The Modern Formula One Drivers' World Championship competition has been run annually since 1950, but don't make the mistake of thinking that Formula One or Grand Prix racing did not exist before then. In fact Grand Prix racing as motor sport's premier league dates way back to 1906, while the set of regulations to govern Grand Prix cars has been known as `Formula One' since 1948.

But it has been the annual Drivers' World Championship which has captured the public's imagination - along with the Formula One Manufacturers' Championship which was introduced as an adjunct to the drivers' competition in 1958.

Initially, the Formula One cars of 1950-51 were almost all of pre-World War 2 design, with engines ahead of the driver and narrow wire-spoked wheels and tyres. Two alternative engine sizes were admissible - 1.5 -litres Supercharged or 4.5-litres unsupercharged.

But Formula One was thinly supported at factory level and when Alfa Romeo retired their dominant team at the end of 1951, race promoters turned to 2-litre unsupercharged Formula 2 instead to provide full Grand Prix starting grids. The FIA governing body then conferred Drivers' World Championship status upon F2 for two seasons, 1952-53, but had announced the first true postwar Formula One rules ready to take effect 1954-57. Supercharging was effectively banned and normally-aspirated engines were reduced to 2.5 litres capacity.

World Championship qualifying races had to be at least 500kms (312 miles) or 3 hours duration and competing cars burned potent alcohol fuel brews. This changed when the 2.5 -litre Formula was revised for 1958-1960. Fuel brews were banned, engines had to burn maximum 130-octane AvGas petrol instead while Grand Prix duration was slashed to 300kms or 2 hours.

AvGas-burning engines were more economical than the old alcohol burners and this, in addition to shorter races, produced smaller cars with less fuel tankage. In particular the rear-engined cars from Cooper proved more nimble and faster than the traditional front-engined designs. In 1959-60 rear-engined Coopers won the World Championship titles, driven by Jack Brabham, his team-mate, Bruce McLaren and the great Stirling Moss.

From 1961-65 the Formula One engine size was restricted to just 1.5- litres, the last front-engined F1 car was the 4-wheel drive Ferguson of 1961 and the smallest, sleekest Grand Prix cars ever seen were produced.

Big engines reappeared with the start of the long-lived 3-litre Formula in 1966 and it ran with only detail - mainly safety - changes until 1984. Aerodynamic design emerged with tall strutted wings, then control of the airflow beneath the cars to provide download against the roadway. But major innovation came in 1977 when Renault Sport took advantage of a hitherto ignored sub-clause in the Formula One regulations, permitting forced-induction cars of only 1.5-litres capacity. Renault sport used an exhaust-driven turbocharger to boost their cars' power and this rapidly proved to be the way to go - Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, BMW and others following Renault down this path into the era of the turbocharged F1 car. 1981-88 - During this period McLaren-TAG Turbo was particularly dominant, but by 1988 Formula One regulations mitigated against turbocharged power, and maximum 3.5-litre naturally-aspirated engines were phased in, and the turbo option was banned in 1989.

Modern Formula One permits engines of only 3-litres capacity, this requirement having been applied from the start of the 1995 season, and as the Formula One World Championships' for Drivers' and Constructors' proceed through their fifth decade, Grand Prix racing itself has now been with us for more than 90 long years.