Giuseppe Farina

GIUSEPPE "NINO" FARINA d1966. Italian racing driver and the first official Formula One World Champion in 1950. He was also the Italian Champion in 1937 / 1938 and 1939. He was active in F1 for Alfa Romeo / Ferrari and Lancia between 1950-1956 with 35 entries / 20 podiums / 5 poles and 5 wins. In 1950, he drove for Alfa Romeo in the inaugural FIA World Championship of Drivers. The opening race of the season was held at Silverstone Circuit, in front of 150,000 spectators. He won, with teammates Luigi Fagioli and Reg Parnell, completing an Alfa Romeo 1–2–3 finish. At Monaco eight days later, a multiple pile-up on the first lap saw him spin out of a race that Juan Manuel Fangio went on to win. In the 1950 Swiss Grand Prix, he beat his teammate Fagioli into second. The next race (at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps) saw Fangio beat Fagioli with Farina finishing in fourth with transmission problems. At this stage, he still led the championship on points: Farina 22; Fagioli 18; Fangio 17. When Fangio won the 1950 French Grand Prix, he finished outside of the points in seventh. By the season finale (on 3rd September the 1950 Italian Grand Prix), he was trailing his teammate by two points. For Alfa, Monza was home territory and so they fielded an additional car for Piero Taruffi and Consalvo Sanesi. It was the Ferrari of Alberto Ascari who put pressure on the Alfas during the early stages of the race (lying in second) in the knowledge that his car only needed one fuel stop to the Alfas' two, but he retired with engine problems. Soon after, Fangio's gearbox failed and Taruffi handed over his car, only for it to drop a valve and retire. Instead, first position and therefore the championship went to Farina. He continued with Alfa Romeo for the 1951 season, but was beaten by Fangio who secured the title for the Milanese marque. Farina finished the season in fourth place with his only world championship victory coming in the 1951 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps. After retiring in 1956, he became involved in Alfa Romeo and Jaguar distributorships and later assisted at the Pininfarina factory. On his way to the 1966 French Grand Prix on June 30th, he lost control of his Lotus Cortina in the Savoy Alps, hitting a telegraph pole and was killed instantly at the age of 59. He had been on his way to both watch the race and to take part in filming (as the adviser and driving double of the French actor Yves Montand) who played an ex-World Champion in the film Grand Prix