervell announced Vanwall’s withdrawal ahead of the 1959 campaign. But it had broken the Italian stranglehold on F1.
2. Cooper T51
The Cooper T51 turned the tide for rear-engined cars
Photo by: Motorsport Images
Wins: 6
Poles: 6
Titles: 2 (1959 drivers’ and constructors’)
Auto Union had won races with rear-engined GP cars before the Second World War and the subsequent Cooper T53 of 1960 drove the point home, but it was Owen Maddock’s T51 that really got the revolution going.
Cooper had been building cars with the engine behind the driver throughout the 1950s and the T43 and T45 had each won a race in 1958, setting the scene for the tide to turn. The T51 of 1959 combined the usual Cooper qualities of lightweight and fine handling with a reasonably powerful 2.5-litre Coventry Climax engine.
Moss took pole and was running away with the Monaco GP season opener with his Rob Walker-run example before the transmission failed, handing a first victory to Jack Brabham in the works car.
The Colotti gearbox in Moss’s car proved to be an Achilles’ heel, but the modified Citroen units in the factory Coopers were reliable. Brabham’s transmission broke at the German GP and he was involved in an accident in Portugal but he finished every other round.
A second at Zandvoort and third place at high-speed Reims, behind the powerful Ferraris, preceded Brabham’s second GP win at Aintree. That put the Australian in command of the championship, while Moss brought himself into contention with wins in Portugal and Italy.
Brabham, Moss and Ferrari’s Brooks went to the US GP finale with a chance of the crown. Moss led before his transmission failed again, while Brooks could only manage a delayed third.
Brabham therefore became world champion despite running out of fuel, while Bruce McLaren took victory, becoming the third driver to win a GP in the T51. Cooper also beat Ferrari in the constructors’ championship.
Despite McLaren’s victory in the 1960 opener in Argentina, Colin Chapman’s Lotus 18 forced the introduction of the T53 and F1 moved on, but the T51 had already earned its place in motorsport history.
1. Mercedes W196
The W196 was technologically years ahead of the competition
Photo by: LAT Photographic
Wins: 9
Poles: 8
Titles: 2 (1954-55 drivers’)
The W196 could be regarded as the first great F1 car. The Alfa Romeo 158/159 was really a pre-F1 design, and it was the 2.5-litre unsupercharged regulations that arrived for 1954 that really helped establish the world championship.
Rudolf Uhlenhaut’s W196 had mechanical fuel injection and desmodromic valves to allow high revving. It was also reliable for the period and the whole Mercedes operation and preparation was leagues clear of the opposition when the Silver Arrows returned to GP competition.
Fangio and Karl Kling scored a 1-2, a lap clear of the field, on the W196’s debut at the 1954 French GP. That was with streamlined, sportscar-style bodywork, but when Fangio expressed a desire to see the front wheels – and was a well-beaten fourth in the British GP – Mercedes brought out the open-wheeler.
It wasn’t the prettiest of F1 cars, but it won in Germany and Switzerland before Fangio used the streamliner to take victory at high-speed Monza. Four wins – plus two scored in Maserati 250Fs before Mercedes arrived – easily gave Fangio the world title.
Contemporary reports suggested Mercedes looked potentially vulnerable if Fangio ever hit trouble. The team put that right for 1955 by signing rising British star Moss (though it’s worth pointing out that Fangio only ever suffered one retirement in a W196 anyway!). That looked like an overwhelming combination even before Lancia lost Ascari.
Mercedes scored four 1-2s from the six points-paying GPs in a truncated season due to the Le Mans disaster, which would lead to the team’s motorsport withdrawal at the end of the year. The British GP at Aintree was perhaps the W196’s finest hour. The four Silver Arrows qualified 1-2-4-5 and finished 1-2-3-4. The best Maserati, in fifth, was more than a lap behind winner Moss…
The W196’s final tally was nine wins from 12 world championship starts (plus victory in the non-championship 1955 Buenos Aires GP with a three-litre sportscar engine!). Mercedes had set new standards in F1 and it arguably took several seasons before anyone got to that level after the team left.
Mercedes truly set the standard in the 1950s
Photo by: Ullstein Bild via Getty Images
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