F1 GP 1950s Trivia

1. With Juan Manuel Fangio, the 1957 champion, retired, and the 1958 champion Mike Hawthorn killed in a road accident in January 1959, an Australian driver took the title. Who was the 1959 Formula One World Champion?

From Quiz F1 Seasons: 1959

Answer: Jack Brabham

Brabham became Champion, benefiting from a fast and reliable car. Brooks (a British driver) was second in the Championship, 4 points back. Hill (an American driver) was fourth, 11 points back and McLaren (a New Zealander) was sixth, 14½ points adrift.

From Quiz F1 Seasons: 1958

Answer: Mike Hawthorn

The 1958 Drivers Championship was dominated by British drivers: Hawthorn (42 points), Moss (41), Brooks (24), Salvadori (15) and Peter Collins (14) occupied the first five places in the table. The five titles for Fangio were 1951 and 1954-55-56-57.

From Quiz F1 Seasons: 1957

Answer: Juan Manuel Fangio

1957 was Fangio's last World Championship. He won it with a 15 point advantage over Moss. Musso was third, 24 points back, and Hawthorn finished fourth, 27 points adrift.

From Quiz F1 Seasons: 1956

Answer: Juan Manuel Fangio

Fangio won his third Championship in a row, finishing 3 points ahead of Moss. Behra was fourth, 8 points back, while Castellotti was only sixth, 22,5 points adrift.

From Quiz F1 Seasons: 1955

Answer: Juan Manuel Fangio

Fangio won his third Championship (and his second in a row) with 40 points; Moss was second, 16½ points back. Farina and Ascari, both previous champions, didn't fare well in the 1955 season: Farina was only fifth in the Championship (28 points behind Fangio) and Ascari didn't score a single point.

From Quiz F1 Seasons: 1954

Answer: Juan Manuel Fangio

Fangio took his second World Championship ahead of González. Farina was far from his best, finishing only eighth in the table, while defending Champion Ascari drove for three different teams and finished only 25th.

From Quiz F1 Seasons: 1953

Answer: Alberto Ascari

Ascari had back-to-back wins in the 1952 and 1953 World Championships. In 1953, he was followed by Fangio (6½ points back), fully recovered from injuries suffered early in 1952. Farina was third in the Championship, 8½ points behind Ascari and Hawthorn was fourth, 15½ points adrift.

From Quiz F1 Seasons: 1952

Answer: Alberto Ascari

Ascari easily won the World Championship, 12 points ahead of Farina. Taruffi was third, 14 points back and Fischer, a Swiss driver, was fourth, 26 points behind Ascari.

From Quiz F1 Seasons: 1951

Answer: Juan Manuel Fangio

Fangio lost the 1950 World Championship to Farina by just 3 points, but he secured it in 1951, with a 6 points advantage over Ascari, an Italian driver. González finished third, 7 points behind Fangio and 5 ahead of Farina (Italian, like Ascari), who was only fourth.

From Quiz F1 Seasons: 1950

Answer: Giuseppe Farina

Farina became the World Champion after winning the last Grand Prix of the season (the Italian GP), beating Fangio by 3 points in the Championship. Fagioli was third in the Championship, 6 points behind Farina. Ascari, a future World Champion, didn't have a good season and was only fifth in the Championship, 19 points behind the World Champion.

From Quiz Formula One Madness: The 1950s

Answer: Alfa Romeo

Alfa Romeo won all but one of the seven races in the inugural Formula One season. The reason for that was they, like, the other big name teams, did not turn up for the Indianapolis 500. It was left to Californian Johnny Parsons to claim victory. Ferrari and Talbot-Lago, in the form of Alberto Ascari and Louis Rosier provided Alfa Romeo with some competition, but they simply could not keep up with the domineering Alfas. Lancia did not enter Formula One until 1954.

From Quiz 1950s Formula One Grand Prix

Answer: 0 points

The rules for Formula One in the 1950s were vastly different. The winner received 8 points, 2nd place got 6 points, 3rd got 4 points, 4th got 3 points, 5th place got 2 points, while the driver who set the fastest lap got 1 point. The 6th place finisher just got the pleasure in finishing sixth.

