Mercedes drivers won the championship for the next two years, before the team withdrew from all motorsport competitions due to the 1955 Le Mans disaster.

This resulted in cars that were previously dependent on electronic aids becoming very "twitchy" and difficult to drive. It is perhaps on these sorts of details that readers may feel that the book could have been better presented. Drivers may also be issued a Super Licence by the World Motor Sport Council if they fail to meet the criteria. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.

Companies such as Climax, Repco, Cosworth, Hart, Judd and Supertec, which had no direct team affiliation, often sold engines to teams that could not afford to manufacture them. They were also joined by the US F1 Team, which planned to run out of the United States as the only non-European-based team in the sport. The cost of building a brand-new permanent circuit can be up to hundreds of millions of dollars, while the cost of converting a public road, such as Albert Park, into a temporary circuit is much less. Following the murder of George Floyd in the summer of 2020, all twenty drivers wore "End Racism" shirts and took part in an organised anti-racism protest during the pre-race formalities.

Early manufacturer involvement came in the form of a "factory team" or " works team" (that is, one owned and staffed by a major car company), such as those of Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, or Renault. This race was run to American Automobile Association, and later United States Automobile Club, Championship Car regulations, rather than to Formula One regulations.During this period, any driver whose best lap takes longer than 107% of the fastest time in Q1 will not be allowed to start the race without permission from the stewards. During 1962, Lotus introduced a car with an aluminium-sheet monocoque chassis instead of the traditional space-frame design. Entrants included a reborn Team Lotus – which was led by a Malaysian consortium including Tony Fernandes, the boss of Air Asia; Hispania Racing – the first Spanish Formula One team; as well as Virgin Racing – Richard Branson's entry into the series following a successful partnership with Brawn the year before. The slower car is said to be "lapped" and, once the leader finishes the race, is classified as finishing the race "one lap down".

Grands Prix take place in multiple countries and continents around the world on either purpose-built circuits or closed public roads. All points won at each race are added up, and the driver and constructor with the most points at the end of the season are crowned World Champions. Starting in 2000, with Ford's purchase of Stewart Grand Prix to form the Jaguar Racing team, new manufacturer-owned teams entered Formula One for the first time since the departure of Alfa Romeo and Renault at the end of 1985.During the early 1990s, the number of entries was so high that the worst-performing teams had to enter a pre-qualifying session, with the fastest cars allowed through to the main qualifying session. From 2021 onwards, Aston Martin supplies the Vantage to Formula One to use as the safety car, sharing the duty with Mercedes-Benz. The first world championship race took place at Silverstone Circuit in the United Kingdom on 13 May 1950.