history of grand prix motor race

Motor racing was started in France, as a direct result of the enthusiasm with which the French public embraced the motor car.^[1] Manufacturers were enthusiastic due to the possibility of using motor racing as a shop window for their cars.^[1] The first motor race took place on July 22, 1894Le Petit Journal, a Parisian newspaper. It was run over the eighty mile distance between Paris and Rouen. The race was won by Jules de Dion, although he was not awarded the prize for first place as his car required a stoker and the judges deemed this outside of their objectives.^[2] and was organised by

In 1900, James Gordon Bennett, Jr., the owner of the New York Herald newspaper and the International Herald Tribune, established the Gordon Bennett Cup. He hoped that the creation of an international event would drive automobile manufacturers to improve their cars.^[3] Each country was allowed to enter up to three cars, which had to be fully built in the country that they represented and entered by that country's automotive governing body.^[3] International racing colours were established in this event.^[3] In the United States, William Kissam Vanderbilt II launched the Vanderbilt Cup at Long Island, New York in 1904.

The first event to carry the name Grand Prix was the Grand Prix de Pau in 1901,^[4] although this race was a one-off and the term Grand Prix was not in wide usage at the time. The first and only race at the time to regularly carry the name Grand Prix was organized by the Automobile Club de France (ACF), of which the first took place in 1906. The circuit used, which was based in Le Mans, was roughly triangular in shape, each lap covering 105 km (65 miles). Six laps were to run each day, and each lap took approximately an hour using the relatively primitive cars of the day. From the 32 entries representing 12 different automobile manufacturers, the Hungarian-born Ferenc Szisz (1873–1944) won the 1260 km race in a Renault. This race was regarded as the first Grand Épreuve, which meant "great trial" and the term was used from then on to denote up to the eight most important events of the year.^[5]

Races in this period were heavily nationalistic affairs, with a few countries setting up races of their own, but no formal championship tying them together. The rules varied from country to country and race to race, and typically centered around maximum (not minimum) weights in an effort to limit power by limiting engine size indirectly (10–15 L engines were quite common, usually with no more than four cylinders, and producing less than 50hp). The cars all had mechanics on board as well as the driver, and no one was allowed to work on the cars during the race except for these two. A key factor to Renault winning this first Grand Prix was held to be the detachable wheel rims (developed by Michelin), which allowed tire changes to occur without having to lever the tire and tube off and back on the rim. Given the state of the roads, such repairs were frequent.