From Quiz F1 Seasons: 1959

Answer: Cooper

Cooper, led by Jack Brabham, took the 1959 title, 8 points ahead of Ferrari (led by Tony Brooks), becoming the first rear-engined car to win a Championship. BRM (British Racing Motors) was third, led by Jo Bonnier, while Lotus finished fourth. After winning the 1958 Championship, Vanwall retired from full-time F1 racing and entered only the British GP, where Tony Brooks retired.

From Quiz F1 Seasons: 1958

Answer: Vanwall

Vanwall, led by Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks, won the first Constructors Championship, eight points ahead of Ferrari, Mike Hawthorn's team. Roy Salvadori was Cooper's best placed driver in the Championship (fourth), while BRM (British Racing Motors) was led by Harry Schell (sixth in the Championship). Had there been a Constructors World Championship in the previous season with the same scoring system, Ferrari would have won it 3 times (1952, 1953 and 1956), Alfa Romeo would have won the first two (1950 and 1951), Mercedes would take the title in 1954 and 1955 and Maserati in 1957.

From Quiz F1 Seasons: 1957

Answer: Maserati

Fangio left Ferrari after only a season and returned to Maserati. Having lost Fangio, Ferrari's best placed driver was Luigi Musso, third in the Championship table. Vanwall's lead driver was Stirling Moss, second in the Championship, while Connaught scored a fourth place in their last Grand Prix (in Monaco), by Stuart Lewis-Evans, who then moved to Vanwall.

From Quiz F1 Seasons: 1956

Answer: Ferrari

The Mercedes team retired from motorsports after a huge accident at the 1955 Le Mans 24 Hours, that killed their driver Pierre Levegh, as well as 83 spectators. The reigning Champion, Juan Manuel Fangio, moved to Ferrari and won the Championship again. Mercedes' retirement meant Stirling Moss also had to find a new home, which he did at Maserati, where he was the best placed driver in the Championship (second). Connaught had their best driver in Jack Fairman (tenth in the table), while Vanwall's best result was Harry Schell's fourth place in the Belgian GP (he was fifteenth in the table).

From Quiz F1 Seasons: 1955

Answer: Mercedes

Both Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss drove for Mercedes. Ferrari didn't stand a chance in the Championship and Maurice Tritignant was their best driver (third in the table, 27 point behind Fangio). Lancia had a good car-driver combination in Alberto Ascari's D50, but the Italian died early in the season, so Eugenio Castellotti had their best result (second in the Monaco GP). Lancia would retire shortly after Ascari's death and Castellotti moved to Ferrari, where he added a third and a fifth place, finishing fourth in the Championship, a point behind Trintignant. Maserati were well behind the best teams and their best driver in the Championship was Roberto Mieres (eighth with 7 points).

From Quiz F1 Seasons: 1953

Answer: Maserati

Fangio returned to F1 with Maserati. A Ferrari team headed by Ascari was Maserati's biggest rival in 1953. Gordini were a French team. Maurice Trintingnant was their best driver in the Championship, finishing twelfth. Milano were cellar-dwellers in the championship. Prince Bira achieved their best result (eleventh in the Italian GP).

From Quiz F1 Seasons: 1952

Answer: Ferrari

After Alfa Romeo's retirement, Ferrari had a virtual walkover in the Drivers Championship, with three drivers from the works team (Ascari, Farina and Taruffi) finishing ahead of Rudi Fischer, driving a Ferrari entered by the privateer Espadon team. Cooper had its best placed driver in Mike Hawthorn (driving for the Leslie Hawthorn team), fifth in the Championship, while the Gordini team was lead by Robert Manzon, sixth in the table. José Froilán González had moved from Ferrari to Maserati and was their best driver in the Championship, finishing ninth.

From Quiz F1 Seasons: 1951

Answer: Alfa Romeo

Juan Manuel Fangio drove for Alfa Romeo in 1951, as he had done the previous season. The team was not so dominant, though, as they had 4 wins, to Ferrari's 3. Talbot-Lago's best was a fourth place (Louis Rosier, a privateer, was their best driver, finishing twelfth in the World Championship) and Maserati was not the top team they would be in the future, as none of their cars finished in a point scoring position in 1951.

