While motorsport (or, more simply, racing) dates all the way back to the end of the 19th century (with a race from Paris to Rouen, France, in 1894) the Formula One World Championships, or F1 as we know it today, started much later – on the 13th of May, 1950. 2010 marks the 60th year of F1, so here are the first 30, of 60, facts about the sport.

1. The Formula One World Championship is organized by the sporting branch of the FIA, the Federation Internationale de L’Automobile, and is the oldest of the various championships under the FIA. 2. FIA actually came into existence in 1904, before which every country (European mainly) where motorsport was prevalent had its own set of rules and regulations. Thus there was no common ground as far as international competition was concerned.

3. Single-seater racing happened only from 1920 onwards thanks to the invention of the rear view mirror. Before that, riding mechanics would warn their drivers about other cars trying to overtake them in addition to their other jobs.

4. The early days of racing was a period of experimentation – car racing was organized according to various different formulae – minimum and maximum weight categories, fuel consumption, engine bore size, but eventually, by 1914, it was decided that the cars would be categorized according to engine capacity. This led to the forming of categories for smaller cars too.

5. Engine sizes changed right through the first decade as the championship developed. While 1950 & 51 saw 4.5 litre naturally aspirated and 1.5 litre supercharged engines, 1952 & 53 saw F2 spec cars with smaller engines as there were not enough F1 cars to be raced. 1954 saw 2.5 litre naturally aspirated and 750cc supercharged engines, which carried on till 1960.

6. Although the FIA experimented with several formulae till 1950, the actual use of the term Formula One only happened with the creation of the Formula One World Championships in 1950.

7. The term Grand Prix is French for Grand Prize, and was first used for a race in 1906 – the Grand Prix de l’Automobile Club de France at Le Mans.

8. The 60th anniversary of Formula One is actually the 60th anniversary of the Driver’s title. The Constructor’s title was introduced much later, in 1958.

9. Today, the term Formula One refers to the set of technical rules that any constructor of single-seater racing cars in this category must adhere to. The rules are comprehensive, though constructors are always looking for loopholes they can exploit.

10. The rules are made keeping speed and safety in mind. Safety includes that of everybody present at the track, be it the drivers or the spectators and everybody in between. This is the reason for the innumerable restrictions relating to tub and chassis strength, the roll protection system, leak proof fuel tanks, head and neck protection, cockpit dimensions, and much, much more.

11. Formula One rule making is a multi-layered process. There is a Formula One Technical Working Group of which the technical director of each team is a member. The Working Group makes suggestions to the FIA Formula One Commission where everybody – the teams, race promoters, engine manufacturers, sponsors, tyre manufacturers and FIA are present. The Formula One Commission then puts it to the FIA World Motor Sport Council, and it is the job of the FIA General Assembly to debate on, and scrutinize, each issue before passing it and making it law.

12. From 1950 to 1959, 8-6-4-3-2 points were awarded to the top five finishers, and there was an extra point for the fastest lap. In 1960, the top six finishers got points, and the fastest lap point was dropped. From 1961 to 1990, 9-6-4-3-2-1 points were awarded to top six finishers, which became 10-6-4-3-2-1 from 1991. For 2010, taking into account the new teams, points are awarded to the top ten teams in the following order – 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1.

13. While the 1950 Championship had just 7 Grand Prix races, over which the title was decided, today 19 races constitute the F1 World Championship.

14. Race distances from 1950 to 57 were over 300 kilometers or three hours, which became 300 to 500 kilometers or two hours – as the cars became faster – from 1958-65. This changed to between 300-400 kilometers from 1966 to 1970, and from 1971 to 325 kilometers.

15. The Indianapolis 500 was a round of the 1950 World Championship but hardly any Europeans contested the round. So the early records include a very different entry list, and names of the winners and runners up usually do not tally with the rest of the F1 drivers.

16. The first constructor’s trophy was won by the British constructor Vanwall in 1958. Though the team missed the start of the season, it started winning races from the Netherlands GP onwards and won 6 races in all.

