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It might not be something many people are aware of, but did you know that Alfa Romeo won the very first Formula 1 world championship?
The first F1 season kicked off on May 13, 1950. In that race, the British GP at Silverstone, Alfa Romeo not only took pole position, but it also locked out the very first podium in the sport. Eight races constituted that year's championship and Alfa Romeo walked away as champions at the end of that season.
Powerful engine
It's almost unimaginable to think that the race cars that partook in the first F1 championship were powerful machines. And Alfa Romeo's car, the Alfetta 158, was no different. The 1.5-litre petrol engine was supercharged and, in 1938, produced around 140kW.
By the time the F1 championship came around in 1950, power outputs for this engine had increased to 260kW at 8600rpm!
Nino Farina, one of the Alfa Romeo drivers, became the first F1 world champion. The following year, in 1951, Juan Manuel Fangio, driving the legendary Alfetta 159.
