Celebrating the 25 greatest races across F1’s 75 years

Seventy-five years ago today – on May 13, 1950 to be exact – Silverstone played host to the very first race of the inaugural Formula 1 World Championship. Won by Italian Giuseppe Farina, the 1950 British Grand Prix marked the start of an extraordinary journey that has seen F1 become one of the most captivating spectacles on the planet.

The sport is undoubtedly very different today compared to that first event – you’re unlikely to have a jazz musician on the grid now and no one had heard of Brad Pitt in 1950…

READ MORE: 10 fascinating facts about the very first F1 race – held at Silverstone on this day 75 years ago

But one constant is the thrill of the racing. It’s the reason so many of us are gripped weekend after weekend as we watch the world’s best drivers battle it out at breathtaking speeds.

Starting today, and to mark the sport’s 75th anniversary year, F1.com is counting down and celebrating the 25 greatest races throughout the sport’s history.

Giuseppe Farina leads Alfa Romeo team mate Luigi Fagioli around the Silverstone circuit during the 1950 British Grand Prix

Every week we will showcase and reflect on the truly epic races that will forever be remembered for various reasons – whether it was captivating displays of driving skill, endless levels of unpredictability, or championship-deciding drama – until we get to our top-ranked race. We will leave our list as a surprise, though some Grands Prix will be very obvious inclusions.

Now for the caveats… At the time of writing there have been 1,131 Formula 1 Grand Prix events, so whittling it down to 25 proved to be quite the task for our team.

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Inevitably there will – and have been – some unpopular omissions. For example (spoiler alert) fans of the 1994 German Grand Prix, where Gerhard Berger triumphed amid 11 retirements on the opening lap, can expect to be disappointed.

But what we have done with our final list of 25 is tried to be fair. We’ve looked to celebrate races from decades ago as well those that are more recent – our earliest shortlisted Grand Prix is from the 1950s, while our latest was just last year – and we have also looked to celebrate as many of our legendary drivers as possible within the parameters.

Gilles Villeneuve's victory in the 1981 Spanish Grand Prix is the first of the our 25 race countdown

While there will obviously be disagreement with the ranking – and let’s face it, that’s part of the point in coming up with a ranking in the first place – what we do hope is you will enjoy each unique trip down memory lane that is served up on a weekly basis.

We will add each feature to the list below as we countdown every race over the next 25 weeks. Check back here or on F1.com for updates.

25. 1981 Spanish Grand Prix, by David Tremayne

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