GPWizard F1 Forum - 1,000 F1 Grand Prix .. or is it?
You can always rely on stats being challenged in F1.
Re: 1,000 F1 Grand Prix .. or is it?
This mythical 1000th F1 Grand Prix count gets no easier if you include the Non Championship F1 races, they were run to F1 rules - not Indy or F2 rules - so surely must count.
In the 1960's and into the 1970's Britain had quite a few NC F1 races each year. The International Tourist Trophy at Silverstone. Brands Hatch used to hold the International Race of Champions (usually in the "other" year when it wasn't hosting the GP). Oulton Park had the Gold Cup and Goodwood always had a Formula 1 race at its Easter Bank Holiday meeting. The last NC F1 race (for current GP cars) held in Britain was the 1983 Race of Champions - won by Keke Rosberg in the Williams. BBC TV showed it live.
In Sicily there were races at Enna, round Lake Pergusa. There was Syracuse - wherever that was, Pau and Albi in the early fifties, Solitude (Germany) of course, and Roskilde ring (Denmark). Some places had to hold a non-title F1 race before they could qualify for a title race (that was basically a rule. Warwick Farm's race was to be sanctioned in 1970 because of the successful running of Tasman events). There was also a NC race in Cuba in 1958. Before the race, Fangio was kidnapped by the Castro revolutionists, so he couldn't make the start.
If you take an overview of the varying estimates for NC F1GP numbers you get somewhere between 22 and 49+, so if you disqualify the non F1 rules races the 1000th race could still be China - or it may have been sometime last year - or it may fall in 2020 season.
Why did the 500 count for World Championship points when it was run by different rules and 'F1' racers weren't really expected to participate?
Was F1 trying to use the 500 as a way to bring a higher profile? Encourage 500 winners to race F1 itself?
Or was the 500 trying to grow it's audience by encouraging F1 racers to America?
I'd always assumed that the 500 and F1 were run under the same rules, hence a team could run an F1 car in the 500 and vice versa.