History of Formula One Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1, and officially referred to as the FI A Formula One

World is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The "formula" in the designation refers to a set of regulations with which all p articipants' cars must comply. It is almost certainly the most vastly watched te levised spectator sport in the world after football. Formula One can be seen live or tape delayed in almost each country and territor y around the world and attracts one of the largest global television audiences. The 2008 season attracted a global audience of 600 million people per race. It is a enormous TV event; the cumulative TV audience was calculated to be 54 bi llion for the 2001 season, transmitted to two hundred countries. This is a long way indeed from its first beginnings. The very first Formula One World Championship Motor race took place at Silverstone in the United Kingdom in 1950 . In those initial days, teams who no longer compete on the contemporary F 1 circuit dominated proceedings with the very first World Championship being won by Italian Giuseppe Farina in an Alfa Romeo. His team mate, the legendary Juan Fangio, won the title almost continuously unti l 1957 and, in fact, his record of five World Championship wins held until 2003 when Michael Schumacher won his sixth title. It was during this period that almost certainly the greatest driver never to win the World Championship was contending - the U.K. s Stirling Moss. One team that did contend in those early years was Ferrari, or Scuderia Ferrari to give the team its full title, whose prancing horse logo is followed by the re d shirted fans or tifosi around the world. In fact, over the last few years the sp ort has been dominated by Ferrari who until recently has been one of the few tea ms to manufacture the complete car, engine and all. However the U.K. team of Maclaren, using engines from Mercedes Benz, have proved extremely successful. A different very successful team during the 2010 season p roved to be Red Bull racing using engines supplied by Renault. It is interesting to note that in the cases of both Maclaren and Red Bull, they have proved far more successful than the teams fielded by their engine suppliers , Mercedes and Renault. This almost certainly goes a long way to supporting the argument that it is the aerodynamic characteristics of the car that win races. After a number of years in which we have seen the number of teams has remained q uite stationary or even declined, 2010 saw a resurgence in the number of cars on the grid with new entries from Lotus, Virgin Racing, and Hispania Racing bringi ng the number of starters to 24. The calendar of races is also in a constant state of change with Korea joining f or the 2010 season and India being added in 2011 as Formula 1 becomes more and m ore a world- wide spectacle as it moves away from its traditional European heart land. But wherever the teams race and whatever the number of cars on the starting grid it will continue to set the pulses racing as those 5 red lights go out! Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currentl y involved with <a href="http://2012londonolympicsvolunteers.com/london-olympi

c-dates.html">London Olympic dates</a>. Click a link to find out more <a href="h ttp://2012londonolympicsvolunteers.com">2012 London Olympics Volunteers</a>.