Between 1950 and 1960 the Indianapolis 500 was included as a round of the championship, despite the fact the cars did not comply with Grand Prix regulations and was of little interest to the regular GP drivers.

Sixty nine years ago on May 13, 1950, 21 cars lined up at the 4.6km Silverstone circuit in England for a 70-lap race, which was given the title of the Grand Prix D'Europe. It was an historic moment, with the King, Queen and Princess Margaret in attendance with an estimated 100,000 spectators.

Alfa Romeo had entered four of the updated 158 models, which featured supercharged 1.5 litre straight eight engines producing 350 horsepower, driven by Dr Guiseppi Farina, Luigi Fagioli, Juan Manuel Fangio and British guest driver Reg Parnell. These four claimed the front row after dominating qualifying and, not surprisingly, finished one, two, three with Farina winning ahead of Fagioli and Parnell. Fangio retired with a broken oil line as a result of hitting a hay bale early in the race, otherwise it would have been a clean sweep.

Apart from these four cars most of the others, consisting of outdated models such as Maserati, Lago Talbot, ERA and Alta, were driven by privateers, with only Prince Birabongse of Siam (now Thailand) providing any opposition.

That year, the inaugural championship was contested over seven races in England, Monaco, the US, Switzerland, Belgium, France and Italy, with Farina becoming the first world champion in front of Fangio and Fagioli. Ferrari made its first appearance in the championship one week later at Monaco, with Alberto Ascari finishing second, one lap down behind Fangio.

Since 1950, there have been incredible developments in the championship, now a huge commercial enterprise with 21 races. The evolution from the front-engine cars of the 50s, with no safety considerations or aerodynamic assistance, to today's technological wizardry is sometimes hard to comprehend.

Comparing 1950 to the present day brings up some interesting data and provides a reminder of the rich history of the championship.

Between 1950 and 1958, the great Argentine driver Fangio started in all 51 GP races scoring 24 wins, a total of 35 podiums, 29 pole positions and five world titles. Hamilton, in contrast, between his F1 debut in 2007 and the end of last year, started in 229 races scoring 73 wins, a total of 134 podiums, 83 pole positions and five world titles.

Ferrari is the only team to have contested the championship every year and has been the most successful winning 16 constructors' championships and 15 drivers' championships. The top four constructors to win races are Ferrari (236), McLaren (182), Williams and Mercedes who between them have won 621 times.

There have been 33 drivers crowned world champion, with Michael Schumacher the most successful with seven titles followed by Fangio and Hamilton on five, Alain Prost and Sebastien Vettel on four and then Australia's Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda, Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna (three each).

The number of drivers who have started a world championship race is 764, and 107 of them have won a race, including the Indianapolis race winners.

The record for the most race wins is Schumacher with 91 and he also holds the record for the number of podium finishes at 155.

Brazil's Rubens Barrichello holds the record for the most starts at 323, and 71 race tracks in 32 countries have hosted a championship race. A total of 21 countries have had a race-winning driver. Britain holds the record for the most drivers to contest a race at 163.

On the debit side of this great sport is the fact that 48 drivers have died either in testing, practice, qualifying or races. Even more sobering is that 25 of them died in the first 10 years.