Review of 1950 season
The first Formula 1 World Championship was the benefit of the Alfa Romeo team, whose drivers won all the races of the season, leaving no chance for competitors. Looking ahead, we can say that such seasons in Formula 1 were very rare and they can be counted on the fingers of one hand. At the same time, Farina and Fangio, who drove for the Italian team, were both worthy of the championship title: each won three races and made one mistake: the Argentine – in Great Britain, the Italian – in Monaco. But Farina was a little more lucky and in the end it was he who became the champion. The third driver of the team Fagioli could not keep up with his younger teammates, and the fact that he remained a contender for the title until the last race of the season can already be considered an achievement.
The second strongest team in the championship was definitely Ferrari, although its cars could not compete with Alfa Romeo. Only in the last race of the season, Alberto Ascari at the wheel of the new Ferrari 375 could compete for victory, but engine overheating deprived him of such an opportunity. In general, reliability problems have greatly affected the results of Ferrari this season, and this was especially true of Luigi Villoresi, who performed at Ascari's level, but in the end did not score points.
The cars of the Talbot team were inferior in speed to Ferrari, but they were more reliable and allowed them to drive the entire distance without refueling, which allowed Louis Rosier to become 4th in the world championship after three Alfa Romeos and ahead of Ascari in a Ferrari. But the French Grand Prix showed that in high temperature conditions Talbot-Lago have critical cooling problems, which the team was unable to solve. As a result, after the fiasco on its native land, Talbot decided to abandon further participation in Formula 1, and its victory over Ferrari turned out to be "pyrrhic".
The Maserati team failed the season, you can't say otherwise. The cars of the Italian team suffered from both a lack of speed and reliability. The only bright moment for the whole season was the Monaco Grand Prix, in which Louis Chiron, thanks to a massive blockage, managed to get on the podium. As a result, the team management made the right conclusions and decided to skip the next season, focusing on the development of a new car.
The private Enrico Plate team using Maserati cars performed even better than the factory team, and its colorful racer Prince Bira took 6th place in the championship, finishing twice in points. But in general, the problems of the private team were the same as those of the factory: the cars lacked speed and reliability.
For the last factory team, Equipe Gordini, the season has become ambiguous. The team's drivers were able to take part in only three Grands Prix: in Monaco both cars were smashed during a massive collision, in hot France Manzon was one of the few who managed to avoid overheating problems and reach the finish line in 4th place, and in Italy both cars performed well in qualifying, but fell victim to technical malfunctions at the very beginning of the race. And even despite the fact that Simca-Gordini cars were much inferior in power to competitors and more suitable for Formula 2 races, the head of the company Amadeus Gordini considered it appropriate to continue participating in Formula 1.
And, unfortunately, 1950 was not without tragedies. French driver Raymond Sommer died at the end of the year in a minor subcompact car race in Cadur. In the Formula 1 races of 1950, he was noted for his excellent performance in the Belgian Grand Prix and clearly surpassed his colleagues in Talbot-Lago in speed, so it is no exaggeration to say that with his death, France lost its best driver of that period.
Alternative driver standings
Alternative team standings
