On Wednesday night, I remembered about meaning to write that anniversary piece about the 1950 British GP, and looked up the date to discover, “Hell, its tomorrow!”, thus I compiled the piece yesterday annoyed I had not prepared it sooner.
I suspect the official F1 site people were even more caught out as when I visited yesterday to look up the first-race results, I did not spot the report that has since appeared. The article includes the information that the Alfa Romeo mechanics drove the race-cars from their Banbury base to Silverstone on race-day morning, that in the race the Alfa Romeos made tidy pitstops of under thirty seconds, and the suggestion Fangio broke an oil-line after losing control competing with Farina. Since the general consensus was the Alfa Romeos were not really racing, and had Fangio lost control of his car, it is difficult to understand how he broke an oil-line without hitting something therefore sustaining more notable damage, I question that info; especially as the article describes the race as being, “almost two and three-quarter hours”, (2:13:23), and puts Fagioli 2·8 back instead of 2·6. Also, the piece insinuates the ERAs and Altas were manufacturer entries when they were definitely privateer. Methinks it was written in a hurry. As well as the hasty article, formula1.com also provided a good set of images from the race. The main reason for this additional entry is that there were two photographs in the 50th Anniversary edition of Autosport I would have loved to have included as I alluded to them in what I wrote: Admire at the splendour of the Royal Grandstand. The start featuring the oil-drums with plants in them.
