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Formula 1 1951

After their domination of the 1950 series, Alfa Corse squeezed what little development was possible from their 158 design for 1951. Ferrari, however, were now fully competitive with their new 375 and won in Britain, Germany and Italy, almost beating Juan Manuel Fangio's Alfetta to the drivers' title. These two were the only competive teams, only Talbot-Lago and BRM also scoring points in World Championship races. Without the financial backing they needed for a new car, Alfa Romeo dropped out after this season and the World Championship had to be held for F2 cars in 1952 and 1953.

The 20 most significant F1 races of the 1951 season are shown below together with three of the main libre races of the year. The World Championship expanded to seven events with the addition of the German and Spanish GPs but with the Monaco GP dropping out. These events are shown in bold.

The races

11 Mar 1951 > Gran Premio di Syracusa at Siracusa

26 Mar 1951 > Grand Prix de Pau

26 Mar 1951 > Richmond Trophy at Goodwood

22 Apr 1951 > Gran Premio di San Remo at Autodromo di Ospedaletti

29 Apr 1951 > Grand Prix de Bordeaux

05 May 1951 > International Trophy at Silverstone

14 May 1951 > Festival of Britain Trophy Race at Goodwood (libre)

20 May 1951 > Grand Prix de Paris at Bois de Boulogne

27 May 1951 > Swiss Grand Prix at Bremgarten

02 Jun 1951 > Ulster Trophy at Dundrod

17 Jun 1951 > Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps

01 Jul 1951 > Grand Prix de l'ACF (French Grand Prix) at Reims

14 Jul 1951 > British Grand Prix at Silverstone

21 Jul 1951 > Kenning Trophy at Gamston Airfield (libre)

22 Jul 1951 > Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort

29 Jul 1951 > German Grand Prix at Nürburgring

05 Aug 1951 > Grand Prix d'Albi

11 Aug 1951 > Daily Mail Trophy Race at Boreham (libre)

15 Aug 1951 > Gran Premio di Pescara

02 Sep 1951 > Gran Premio di Bari

16 Sep 1951 > Italian Grand Prix at Monza

29 Sep 1951 > Goodwood Trophy

28 Oct 1951 > Spanish Grand Prix at Pedralbes

World Drivers' Championship events shown in bold

Previous: the 1950 F1 season

Next: the 1952 F1 season

1949-1953 F1 seasons

David McKinney

This area of ORC is dedicated to the memory of David McKinney (8 April 1945 - 25 February 2014) who was a great friend to OldRacingCars.com and one of its key contributors. Together with Adam Ferrington, David researched this area with his usual rigour and compiled the definitive race history of these seasons. David is best known for his expertise on the Maserati 250F and for his peerless knowledge of motor racing in his native New Zealand but the range of his knowledge was vast, matched only by the generosity with which he shared his knowledge. He is greatly missed.

The research

Researching F1 in this early period is very different to researching the 1960s and 1970s. Before the late 1960s, there were no neat tables of chassis numbers available as a start point in contemporary publications and it was quite common for even the model of the car to go unmentioned in a report. Although Ferrari, Gordini, Maserati and Talbot-Lago numbered their cars in a reasonably consistent fashion, HWM, Alta and others did not and Alfa Romeo numbered frames and engines separately, assembling a car as required for each race and only labelling it with the entry number for that race.

However, we have the advantage that no two cars were ever identical - no two Ferraris are quite the same and Maserati 4CLTs and HWMs each have features that are unique to them. A trained eye can spot these differences in contemporary pictures and construct a race history for each car. The other major resource we have for this period is Denis Jenkinson's Racing Car Review, in which he covered each team in considerable detail, often giving important clues to individual car identities.

We also have the advantage of the excellent work of the historians who have gone before us. The F1 Register's A Record of Grand Prix and Voiturette Racing Volume 5 covers the 1950 and 1951 seasons and has been the primary source for race results. Also of enormous help were Talbot-Lago de Course by Pierre Abeillon, Les Gordini by Robert Jarraud, Gordini – Un Sorcier, Une Equipe by Christian Huet and The History of English Racing Automobiles by David Weguelin.

The F1 results used here were initially compiled by Rob Ryder from a range of sources including Autocourse, Autosport and the F1 Register book mentioned above. The three additonal libre races were added by David McKinney. Individual car identities were then meticulously checked and corrected by Adam Ferrington using his own enormous library of books and photographs. David has also contributed extensively from his notes on car identities compiled over 40 years of research, Michael Müller has contributed immaculately researched histories of all the 1948-1950 Ferrari 125s, and Doug Nye, both through his books and his personal assistance on HWM, has also been of great help.

Since David's sad death, Adam and Allen have agreed that these pages will remain unaltered from now on, as a lasting testimony to David's expertise.