BRITISH GP CONQUER0RS

ALFA ROMEO 158

SILVERSTONE, 13 MAY 1950

1st Giuseppe Farina, Alfa Romeo 158 2h13m23.6s

2nd Luigi Fagioli, Alfa Romeo 158 +2.6s

3rd Reg Parnell, Alfa Romeo 158 +52.0s

4th Yves Giraud-Cabantous, Talbot-Lago T26C-DA +2 laps

5th Louis Rosier, Talbot-Lago T26C +2 laps

6th Bob Gerard, ERA B +3 laps

DNF Juan Manuel Fangio, Alfa Romeo 158 - oil pipe

THE DOMINANT FORCE in the first two years of the Formula 1 world championship hadn’t even been cutting-edge when it was new, over a decade earlier. Initiated by Enzo Ferrari when he was running Alfa’s competitions department, and designed by Gioacchino Colombo, the 158 was conceived as a means of occupying the same racetracks as Mercedes and Auto Union without the embarrassment of competing directly against them and suffering virtually inevitable defeat: its 1.5-litre supercharged straight-eight engine placed it in the ‘voiturette’ sub-class.

As organised motor racing began again after the war Formula A, later Formula 1, permitted 1.5-litre blown engines and 4.5-litre naturally aspirated ones. The rules were shaped by expediency because very few top-level racing machines had survived the conflict (the 158s had been hidden to avoid being melted down for munitions), and casting the net relatively wide was the only way to ensure healthy grids.

Alfa’s experience running the car gave it the jump, and its revvy eight-cylinder engine responded well to larger and more sophisticated superchargers. The Maserati 4CLT’s fourcylinder engine