Next month's Bahrain Grand Prix will mark the beginning of the 60th anniversary of F1 and three Italian winners from that first decade - the Alfa Romeo 158 (top), Ferrari 500 F2 (bottom) and Maserati 250F (middle) - will be honoured at the race.

Next month's Bahrain Grand Prix will mark the beginning of the 60th anniversary of F1 and three Italian winners from that first decade - the Alfa Romeo 158, Ferrari 500 F2 and Maserati 250F - will be honoured at the race. On March 12-14 these three legends will join up to celebrate Bahrain as the opening race of the 2010 season and to mark the diamond anniversary of Formula One racing.

It was in 1950, after 44 years, two world wars and one abortive attempt, that Grand Prix racing gained the honour of an official world championship under the auspices of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile. At the outset much still remained of the sport’s origins, taking place on circuits formed from closed public highways in Europe and it was presided over by the last of the true grandee teams: Alfa Romeo.

The astonishing 1.5-litre supercharged type 158 ‘Alfettas’ were designed during 1937-38 and kept hidden in a monastery during WW2, but emerged to dominate every grand prix they entered. In 1950 the team was known as the ‘three F’s’ for its driver line-up, consisting of Italian aces Giuseppe Farina and Luigi Fagioli plus the remarkable talent of the Argentinean driver Juan Manuel Fangio. This trio were at their peak in time for the first ever round of the World Championship; the British Grand Prix which took place at Silverstone on May 13 1950. Under the watchful eyes of King George VI, Queen Elizabeth, the princesses Elizabeth and Margaret and up to a quarter of a million fans, the world championship began as a demonstration run for the ‘Three F’s’ from which Farina would emerge victorious.

The Alfa Romeo team remains statistically the most successful of all time, losing only three races between 1945 and 1951, and the 1950 Alfetta takes pride of place in the display at the BIC throughout the celebrations.

Although Alfa Romeo abandoned the sport at the end of 1951, a new superteam was already emerging. Enzo Ferrari had raced for Alfa Romeo in the 1920s and through the next decade established his privately-entered team under the name of Scuderia Ferrari. After making a fortune producing ball bearings during World War 2 Ferrari decided to become a constructor in his own right and, at the 1951 British Grand Prix, his 4.5-litre unsupercharged car became the first to defeat Alfa Romeo in the hands of Argentinean star José Froilan Gonzales. In 1952-53 Ferrari was insuperable. Due to an absence of Formula One machinery, the world championship was held for Formula Two cars and in this smaller category Ferrari was supreme thanks to its 500 F2 cars. With the dazzling talents of Alberto Ascari leading the team, Ferrari won 14 out of 15 races entered and one of these gem-like cars will also be present at the BIC from March 12-14.

In 1954-60 the 2.5-litre Formula One rules brought stability and a raft of new constructors – among which the return of Mercedes-Benz was far and away the most spectacular. With its heritage of success dating back to the 1900s, Mercedes had lain dormant since 1939. In 1954 the German superteam was reborn; producing the innovative W196 car and harnessing it to the magnificent talents of Juan Manuel Fangio to dominate the next two seasons. One of these all-conquering silver machines will be present to witness the return of Mercedes-Benz after 55 years at the 2010 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix. Fangio remained the single greatest talent in the sport, excelling on the great road circuits such as Reims, Rouen, Monaco, Pescara and Spa-Francorchamps.

After Alfa Romeo and Mercedes he moved to Ferrari to win his fourth title in 1956 and then in 1957 he won his fifth and final championship with Maserati. In that 1957 season, at the wheel of his Maserati 250F, Fangio drove races that remain for many the finest ever seen. His final career victory at the 1957 German Grand Prix came after clawing back more than a minute on the leading Ferraris in which the Maestro claimed to have driven beyond even his own great powers and, fittingly, a Maserati 250F will be at the BIC on March 12-14 in tribute.

As the 1950s rolled on the races grew shorter, purpose-built race tracks became more popular and a tide of British racing green to begin flowing over the horizon. Having been a minor player in the sport before 1939, the British invasion of Grand Prix racing began when the insouciant talents of Mike Hawthorn took him to Ferrari and then to victory in the 1953 French GP. Hawthorn blazed the trail and was followed into the winner’s circle by Stirling Moss and Peter Collins, while British constructors BRM, Vanwall, Connaught, Cooper and Lotus rose to prominence. In terms of race wins nobody could touch Stirling Moss, but fate decreed that the Formula One world championship was never to be his. In 1958 it was Hawthorn won the drivers’ title at the wheel of a Ferrari, although Moss’s race wins ensured that Vanwall became the inaugural winner of the Formula One constructors’ championship. In 1959 however there came a dramatic change. The grand and elegant front-engined cars that had dominated the sport since the 1900s were usurped by a tiny little creation with the engine behind the driver. British engineer John Cooper took inspiration from the pre-war Auto Union cars to produce a lighter, more nimble machine and with it the raw talent of Australian racer Jack Brabham shone through. Brabham and Cooper claimed the 1959-60 world championships and set a new template for Formula One designs that remains to this day.

“The 1950s was an extremely charismatic era for the Formula One World Championship,” said Shaikh Salman bin Isa Al Khalifa, acting CEO of the Bahrain International Circuit. “It is our pleasure and privilege to bring together the cars of Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Mercedes and Maserati that won the titles in the sport’s earliest years, and I am particularly looking forward to welcoming Sir Jack Brabham to the Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix on March 12-14 alongside his title-winning Cooper.”