Before there was a World Championship, there was Grand Prix racing: town-to-town trials, board circuits, state-funded Silver Arrows, and the engineering lineage — twin cams, superchargers, mid-engines — that Formula 1 inherited. Graham and Theo trace the full arc from the 1894 Paris-Rouen to the CSI’s announcement of the 1950 World Championship of Drivers.

In this episode:

  • The 1894 Paris-Rouen trial, the Gordon Bennett Cup, and the birth of national racing colours
  • 1903 Paris-Madrid and the move to closed circuits; the first Grand Prix at Le Mans, 1906
  • Peugeot’s 1912 twin-cam L76 — the ancestor of the modern racing engine
  • Supercharging, riding mechanics, and the 1920s greats: Nuvolari vs. Varzi
  • The 750 kg formula’s backfire and the birth of the Silver Arrows at the 1934 Eifelrennen
  • Mercedes vs. Auto Union: the W125’s 595 bhp, streamliners at 160 mph, Rosemeyer’s death
  • The Alfa Romeo 158’s origins, hidden from the Wehrmacht — the car that would define F1’s first years
  • Post-war rebirth: the CSI names Formula 1 (1946), Wimille’s dominance, and the road to Silverstone 1950

Key names & terms: Tazio Nuvolari, Achille Varzi, Rudolf Caracciola, Bernd Rosemeyer, Richard Seaman, Jean-Pierre Wimille, Ferdinand Porsche, Ernest Henry; AIACR, CSI, voiturette, Silver Arrows, desmodromic valves, De Dion suspension, Brooklands, AVUS, Bremgarten.