The new podium in Monza last year was a very impressive piece of construction, but still I my attention was drawn to the black banner behind the partying drivers. This banner displayed the name of the event, but contrary to almost every other race the Monza organisers added the fact that it was the 73rd Italian Grand Prix. I think it once used to be normal practice to put the race-number in the name of the race, but most organisers have dropped that a while ago. Interested by this fact I checked if Italians can count to 73 and I have strong suspicions that they cannot! (More on that later) Since I found an (probable?) inconsistency in the numbering of the Italian GP I decided to check some other GP's also. I started with FORIX and did some counting. Soon enough I ran into more trouble, so I decided this is a case for the TNF historians.
Here is the result of my labour so far (New Website, no more banners!! )
This is a list of the problems I came across:
AUSTRALIA
No problems, thanks to this excellent thread by Ray Bell
AUSTRIA
The first F1-event in Austria is the 1961 Flugplatzrennen (Airport Race) in Zeltweg. FORIX says this is the 4th Flugplatzrennen, but I found 4 events preceeding it. In 1957 and '58 there were sportscar races at Zeltweg and in 1959 / '60 there was a F2-event. That should make the F1-event the 5th Flugplatzrennen, except of course if one of the earlier races had a different name. The F2 events were called Flugplatzrennen as well, so that leaves the sportscar races. WSPR-racing.com calls the 1958-event the Austrian GP, but it seems generally accepted that the 1963 Zeltweg F1 event is the first to bear that title. No further clues.
BELGIUM
No problems at first, it looks like the Belgian GP died after exactly 60 events. Then I saw the official programme from the 1985 and '86 GP at Spa, saying it was the 32nd and 33rd Belgian GP respectively, while I had 43rd/44th. The designer of these posters seems to have overlooked the GP races before 1950.
FRANCE
Although the numbering looks okay, I've a couple of questions:
- Eight town-to-town races were retrospectively called GP de l'ACF. Is this generally accepted?
- Until 1968 the GP in France was called GP de l'ACF (after the organising body). However there are some French GP's in the early days (1911, '12, '13, '36, '49). After ACF became FFSA the Formula 1 race finally became the French GP. Now FORIX and others call the 1967 race the 53rd Gp de l'ACF and the 1968 race the 54th GP de France. I can understand it, but isn't it more logical to number the 1968 race 6th GP de France, since there had already been 5 events with that name before the war?
The numbering of the ACF GP's at Reims has I think messed up the numbering for the Reims and Marne GP-events. FORIX calls the three Reims GP 16th, 23rd and 28th, but I can't find the other 25 races. The same goes for the 1952 Marne GP, which FORIX calls the 20th.
FORIX also has a very odd numbering of the Salon GP.
Other French non-championship event unknowns:
- 1st Pau GP preceding the 2nd in 1933. Is the 1930 ACF GP at Pau also considered the 1st Pau GP?
- 1st Alsace GP (Strassbourg) preceding the 2nd in 1947.
- first five Boulogne GP's before 1926.
- 1st Lac GP (Aix-les-Bains) preceding the 2nd in 1950.
- first two La Baule GP's before 1926.
- 1st Alsace GP (Strassbourg) preceding the 2nd in 1947.
- 2nd Bourgogne GP (Dijon) between 1929 and 1946.
- 2nd Ouverture GP (Monthlery) between 1924 and 1927.
- 1st Paris GP (Monthlery) preceding the 2nd in 1948.
- 2nd and 3rd Lorraine GP (Nancy) between 1932 and 1935.
- 1st Picardie GP (Peronne) preceding the 2nd in 1927.
GERMANY
No major problems, although I didn't study the many national events in detail. The 1971 Rhein Pokal Rennen is listed as the 6th, I presume the 5 preceding races were national events for lower formula?
GREAT BRITAIN
I have seen three different names for the Brooklands events from 1926 and '27, those being RAC GP, English GP and British GP. The question is of course, which one is correct? So far I've chosen RAC GP (as on Darren Galpin's website).
The early British GP posters show numbers, for example 1951 is the 4th British GP. If the poster is correct than this supports the idea that the Brooklands events were not British GP's in name, but then again posters don't seem to be the most reliable sources.
