Owen Racing Organisation / BRM P261 P56

Brabham Racing Organisation / Brabham BT7 Coventry Climax FWMV

Ferrari SpA SEFAC / Ferrari

Cooper Car Company / Cooper Type 66 Coventry Climax FWMV

Scuderia Centro Sud / BRM P578 P56

British Racing Partnership / BRP Mark 1 BRM P56 and Lotus Type 24 BRM P56

Reg Parnell (Racing) / Lotus Type 25 BRM P56

Revson Racing (America) / Lotus Type 24 BRM P56

Ian Raby (Racing) / Brabham BT3 BRM P56

R.R.C. Walker Racing Team / Cooper Type 66 Coventry Climax FWMV

D.W. Racing Enterprises / Brabham BT11 Coventry Climax FWMV

F.B. Collomb / Lotus Type 24 Coventry Climax FWMV

Jock Russell / Lotus Type 18 Coventry Climax FPF

Graham Eden / Cooper Type 51 Coventry Climax FPF

Epstein-Eyre Racing Team / BRM P57 P56

Equipe Scirocco Belge / Scirocco Coventry Climax FWMV

Of those entered for the event, several were no-shows - the Bob Anderson and Graham Eden entries, a few were simply not ready or not available - the second BRM for Richie Ginther and the second Brabham for Dan Gurney, one seat on the Cooper team was left unfilled due to the death of Tim Mayer at Longford, Giancarlo Baghetti not starting when his engine failed, along with what was basically a non-entry for the Ferrari team whose "entry" was really more a case of wishful thinking by the organizers.

Comparing the first grid of 1964 with its counterpart in 1974, there are three drivers on both grids: Graham Hill, Pete Revson, and Mike Hailwood. But, Cooper was now gone, Brabham was now in the hands of Bernie Ecclestone, it was now John Player Team, and Surtees was now a constructor. Sadly, several of the drivers on the grid were no longer living a decade later: Jim Clark, Bob Anderson, Bruce McLaren, and Jo Bonnier all being killed in racing related crashes. Pete Revson was soon to die and Graham Hill would die within two years in an aircraft accident,

The wet, miserable Saturday at Snetterton did see a name that would be seen often during the intervening years: J.Y. Stewart was entered in a Tyrrell Racing Organization Cooper Type 72 BMC for the Formula 3 race. In appalling conditions, Jackie Stewart led the first lap by such a margin that all feared that there had been some massive shunt on the back part of the circuit until the came snarling by many longs seconds after the Cooper had passed. In a relatively short 10 lap event, Stewart won by the whopping margin of almost 40 seconds from the Janspeed Engineering Lotus 22 BMC of John Fenning. Along with teammate Warwick Banks, Stewart and the Ken Tyrrell team would dominate F3 that season.

For 1954, it was a return to South America and the Argentine - the Gran Premio de la Republica Argentina being run on the - as it was then known - Autodromo de 17 Octobre in Buenos Aires. The race was the first round in the (Federation Internationale de l'Automobile) Commission Sportive Internationale Championnat du Monde des Conducteurs for the 1954 season.

Officine Alfieri Maserati / Maserati 250F/1 and Maserati A6GCM/54 250F/1

Scuderia Ferrari / Ferrari Tipo 625

Equipe Gordini / Gordini Type 16 Type 23

Equipe Rosier / Ferrari Tipo 500 and Ferrari Tipo 625

Harry Schell / Maserati A6GCM/54 250F/1

Baron de Graffenried / Maserati A6GCM/54 250F/1

Roberto Mieres / Maserati A6GCM 250F/1

Jorge Daponte / Maserati A6GCM 250F/1

Onofre Marimon / Maserati A6GCM 250F/1

Run on 17 January, this was the first race in the new "International Racing Formula One" which now stipulated a maximum engine displacement of 2,500 cubic centimeters if normally aspirated and 750 cc if supercharged. Naturally, despite having since late 1951 to prepare for this switch everyone was still fumbling around getting ready for the new formula. Essentially, the entire world's supply of existing Maserati Tipo 250F/1 engines were on the grid at Buenos Aires, but only two chassis of the type were at the event, all the other engines being fitted to A6GCM chassis as a stopgap measure. Ferrari was banking on using the same approach that had been so successful during the last two season of Formula 2 - a simple, robust but powerful four-cylinder engine in a simple, robust chassis. For the most part, new versions of the enlarged F2 engine were dropped into chassis from the previous season. Even Gordini made the long trek from France to see what crumbs it might be able to sweep from the table.

