Giuseppe Farina

Giuseppe 'Nino' Farina was an Italian racing driver who won the first-ever Formula 1 World Championship in 1950, driving for Alfa Romeo.

Giuseppe 'Nino' Farina won the very first Formula 1 World Championship in 1950 with Alfa Romeo, taking three of the season's seven rounds including the inaugural race at Silverstone, and his upright, arms-extended driving technique became the standard style adopted across the sport. His aggressive, upright driving style — legs almost straight and arms fully extended on the wheel — later became the standard technique adopted across the sport. After the war Farina raced privately before rejoining Alfa Romeo for the inaugural Formula 1 World Championship in 1950. He won the very first World Championship race at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, and went on to win three of the season's seven rounds, becoming the first-ever Formula 1 World Champion, driving alongside teammates Juan Manuel Fangio and Luigi Fagioli. His title-clinching win came fittingly at that year's Italian Grand Prix, making him the only driver in the championship's history to win the title in his own home country. Farina finished runner-up to Fangio in 1951, then moved to Ferrari, where he finished as championship runner-up again in 1952 behind teammate Alberto Ascari. His fifth and final Grand Prix victory came at the 1953 German Grand Prix, holding off Fangio and Mike Hawthorn at age 46 to become the second-oldest Grand Prix winner in the sport's history. Farina retired from racing in the mid-1950s and later worked in the motor trade, before dying in a road accident in 1966 while travelling to that year's French Grand Prix.

Aggressive, upright driving style that became a model for future generations

A pioneering figure of Formula 1's earliest era, whose upright driving posture became the standard technique for generations of drivers

• First Formula 1 World Champion (1950)
• 5 Grand Prix wins
• 3x Italian national champion (1937, 1938, 1939)
• Only driver to win the World Championship in his home country