Ferrari : The Monopostos of 1948-52

John Starkey tells the story of Ferrari’s Formula One and Formula Two cars in the early 1950s as they competed to win the new World Championship.

Ferrari have the distinction of being the only manufacturer to have competed throughout the history of Formula One. The company’s early Formula One and Formula Two cars first appeared at the Italian Grand Prix in September 1948. It was these cars, particularly in 1950 and 1951, that really brought the name Ferrari to the attention of the general public by competing at the very pinnacle of motor racing, the Formula One World Championship. During the Second World War, Enzo Ferrari had a factory in Maranello making grinding machines, but he had a burning ambition – to dominate international motor racing. Within two years, his workforce had produced the company’s first sports car and in 1948 Ferrari presented his first single-seater F1 cars to the world. By 1951, his new 4.5-litre F1 cars were beating his old nemesis, Alfa Romeo, on their way to winning the World Championship. John Starkey tells the story of those early years as Ferrari struggled to overcome many obstacles to win the new World Championship. Featuring rare archive photographs, this book will appeal to all those fascinated by Ferrari’s first racing cars and the emergence of motor racing as an elite sports phenomenon.