The real news was not so much who was on the grid, but who was missing. Lancia had announced that it was entering the Grand Prix fray and its new racing machine was quite a departure: it had a Vee-8 engine and a compact design that located the maximum weight possible within the wheelbase. The lead driver for Scuderia Lancia was to be Alberto Ascari, the champion for the previous two seasons and now an employee of Lancia - along with his great friend "Gigi" Villoresi - after a salary dispute with Enzo Ferrari.

Also absent were the entries from Daimler-Benz AG, the new Mercedes-Benz machines, the W196. The German team had the Argentine driver Juan Fangio in its employ, releasing him to drive for Maserati until their cars were ready in mid-Summer. Naturally, rumors were plentiful about the new German racing machine, but few doubted that its appearance would stir up things in the Grand Prix world.

Looking at the first grids for 1954 and 1964, not a single name shows up both grids. From 1954, only Maurice Trintignant would make an appearance on a Grand Prix grid while Umberto Maglioli would still be racing sports cars, winning the 1964 running of the Targa Florio. Onofre Marimon, Luigi Musso, Mike Hawthorn, Jean Behra, Louis Rosier, and Harry Schell would all die in the intervening years, all but one of them on a race track.

1944 saw racing as either a dim memory of past glories or hazy dream for the future.

Now, 1934 is an interesting year to figure out which event was actually the opening day for the Grand Prix year. Is it the I Vallentunaloppet at the Vallentuna ice racing site north of Stockholm in mid-February? Or is it the sixth running of the Grand Prix de Monaco at Monte Carlo 2 April? With some qualifications, I think that the Swedish race just might have gotten the nod, but I think that the honor really goes to Monaco.

Earl Howe / Maserati 8CM 8C-3000

Stable Whitney Straight / Maserati 8CM 8C-3000

Usines Bugatti / Bugatti Type 59

Pierre Veyron / Bugatti Type 51

Philippe Etancelin / Maserati 8CM 8C-3000

Scuderia Ferrari / Alfa Romeo Tipo B 8C-2900

Gruppo San Giorgio / Alfa Romeo 8C-2300

Tazio Nuvolari / Bugatti Type 59

Officine Alfieri Maserati / Maserati 4C-2500

Scuderia Siena / Maserati 8C-3000

With the 1934 season, the Commission Sportive Internationale of the Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnu introduced a new International Formula which stipulated that the cars had to be a minimum of 85 cm at the cockpit opening and weigh a maximum of 750 kilograms. That maximum weight did not include fuel, lubricant, coolant, or the tires. It did, however, include the wheels.

As ever, the announced objective of the formula was to reduce speed on the track. To a degree, this was probably achieved in the early events of the season, the speeds not being much different than the previous few seasons. However, at the end of May and the first week of June the Germans unveiled their new racing machines. At the AVUSrennen on 27 May, the new Auto-Union AG firm appeared with its racing machines, the Typ 1934 - formerly known as the "P-Wagen" after its designer Ferdinand Porsche.

The new Auto-Union machines had supercharged Vee-16 engines with a displacement of 4.4-litres located behind the driver and were fast, but fragile with only one of the new machines managing to cross the finish line in third place. The crowd of over 200,000 - including the Chancellor of the Third Reich - were disappointed with the result. The Italians were confident that they could still prevail, what with Guy Moll in a Scuderia Ferrari Alfa Romeo Tipo B easily leading the field home.

On 6 June, the eighth Eifelrennen was run on the Nürburgring. Present on the grid with the Auto-Union team were the supercharged straight-8 machines from Daimler-Benz AG, the Mercedes-Benz W25 cars. Unlike Auto-Union at the AVUS, the Mercedes-Benz team won its debut event of the season, albeit with an Auto-Union in second place.