The 1000th Grand Prix, 14th April 2019

In Alfa Romeo, Featured Articles, Short Cuts by Jonathan Humphrey

Race number One Thousand is to be held on Sunday 14 April in China. Alfa Romeo were the winners of the first Grand Prix back on the 13th May 1950 and the first Grand Prix Championship.

With millions of fans worldwide, originally the championship was held exclusively on European circuits. Silverstone was the location for the race that many years ago and is still one of the most important tracks on the annual calendar.

At the inaugural race, Alfa Romeo raced four 158 single seaters. With cars piloted by Giuseppe “Nino” Farina, Juan Manuel Fangio, Luigi Fagioli and Reg Parnell. The last name being as a token of respect for the host country. With four places in the qualifiers, Alfa Romeo dominated the front row of the grid.

Alfa Romeo 158 legendary Grand Prix cars at that race delivered 350hp and touched a top speed of 290km/h. Nino Farina on that momentous 13 May took pole position, the fastest lap and the race.

By the end of the championship, the 158 had won six of the seven races, having deserted the Indianapolis 500 along with all of the European manufacturers. Alfa Romeo remained undefeated after the first race in the Silverstone GP, winning the first three places in the ranking. Nino Farina was the first champion of the newly formed Formula 1. Juan Manuel Fangio repeated the success the following year, with the 159 single-seater winning the world title again.

The “biscione” emblem is back and after continuous progress and eighth place in the team’s comeback season, this year the new “Alfa Romeo Racing” team will continue to bring the Alfa Romeo tradizione and Italian style, characteristic of the Alfa Romeo brand, to the highest levels of motorsport competition.

The “Alfa Romeo Racing” team is lining up Giovinazzi Antonio, the first Italian driver to regularly appear at the wheel of a Formula 1 for eight years, and 2007 World Champion Kimi Räikkönen, already scoring points in the first two races.

So the legend of the Quadrifoglio, the green cloverleaf emblem continues, since 1923 it has identified the highest performing Alfa Romeo models.

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Jonathan Humphrey

The man from Drive.co.uk

After many, many years of being passionate about cars, spending too much money on cars and too much time driving. I have now spend my time running and developing Drive.co.uk and creating a bold expressive new motoring lifestyle website.

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