Welcome to Ctrl-Alt-F1.
Not only does this alternate championship have a catchy name and a badly edited logo (if anyone wants to make a better one, ping me), but it also has a huge amount of work that goes into it. Why? Because there are no Formula One drivers allowed.
For the purposes of this series, we imagine a reality where no real life F1 drivers ever made it to F1. Nothing else changes, but all the drivers who made it to F1 are assumed to have found a home in other realms of motorsports, and will be replaced by others who never raced in "the pinnacle of motorsport".
A few ground rules:
- A driver is considered ineligible if they have made a start in a World Championship Grand Prix.
- Drivers who competed only in Indy 500 races, and those who competed only in Formula Two races (either 1952 or 1953 seasons, or the races which used F2 cars as field fillers) will still be replaced for the sake of completeness.
- Crashes causing injuries or deaths will still occur in this timeline (otherwise, the changes made for the sake of safety would make no sense), but they will not be restricted to the exact car that suffered that fate in real life. RNGesus shall reassign the incident to any available car.
I will also be fiddling with the results to make them pass the smell check: we cannot simply put some scrub into Juan Manuel Fangio's seat and expect them to deliver the exact same results as he did. Some driver transfers will also go differently for narrative purposes: just because Fernando Alonso came back in 2021 does not mean that Tomas Scheckter (his Ctrl-Alt-F1 alter ego) will do the same; perhaps Alpine would prefer to sign some other old fart to the team?
At time of writing, I have planned out exactly 300 new drivers' careers in detail, and I am nowhere near done - especially as all of these plans could will go out of the window when unexpected drivers befall the crashes that met the drivers of real life.
Actual seasons coming soon!
The British Grand Prix was a dominant statement of intent from Alfa Romeo, who locked out the entire podium with Franco Cortese, Giovanni Rocco and local driver Roy Parnell. There wasn't much else to report here outside of it being the first-ever World Championship Grand Prix, passing mostly without incident.
The Monaco Grand Prix absolutely did not pass without incident. In practice for his team's first ever Grand Prix, Sergio Sighinolfi suffered a crash that left him with season-ending injuries. Not only that, but a Lap 1 incident caused by a rogue wave coming over the harbour and flooding the track caused half of the field to retire from the race including Ferdinando Ringhetti and Marc Versini, who are both forced to miss the Swiss Grand Prix as a result of minor injuries.
The Indianapolis 500 featured none of the World Championship regulars, and was won by Herb Bryers from South Bend Speedway owner Charles van Acker. But it's irrelevant, so meh.
The Swiss Grand Prix saw yet another race win for Alfa Romeo. Franco Cortese came out on top again, winning from Giovanni Rocco and Pierre Meyrat. Ferrari suffered yet more injury woes when Pietro Palmieri crashed out of the race; he is not expected to be fit to race in Belgium. On the bright side, Alfredo Pian was able to pick up his first World Championship point in a carney Maserati.
The Belgian Grand Prix could yet prove to be decisive in the Championship battle. Alberto Crespo picked up another win while his teammate Cortese suffered mechanical difficulties and fell back to fourth place. Giovanni Rocco picked up yet another second-place, ahead of Pierre Meyrat again.
In the French Grand Prix, another Alfa Romeo 1-2 occurred. Alberto Crespo ahead of Giovanni Rocco again, while Tom Cole rounded out the podium a couple of laps down in his privateer Ferrari. Another race without much to report.
A couple of months later, the Italian Grand Prix rolled around as the Championship decider. Crucially, Alberto Crespo retired due to gearbox problems. He tried commandeering Porfirio Rubirosa's car to recover some points, only for its engine to fail mere laps after he took the helm. As a result of his fourth place in Belgium, Franco Cortese managed to pick up the World Championship along with his race win. Juan Galvez and the grand old man of Italian racing, Tazio Nuvolari shared a drive to second place, with Rocco rounding out the podium.
The first race of the season was the Swiss Grand Prix, which saw 1950 runner-up Alberto Crespo take a dominant Grand Prix win. Unlike last season, his closest challenge came not from within his own team, but from Ferrari's gentleman driver Gianni Marzotto, who finished second on Grand Prix debut. Reigning World Champion Franco Cortese came third in a surprisingly uneventful Grand Prix
This year's Indianapolis 500 was won by George Hammond. This sole appearance would ultimately be enough for 8th in the Championship.
At the Belgian Grand Prix, Crespo's car failed him - a transmission failure relegating him to a pointless ninth. Instead, Franco Cortese retook the Championship lead by claiming a dominant win. Again his closest challenger was a Ferrari driver: this time, Sergio Sighinolfi,
Crespo had mechanical difficulties again at the French Grand Prix; this time, the team ordered that Giovanni Rocco hand over his healthy car to the driver explicitly anointed their team leader for the first time. This move worked, as Alberto Crespo was ultimately the first to cross the finish line, overhauling his compatriot Alfredo Pian in the Ferrari, justifying the decision to unseat Roberto Vallone to make way for him. For the second race running, Juan Galvez came in third.
Pian went one better at the British Grand Prix, claiming Ferrari's first World Championship victory at the Silverstone Circuit. Although Crespo was able to limit his losses by coming home in second place, it still gave off all the signs of a changing of the guard: the Ferrari had become the car to beat. Further down the field, Oscar Alfredo Galvez completed an all-Argentine podium, with Roy Parnell's fifth place the leading result for a home driver.
The German Grand Prix further cemented that view as Sergio Sighinolfi came home in first place. Crespo again secured second place to extend his Championship lead, and Pian made it a hat-trick of podiums in third. You will be noticing by now that this is a season dominated by a handful of Italian and Argentine drivers.
This trend continued at the Italian Grand Prix, where Sergio Sighinolfi secured a historic triumph for an Italian, at the wheel of a Ferrari, at Monza. A rare retirement for Crespo ensured that the Championship would be a three-way shoot-out at Pedralbes, one which would be reminiscent of Pixar's Cars if only it didn't pre-date it by nearly 60 years.
Going into the Spanish Grand Prix, the situation was as follows:
Alberto Crespo - 24 points (max possible: 28, 2 wins)
