Middle East - Alfa Romeo Racing celebrates Grand Prix Number 1000 in the History of F1

• Alfa Romeo, winners of the first Grand Prix and the first championship in the history of Formula 1, pays homage to the most important motorsport competition that has millions of enthusiastic fans worldwide. Race number one thousand will be held in China on Sunday, April 14.

The long and exciting history of Formula 1 began in 1950, when the sport went global with the first Formula 1 World Championship, which was actually staged almost exclusively on European circuits. The first race was on the bends of Silverstone, the time-honoured location of the Grand Prix of Great Britain and still one of the most important tracks of the racing calendar.

That race took place on May 13, sixty-nine years ago and the automotive world has changed radically since then. Only two factors are the same - the enthusiasm of the public and the presence of Alfa Romeo on the starting line of both the first and the one-thousandth Grand Prix.

The Alfa Romeo racing team presented four 158 single-seaters driven by Giuseppe “Nino” Farina, Juan Manuel Fangio, Luigi Fagioli and Reg Parnell, the latter as a token of respect towards the host country. The cars won the first four places in the qualifiers and took the entire front row of the grid.

Looking back at those days, Alfa Romeo engineer Giuseppe Busso once said that the real problem for the team of the three "F"s - Farina, Fangio and Fagioli - was to establish the order of the podium. The Alfa Romeo 158 delivered 350hp of power and touched a top speed of 290 km/h. On that momentous May 13 in 1950, Nino Farina achieved pole position, recorded the fastest lap and won the race. 

By the end of the championship, the 158 had won six of the seven races valid for the ranking, not competing in the Indianapolis 500, like all the other European manufacturers. Alfa Romeo remained undefeated after the first race in the Silverstone GP, winning the first three places in the ranking. Nino Farina was the first champion of the newly formed Formula 1.

This success was repeated the following year, when the 159 single-seater won the world title again, this time thanks to champion driver Juan Manuel Fangio.

Since then, the sporting legend of Alfa Romeo has seen a string of victories and top-three finishes in many international championships, including Formula 1. For the past two seasons, the "biscione" emblem is back and proudly competing on world circuits. After continuous progress and eighth place last season, which marked Alfa Romeo’s comeback to racing, this year the new Alfa Romeo Racing team is continuing to bring the tradition of technical excellence and Italian style, characteristic of the Alfa Romeo brand, to the very highest level of motorsport competition.

The Alfa Romeo Racing team lines up with Giovinazzi Antonio, the first Italian driver to regularly appear in Formula 1 for eight years, and 2007 World Champion Kimi Räikkönen, who scored points in the first two races. So continues the legend of the Quadrifoglio - the green cloverleaf emblem that has identified the highest performing Alfa Romeo models since 1923.