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F1's 70 greatest influencers: the 1950s

Formula 1 celebrates 70 years of the world championship in 2020 and GP RACING is paying its own respects with a multi-part homage to 70 of the most special people who made these decades of grand prix racing so memorable. First, RICHARD WILLIAMS looks at the pioneers of the 1950s

When the engine of grand prix racing was fired up again after the Second World War, the governing body reverted to a formula that it had intended to bring into effect in 1940. Designers were presented with a choice of engine configurations: 1.5 litres supercharged or 4.5 litres unsupercharged.

At the time of its conception, the idea was to sabotage the supremacy of the state-sponsored German teams, Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union, whose all-conquering cars had been designed to meet regulations permitting supercharged three-litre engines. But for the one grand prix run under the new formula in 1939, the lucrative Tripoli race, Mercedes had ambushed the Italians, designing and constructing a couple of 1.5-litre cars in double-quick time, their speed in a crushing victory dismaying the Alfa Romeo and Maserati outfits, in particular.

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