There is a rather long list of non-championship events in Britain, which I haven't analysed in great detail. Most of it is directly from FORIX. One comment on the Oulton Park Gold Cup however: the first running took place in 1954 and there is a 1992 poster saying a BTCC-round event is the 40th Gold Cup. Wrong poster or were there ever two International Gold Cups in one year?
For some reason Mattijs has the 1982 British Formula 1 Championship race winners listed in 1983... (on 6thgear).
By the way, have all these event names disappeared from British racing? If I look at the official BRDC or BTCC websites I can't find any reference to names, only 'Silverstone (or whatever track I'm looking for) Round XX'.
ITALY
As I said the 2002 GP should be the 73rd, but I found only 72 races. The 1949 event is generally called the 19th Italian GP, the 1950 event the 21st Italian GP. Apparantly there never was a 20th Italian GP. See also the Monza website. Is this related to the cancellation of the 1939 Italian GP?
Other unknows:
- First four Belfiore GP's preceding the 5th in 1924
- First Coppa Principessa di Piemonte preceding the 2nd in 1934
MEXICO
I am aware of the two CART-races in 1980/'81, named "Copa Mexico 150". I'm not sure if they qualify as Mexican GP, so I left them out of the list. I did include last years "Gran Premio de Mexico Telmex/Gigante presented by Banamex/Visa" as the 17th Mexican GP.
MOROCCO
I'm not very sure about the list I produced here. The Ain Diab F1 races in 1956/'57 are mostly called 6th and 7th Moroccan GP. This means there must be 5 earlier races with that name. On Darren Galpin's site I found some sportscar races that might fit the bill. There have been pre-war GP-races in Casablanca however, called GP de Casablanca for the first two runnings, but Leif Snellman calls the third edition in 1934 both GP de Casablanca and GP du Maroc. I can't figure out what's correct or not.
NETHERLANDS
I thought there was no problem at all here, until I compared my list to FORIX. To my information F1 races started at Zandvoort in 1948. The first two years the (non-championship) races were called "Zandvoort GP", switching to "Dutch GP" in 1950. That year and the following the race was still no part of the World Championship, but became so in 1952. If I do the counting then that's the 3rd Dutch GP, while FORIX says it's the 4th. FORIX does say the 1950/'51 races are the 1st and 2nd Dutch GP.
More irregularities later. FORIX jumps from the 23rd Dutch GP in 1975 to the 25th in 1976. Those races are 22nd and 23rd on my list. I guess the confusion is caused by the 1976 GP Poster that says "25th Dutch GP", but the organisers probably included the 1948/'49 Zandvoort GP in the count.
On Stefan Onerdal's F2 Register I found a further mention of the "Zandvoort GP" in '67 (15th) and '68 (16th), can't find any mention of such races for the years in between. Was it a national event then?
PORTUGAL
When the Portuguese GP came to Estoril, the organisers called it the 4th GP. They forgot about a number of Sportscar and F3 races under the same banner. There is a thread on this forum that lists the results, but I forgot to bookmark it (sorry). FORIX is inconsequent: it goes from the 9th Portuguese GP (1960) to the 4th Portuguese GP in 1984.
SOUTH AFRICA
The first 3 Cape GP's before the 4th in 1960 are missing.
The events in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and Mozambique, part of the National Championship races, are listed here. These are the dates from 6thgear, didn't take a better at them.
SPAIN
Once again my count differs from FORIX, but this time I have no reasonable explanation. The problem is in the pre-war races, as I have the first post-war Spanish GP as the 11th, while FORIX lists it as the 13th. Rather confusingly FORIX has the pre-war event in 1935 as the 9th Spanish GP. Or were there Spanish GP's between 1935 and 1951?
Were the races held on 25/7/1928 and 25/7/1929 Spanish GP, San Sebastian GP or were there seperate races under each name?
USA
I suppose there will always be some discussion about what is an "USGP" and what is not, but I have decided to include the following events in the list:
Sportscar race Riverside ('58), F1 events in Sebring ('59), Riverside ('60) and Watkins Glen ('61-'80), CART race Meadowlands ('85) and then F1 again in Phoenix ('89-'91) and Indy (2000-'02), making last years' Indy race the 30th USGP.