Notes:
Emilio Giuseppe Farina, universally known as "Nino" Farina, was the first ever Formula 1 World Champion, in 1950. During his Formula 1 career he won five Formula 1 races, the British, Swiss and Italian Grands Prix in 1950, the Belgian Grand Prix in 1951, the German Grand Prix in 1953, and a number of Formula 1 non-Championship events.
Nino Farina was the nephew of Gian-Battista Pinin Farina the founder of the famous coach building company of Turin, Italy. From an early age he was expected to join the family business, but when he was just 19 Nino began his motor racing career, driving his father Giovanni's Alfa Romeo 1500 in the Aosta-San Bernardo hillclimb. His maiden race ended in an accident and he sustained a broken clavicle. This was only the first of many accidents this tough, aristocratic Italian sustained in his long career.
Farina opted to get his doctorate in political studies and law before launching a full-time career in motor sport. He drove a Maserati 4C in hillclimbs and circuit races, in 1934 he won the Masaryk Grand Prix for voiturette held at Brno, Czechoslovakia, and was able with his imperious, arms-at-length driving style, to impress Enzo Ferrari who recruited him to drive one of the Alfa Romeos for the Scuderia Ferrari in 1936, as number two driver to the great Tazio Nuvolari. His racing career really blossomed. His first season for the Scuderia was marred by the fatal accident that happened during the Grand Prix de Deauville, when Farina collided with Marcel Lehoux who was killed instantly.
In 1937 Farina finished tenth in the AIACR European Drivers Championship, scoring also a fifth place in the George Vanderbilt Cup at Roosevelt Raceway in the United States. He won numerous races in the Voiturette class, being declared the Italian Champion for the first of three years in a row, between 1937 and 1939, with further wins as in the 1937 Coppa Principessa di Piemonte at Posillipo Park circuit, Naples, in a Alfa Romeo 12C-36.
In 1938 Farina was involved in another fatal accident, that claimed the life of László Hartmann during the 1938 Tripoli Grand Prix at Mellaha circuit, being largely injured. He fully recovered and then he scored three second places in the Coppa Ciano at Montenero circuit of Livorno, in the Coppa Acerbo at Pescara and in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, finishing eighth in points in the AIACR European Driver Championship of that year. In 1939 he drove the Alfa Romeo 158 “Alfetta” winning the Coppa Ciano, the Swiss Grand Prix at Bremgarten and the Antwerp Grand Prix. He then went on to take his first major race win, in the 1940 Tripoli Grand Prix in Libya.
With the outbreak of World War II, motor racing came to an abrupt halt. Farina resumed racing in 1946, then aged 40, driving the “Alfetta” to win the Grand Prix de Genève et des Nations. In 1948 he drove an independent Maserati 4CLT, winning again at Genève, in the Monaco Grand Prix, and in the Gran Premio Ciudad de Mar del Plata, Argentina. The following year he won the Lausanne Grand Prix but also drove for Ferrari finishing second in the International Trophy at Silverstone behind team mate Alberto Ascari, and winning the Rosario Grand Prix in the Parque Independencia circuit, Rosario, Argentina. He and Reg Parnell were involved in a huge accident on the opening lap of the Czech Grand Prix, held on the Masarykův Okruh public roads circuit near the Moravian city of Brno, Czechoslovakia, on 25 September 1949, that resulted in the deaths of two spectators.
In that same days of 1949 Nino Farina married Elsa Giaretto, an elegant and stylish Italian woman from Turin. She vainly tried to persuade her husband to stop his racing activities, but just three days after their high society wedding he flew to a race in Argentina. Ten years after Nino’s death, Mrs. Elsa Giaretto Farina wrote with the journalist Gisella Castagnoli a touching book titled “A braccia tese” ("Arms-at-length"), dedicated to her late husband’s memory.
For the inaugural World Formula 1 Championship, introduced in 1950, Nino Farina was signed up by Alfa Romeo, alongside Juan Manuel Fangio and Luigi Fagioli, driving the invincible Alfa Romeo 158. The venerable “Three F’s” team mates Farina (44 year-old), Juan Manuel Fangio (39) and Luigi Fagioli (52) finished in that order in the standings. Farina took three outright victories over the seven rounds of the season, securing himself the first ever Formula 1 World Championship title at the grand old age of 44. He was a very private man and celebrated his triumph as such, he refused to get involved in the publicity that resulted.
The following season he was forced to play as second drive for the team, that was dedicated to Fangio, and he scored a solitary success in the Belgian Grand Prix, finishing fourth in points. He also won the second heat in the International Trophy non-championship race at Silverstone. In 1952 he moved to the Scuderia Ferrari where he met Ascari, another younger team mate who went on to win nine successive World Championship Grands Prix between 1952 and 1953, and achieved two World titles in a row. Farina finished runner-up in 1952 (four second places in the season), and third in 1953, taking his first win for Ferrari and the last of his five Formula 1 victories, in the 1953 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring.
On 18 January 1953 Farina was involved in another horrific accident during the Argentine Grand Prix. At least ten spectators were killed and a number of others were injured. That same year he shared a Ferrari 375MM with Mike Hawthorn to win the 24 Heures de Spa-Francorchamps, and with Ascari to win the 1000 km of the Nürburgring endurance races. In the beginning of 1954 Farina won the 1000 Km of Buenos Aires, round one of that year's World Sportscar Championship, co-driving with Umberto Maglioli in a Ferrari 375 Plus, and finished second to Fangio in the Argentine Formula 1 Grand Prix. Then he won the Agadir Grand Prix and the 12 Hours of Casablanca sportscar races in Morocco, and the Gran Premio di Siracusa in a Ferrari 625, only to be badly burnt on legs in a huge crash in the Supercortemaggiore sportscar race held on 27 June 1954 at Monza.
Farina bravely attempted a comeback in Formula 1 in 1955, dosing himself with painkillers to complete the races and was able to take points at Buenos Aires, Monaco and Spa-Francorchamps obtaining a fifth place in the final standings. However, his injuries caused him to announce his Formula 1 retirement at the end of the season. He was soon back, in a vain attempt to qualify at the Indianapolis 500, crashing in the process, before yet another accident in practice at the Supercortemaggiore sportscar race held at Monza exactly two years after his first crash, which left him with a broken collarbone. Recovered once more, he returned to Indianapolis in 1957, but after his car was destroyed in practice by his young American team mate Keith Andrews who lost his life, his enthusiasm for racing had gone and he decided to give up for good.
After his retirement Farina became a successful Alfa Romeo dealer, his interest in Formula 1 continued as did his confidence in his own driving ability. On Thursday, 30 June 1966, he started from Turin at the wheel of his Ford Lotus Cortina, traveling towards Reims for the French Grand Prix, scheduled to be contested the following weekend, but at Aiguebelle in the Alps near Chambery his car skidded off a slippery bend and the first World Champion was killed. It was ironic that after surviving so many racing accidents, Farina should lose his life in a road crash.
His body was sent back to Italy for burial and Nino Farina was laid to rest in the Cimitero Monumentale in his hometown Turin, along with his father, Commendatore Giovanni Farina (1884-1957) and his uncle, Gian-Battista Farina (1893-1966), who in 1961 officially changed his name to "Battista Pininfarina", authorized by the President of the Italian Republic.
 
The Farina family mausoleum at the Cimitero Monumentale in Torino, Italy, where Nino Farina was laid to rest.
Photo courtesy of Carlo Fertitta. Reproduced under kind permission, all rights reserved.
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