Formula 1. He duly won, thus becoming the first winner of a Formula 1 race. He led an ERA clean sweep of the podium, as the only three cars to finish. Their chief rivals – the French – were stranded miles away from the circuit, on a ship stuck fast in the ice. The organiser decided to rerun the event as the Stockholm Grand Prix, on Lake Vallentuna. Meanwhile, between the two races Parnell had the idea of fitting twin rear wheels to his ERA to improve its road-holding on the ice. When he arrived at the race, the lead French driver, Raymond Sommer immediately objected but Parnell had checked the rules beforehand and found that there was nothing to preclude twin rear wheels. Despite temperatures of −15° Fahrenheit, Parnell's extra wheels really made the difference, as he skated to victory. Formula One The following season, he received a tremendous accolade, he was asked to drive the fourth works Alfa Romeo, in the inaugural World Championship Formula One race at Silverstone, finishing in an excellent third place and a place on the podium, behind and on the same lap as his teammates Giuseppe Farina and Luigi Fagioli. He would be the only British driver even to be selected to race with the all-conquering factory. Whilst racing his Maserati, under the Scuderia Ambrosiana banner, he then became involved with BRM, initially as a test driver of the original V16 and later as the team's lead driver of the BRM Type 15, although BRM did not make many appearances. He remained under contract to BRM for 1951, but raced his Maserati because BRM could never get him a car, first with a win in the Chichester Cup at Goodwood, then having to retire in the Gran Premio di San Remo. When the BRM did work, it was at Goodwood that the car had its first victories when Parnell won the Woodcote Cup, then the Goodwood Trophy later the same day. After the trip in Italy, Tony Vandervell approached him which saw Parnell driving Vandervell's Thinwall Special (a highly modified Formula One Ferrari 375) in numerous F1 races. He left a star-studded field standing in conditions so bad that the BRDC International Trophy final raced through hail, lightning and heavy rain. With poor visibility and the track under as much as six inches of water, the race had to be stopped after six