Over its 154-year existence, motorsport has evolved significantly. Gone are the days of 8 mph steam carriages trundling through Victorian Manchester’s suburbs, and in their place are aerodynamic £10 million Formula One speed machines that scorch straight sections at 220 mph.
Modern technology has been reflected in the evolution of motorsport, which has allowed for the constant production of faster and more exciting racing events.
Get comfortable and journey with us through the history of motorsports.
Greater Manchester hosted the Inaugural motor race.
We start our list with an occasion that is perhaps the origin of motorsport. The first scheduled race between autonomous cars on a set course started at Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, England, on August 30, 1867.
Two solid-fired steam carriages competed in the race, which followed an 8-mile route to Old Trafford: an Isaac W. Boulton single-cylinder vehicle and a Daniel Adamson and Company two-cylinder model. A mile into the race, Boulton’s smaller, obviously nippier carriage gained the lead and kept it to the finish. Over the course of the race, which lasted roughly an hour, the carriages averaged eight miles per hour.
In 1946, Formula One emerged as the leading motorsport globally.
The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) established Formula One as the top single-seater racing class in international motorsport in 1946. The term “formula” describes a set of rules that all automobiles in competition have to follow. Simultaneously, Formula Two was unveiled, designating a second-tier class of ‘Voiturette’ (small car) racing that was less potent.
Achille Varzi, driving an Alfa Romeo 158 Alfetta, won the 1946 Turin Grand Prix, the first race conducted under Formula One rules. Some people disagree that the World Drivers’ Championship was the inaugural Formula One race because it wasn’t officially sanctioned until the following year. At Silverstone, the inaugural FIA Formula World Championship race was held in 1950. A crowd of 150,000 witnessed Giuseppe Farina win in another Alfa Romeo.
The Paris-Rouen race in 1894 marked the beginning of racing.
The world’s first competitive motor race is generally regarded as having taken place in northern France in 1894, while the Greater Manchester race in 1867 prevailed by a margin of over thirty years. There was undoubtedly more excitement for the Paris-Rouen Concours du “Petit Journal” Les Voitures sans Chevaux (Le Petit Journal Horseless Carriages Contest), which was preceded by four days of car shows and qualifying events.
It’s easy to understand why Paris-Rouen is usually considered to have been the race that officially introduced motorsport, as it serves as the dramatic focal point of a well-funded event intended to spark interest in driving. It’s interesting to note that Jules-Albert de Dion, a pioneer of the automobile, was the first driver to reach the finish line. However, he was disqualified since his steam-powered car needed a stoker. Instead, Albert Lemaître’s Peugeot, which was in first place among the petrol cars, was given the victory.
The first Grand Prix Automobile race took place forty years before Formula One.
Insofar as Grand Prix and Formula One racing are practically interchangeable, Grand Prix racing is most commonly connected to Formula One. However, Grand Prix motor racing was first mentioned forty years before the first Formula One race.
The phrase, which means “great prize,” originated in the early 1800s and was named after the renowned Prix Gladiateur race. The current name of France’s oldest horse race was officially given to the event in 1869. The French Grand Prix at the Le Mans track in 1906 marked the first occasion when the phrase was used frequently to refer to a motor race.
1911 saw Ray Harroun win the first Indianapolis 500.
Similar to the MLB World Series, American motorsports have primarily been domestic events, and the Indianapolis 500 is the race that best represents all-American motor racing. The Indianapolis 500, dubbed “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” is usually staged at the 2.5-mile oval Indianapolis Speedway, which opened its doors in 1909, over Memorial Day weekend at the end of May.
The Indy 500 is the centerpiece race of the IndyCar Series, America’s premier open-wheel, open-cockpit racing series. It features 33 cars competing over 200 laps (500 miles) of racing. Ray Harroum won the 1911 Indianapolis 500, recording an average speed of 74.602 mph in a Marmon Model 32-based Wasp racer that was controversially modified with his own invention—the rear-view mirror.
Australia was home to the first motor racing circuit constructed specifically for racing cars.
Given the European roots of motorsports, it may come as a surprise to learn that Australia was home to the world’s first purpose-built motor racing circuit. In a Melbourne, Victoria suburb, the Aspendale Motor Raceway was constructed on the site of a horse racing track. It held its inaugural motor race in January 1906. The gravel track of the pear-shaped circuit included gently banked turns and measured little under a mile in length.
Motorsports have hardly ever been included in the Olympics.
With good cause, motorsports have been noticeably absent from the Olympic Games for a long time: machine-based and motorized sports are not recognized by the Olympic committee. It appears likely that the Olympics will continue to be a motorsport-free event for the foreseeable future unless this strongly held opinion is reversed.
There was, however, a small window of Olympic potential for motor racing before the committee chose to reject the addition of motorized sports: the Paris Summer Olympics in 1900. Several motorsport competitions were organized in tandem with the 1900 World’s Fair, which took place in Paris as well. Manufacturers, not drivers, entered the competitions, which included racing taxis, delivery vans, and fire trucks. As a result, the winning drivers’ names have been lost to time.
In Formula One racing, Maria Teresa Filippis was the first female driver.
As the first female driver to compete in Formula One, Maria Teresa Filippis made history at the 1958 Monaco Grand Prix after showcasing her unquestionable talent on the Italian sports car racing circuit. She narrowly missed qualifying, but nevertheless managed to place tenth in that year’s Belgian Grand Prix.
The only driver to win the Triple Crown of Motorsports is still Graham Hill.
The Indianapolis 500, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the Monaco Grand Prix are the three most prestigious motor races in the world, and winning them all during one’s career is required to earn the unofficial Triple Crown of Motorsport title. Completing the trifecta of triumphs is nearly impossible, as most drivers won’t even compete in all three events, given that the three races have rarely been included in the same World Championship.
The Triple Crown can only be won by one driver. In addition to winning five races at the Monaco Grand Prix, British driver Graham Hill—who spent the majority of his career competing in the Formula One World Championship—also won the Indy 500 in 1966 as a rookie. Alongside Henri Pescarolo, he won the 1972 24 Hours of Le Mans to win the Triple Crown.
Perhaps NASCAR would not have been without prohibition.
In addition to the IndyCar Series, NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) is the other major auto racing brand in America. Stock car racing, which originally focused on the usage of production model automobiles, is where NASCAR got its start. But if prohibition hadn’t been enacted in America in the 1920s, stock car racing might never have taken off since moonshine runners frequently had to outrun law enforcement, necessitating the necessity for very quick vehicles. This called for subtle adjustments that would improve the performance without drawing attention to themselves.
A fledgling kind of stock car racing developed during the 1930s when competitors were challenging one another to races in their customized factory vehicles. Bill France Sr. founded NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) in 1948 in an effort to standardize the regulations and bring stock car racing under one umbrella.