As F1 celebrates its 75th anniversary next year, we look back at one of the cars that started it all: 1950’s championship winning Alfa Romeo 158.
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It was a very different time for Formula 1 in its debut season. The world of organised Grand Prix racing was few and far between. That is, until the FIA decided to coin the term Formula 1 in 1946 (due to the standardisation of rules, or a Formula) and create the World Championship for Drivers in 1950, the first ever F1 season.
It featured only seven races and looked very different from the motorsport we know and love now. There was a camaraderie between the drivers and spectators, as they knew that one wrong move could cause certain death. The drivers would often come out of their cars with oil splattered over their faces, beaming with patriotism as motor racing was a source of national pride.
Quickly, it was the Alfa Romeos that were the ones to beat.
The Alfa Romeo 158’s design
Inside and out, the car was pure post-war race car. Powered by a huge 1.5 litre supercharged straight-8, producing 350 horsepower at 7,200 rpm, it seems slow by today’s standards. While it dominated the Formula 1 scene in 1950, it was the development of a 13-year-old design from 1937.
The brainchild of Gioacchino Colombo, the car was known as ‘Alfetta’ – meaning Little Alfa – due to its proportions. Even before World War II, Alfa Romeo were the fastest on track, but with the outbreak of the war, their streak was ended. Knowing the cars’ potential, mechanics hid them under wood piles during Nazi raids.
Made from steel-reinforced aluminium (all hand made), the car weighed only 700kg, giving it a theoretical top speed of 180mph. This, paired with drum brakes and no seatbelts, took guts to drive. The Alfa Romeo 158 featured double-wishbone suspension and had its 4-speed manual transmission built into the rear axle for better weight distribution, something modern race cars still do.
What modern cars don’t have are differential-locks for better turning and a manual handbrake, both of which the Alfa had!
Painted in iconic Italian Red and bearing the Quadrofoglio (four leaf clover), it looked completely different from today’s F1 cars.
Who drove the Alfa Romeo 158?
Three legends of the sport got to drive the car in anger.
Giuseppe ‘Nino’ Farina, from Italy, was Formula 1’s first champion in the 158 and enjoyed huge acclaim for his stints with Alfa Romeo and Ferrari.
Argentina’s Juan Manuel Fangio was the sport’s next champion in 1951 driving an evolution of the Alfa Romeo 158, the 159. One of the greatest drivers ever in the sport, he amassed five world championships and still holds the record for the highest pole percentage, a staggering 55.77%.
Luigi Fagioli only stayed in Formula 1 for one season after a spat with Enzo Ferrari in 1952. Even with his short tenure, he’s one of Italy’s legendary drivers, dying tragically in a practice session in a 1952 sports car race. He came close to beating Farina for the first ever title.
Why is it iconic?
Put simply, it’s the first car to achieve F1 legendary status. It won six out of the seven races it was entered in, finishing the first ever F1 race at Silverstone 2 laps ahead of its nearest rival.
It’s also a testament to how great design lasts, with the first derivative being manufactured in 1937. It’s something we would never see in modern motorsport. Although it looks completely different from modern cars, some design elements carry over.
Features such as the forced induction (supercharger) and equal weight distribution are modern F1 design philosophies.
While the 159 in 1951, did not achieve the same success, it still took Juan Manuel Fangio to the driver’s championship. That car featured 420 horsepower and was marginally faster, but it still used most of its parts from the 158. The cars combined won 47 races out of the 55 entered.
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