From Quiz F1 Seasons: 1950

Answer: Alfa Romeo

Alfa Romeo drivers dominated the season, winning every race, pole position and fastest lap that year (except in the Indianapolis 500). Ferrari's best placed driver was Ascari (fifth in the Championship), while Maserati's best driver was the Thai Prince Birabongse Bhanubandh (known simply as Prince Bira), that finished eight, driving for the privateer team of Enrico Platé. Talbot-Lago was a French constructor and their star driver was Louis Rosier, who finished fourth in the Championship.

From Quiz Formula One Madness: The 1950s

Answer: BRM

Despite not making it to practice on their debut, BRM were allowed to start the race from the back of the grid. Reg Parnell and Peter Walker were the first drivers.

From Quiz 1950s Formula One Grand Prix

Answer: Italy

Italy dominated the first season of the new Formula One World Championship. Farina won three races and won the World Championship, while Alfa Romeo won all six European races (except the Indianapolis 500 which was part of the Championship but never seriously contested by any European drivers).

From Quiz Nurburgring 1957: Fangio's Masterpiece

Answer: Maserati 250F

The Maserati 250F was also the car who took Fangio to his second World Championship in 1954.

From Quiz F1 Seasons: 1959

Answer: Jo Bonnier

Bonnier's win in the Dutch GP was also his first (and only) win in the World Championship. Schell and Flockhart were his teammates in the BRM works team. Moss drove a BRM for the privateer British Racing Partnership team, but only in France and Britain. World Champion Brabham had two wins (Monaco and Great Britain), as did Tony Brooks, in his Ferrari (in France and Germany) and Stirling Moss, in a Rob Walker Cooper (in Portugal and Italy). Brabham's teammate at Cooper, Bruce McLaren, won the first United States GP and Rodger Ward (in a Leader Cards Inc. Watson-Offenhauser) took the Indianapolis 500.

From Quiz F1 Seasons: 1958

Answer: Stirling Moss

Moss was a Vanwall driver, but the team's cars weren't ready for the first Grand Prix of the season, so he was allowed to race for Rob Walker. The second race of the season, the Monaco GP, was also won by a Rob Walker Cooper, driven by the team's full time driver Trintignant. Salvadori and Brabham raced for the Cooper works team, with no wins this season. World Champion Mike Hawthorn had just one win (the French GP), but was more regular than the Vanwall drivers, Moss (who, aside from the Argentine GP, won in Holland, Portugal and Morocco) and Brooks (who won in Belgium, Germany and Italy). Peter Collins had Ferrari's other win, in the British GP, while Jimmy Bryan, in a George Salih entered Epperly-Offenhauser took the Indianapolis 500.

From Quiz F1 Seasons: 1957

Answer: Tony Brooks

Brooks was running second behind Jean Behra's Maserati when he was called into the pits to hand over his car to his team leader Moss (who was leading before he retired). Moss would also win in the Pescara GP and the Italian GP. The other wins went to Juan Manuel Fangio (in Argentina, Monaco, France and Germany) and Sam Hanks, who, in an Epperly-Offenhauser, entered by George Salih, won the Indianapolis 500. Salvadori and Lewis-Evans were Vanwall's other drivers, although Salvadori also drove for BRM and Cooper in this season, while Lewis-Evans drove for Connaught before moving to Vanwall. In 1957, Hawthorn was driving for Ferrari.

From Quiz F1 Seasons: 1956

Answer: Luigi Musso

Musso, Fangio's teammate at Ferrari, started the race third on the grid, but handed his car to Ferrari's team leader after 30 of the 98 laps of the Grand Prix. Fangio would win two more races in the season, in Britain and Germany. Collins, Fangio's British teammate at Ferrari, won the Belgian and French races, while Moss, driving for Maserati, won in Monaco and Italy. The Indianapolis 500 glory would go to Pat Flaherty's Watson-Offenhauser, entered by John Zink. Castellotti (also a Ferrari driver) and Villoresi (who drove for Maserati and two privateer teams) had no wins in 1956.

From Quiz F1 Seasons: 1955

Answer: Maurice Trintignant

Trintignant had Ferrari's only win in 1955. All the other wins went to Mercedes: Fangio won in Argentina, Belgium, Holland and Italy, while Moss (a British driver) had his first win in the British GP. Bob Sweikert, in the John Zink entered Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser won the Indianapolis 500. Behra and Rosier had no wins in 1955.

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