17. For a circuit to make the grade as an F1 circuit, it is subjected to inspections all through the building stage, from when work starts till the circuit is ready to host a race. Modern amenities like TV cameras at every corner and the difficulty in providing access to fast interception vehicles and medical cars & facilities have meant that the classic long circuits like the 22km plus Nuerburgring have had to be abandoned. Also, increased speeds have caused the introduction of chicanes to keep the cars at safe speeds. Monza and Spa-Francorchamps are two old circuits that are still around.

18. Flags are now supplemented by lights, as the technology exists today to make the lights more visible in daylight, and help the driver react faster to a situation. Apart from the start and race-over flags, there are other flags each with specific meanings. The blue flag during a race tells a driver that he is about to be lapped, and to let the other car pass or be penalized. The yellow flag indicates danger on the track, and overtaking is prohibited. A single waved yellow flag tells drivers to slow down while two yellow flags waved at the same post tell the driver to slow down and be prepared to stop if necessary. The green flag returns the circuit to normalcy and racing can resume. If the track is slippery due to an oil spillage, a flag with vertical red and yellow stripes is used to warn drivers. In addition, a black flag with an orange disc accompanied by the number of a car tells the driver to pit due to a mechanical problem, while a flag with a white triangle and a black triangle accompanied by the number of a car is a warning for unsporting behaviour. The black flag shown to a driver means he has been excluded from the race.

19. In 60 years of F1 racing, there have been only 31 World Champions, starting with Giuseppe Farina in 1950 to Jenson Button in 2009.

20. There was no sponsorship as we know it today till the mid-sixties. Team Lotus (the name returned to F1 in 2010 under Malaysian ownership) was the first team to be sponsored when, at the Monaco Grand Prix in 1968, the team presented the cars in the red and white livery of Gold Leaf. Other teams followed in 1969 bringing in STP and Elf.

21. Giuseppe Farina went into the record books in 1950 as the first F1 World Champion. Farina won the British GP at Silverstone, Grand Prix de Suisse at Bremgarten, and the Gran Premio d’Italia at Monza.

22. The first year saw seven different car manufacturers – Ferrari, Maserati, Talbot-Lago, Alta GP, ERA, Alfa Romeo and Simca-Gordini. The Indianapolis race was won by a local, Kurtis-Offenhauser, ahead of a Deidt-Offenhauser.

23. The first race of the first World Championship was at Silverstone, England, and was won by Giuseppe Farina, ahead of Luigi Fagioli and Reg Parnell. All three drivers drove Alfa Romeo 158 cars.

24. The first pole position ever of the F1 World Championships was taken by Giuseppe Farina with a time of 1min 50.8 seconds, ahead of Fagioli, Juan Manuel Fangio and Reg Parnell.

25. One of the drivers in the first year of F1 was B.Bira, a nom de plume for Prince Birabongse Bhanuban, of Siam (Thailand), which makes him the first Asian Formula One driver. The prince campaigned a Maserati 4CLT/48 car.

26. In 1971, a BRM driven by Peter Gethin clocked an average speed of 242.6km/h at Monza to win. It has been argued that a current F1 car may do well over 300km/h on the old Monza configuration.

27. With the withdrawal of Alfa Romeo and the BRM cars disappointing for the 1952 season, the promoters switched to F2. It became a cakewalk for Ferrari with Alberto Ascari winning 9 GPs in succession after being unsuccessful at the Indianapolis 500.

28. Alberto Ascari seemed to have escaped death when he crashed his Lancia into the Monte Carlo harbour in 1955, but just four days later he died testing a sports car in Monza. 1955 was also the year of the infamous Le Mans crash that killed Pierre Levegh and a number of spectators.

29. Due to the Le Mans crash, the French, German, Swiss, and Spanish GPs were cancelled and Switzerland banned car racing. Mercedes withdrew from racing at the end of the season, and 2010 saw them returning as a team for the first time since then.

30. Out of all the world champions in the last 60 years, apart from Michael Schumacher, Juan Manuel Fangio and Alain Prost, only five drivers have won the title three times – Jack Brabham in 1959, 1960 and in 1966, Niki Lauda in 1975, 1977 and 1984, Jackie Stewart in 1969, 1971 and 1973, Nelson Piquet in 1981, 1983, 1987, and Ayrton Senna in 1988, 1990, 1991.