Grand Prix motor racing

Innovation and the drive of competition soon saw speeds exceeding 100 miles per hour (160 km/h), but because early races took place on open roads, accidents occurred frequently, resulting in deaths both of drivers and of spectators.

The Grand Prix du Palais d'Hiver was the name of the prizes awarded for the lesser classes ('Light cars' and 'Voiturettes').

Thus Maurice Farman was awarded the Grand Prix de Pau for his overall victory in the Circuit du Sud-Ouest driving a Panhard 24 hp.

[8] The only race at the time to regularly carry the name Grand Prix was organised by the Automobile Club de France (ACF), of which the first took place in 1906.

The circuit used, which was based in Le Mans, was roughly triangular in shape, each lap covering 105 kilometres (65 mi).

From the 32 entries representing 12 different automobile manufacturers, at the 1906 event, the Hungarian-born Ferenc Szisz (1873–1944) won the 1,260 km (780 mi) race in a Renault.

This race was regarded as the first Grande Épreuve, which meant "great trial" and the term was used from then on to denote up to the eight most important events of the year.

[citation needed] Early Grand Prix cars could be technically innovative, with marques such as Peugeot using technology that would later become more widespread.

[11][12] For the most part, races were run over a lengthy circuit of closed public roads, not purpose-built private tracks.

(A "formula" of rules had appeared just before World War I, finally based on engine size as well as weight, but it was not universally adopted.)

Since the inception of Grand Prix racing, competitions had been run in accordance with a strict formula based on engine size and vehicle weight.

These regulations were virtually abandoned in 1928 with an era known as Formula Libre when race organisers decided to run their events with almost no limitations.

At the Solituderennen in 1926 a well thought-out system, with flags and boards, giving drivers tactical information, was used for the first time by Alfred Neubauer, the racing manager of the Mercedes-Benz team.

All the competing vehicles were painted in the international auto racing colors: French cars continued to dominate (led by Bugatti, but also including Delage and Delahaye) until the late 1920s, when the Italians (Alfa Romeo and Maserati) began to beat the French cars regularly.

)[14] The two German marques utterly dominated the period from 1935 to 1939, winning all but three of the official Championship Grands Prix races run in those years.

The cars by this time were single-seaters (the riding mechanic vanished in the early 1920s), with 8 to 16 cylinder supercharged engines producing upwards of 600 hp (450 kW) on alcohol fuels.

However, discussion centered on the increased interest in racing by manufacturers and holding the first European Grand Prix at Monza in 1923.