The day the Daily Express airlifted a whole racing car to Silverstone...but the British team still didn't win!

Thankfully, 75 years on, things have taken an upturn for UK Formula One. Motoring writer PETER GRIMSDALE charts the rebirth post-Second World War of racing, and why it's become a £7billion business for Britain

- Motoring writer PETER GRIMSDALE

FOR Britain's McLaren, this season's Grand Prix championship looks like it's in the bag. With 12 out of 15 victories claimed, only a dramatic upset can halt the Woking-based team's cruise to glory. British-built cars have won a grand total of 537 Formula One races, almost twice as many as any other country.

But 75 years ago, that looked like an impossible dream.

August 26, 1950, should have been a glorious day for British motor sport. Ever since the end of the Second World War, racing fans had been promised a competitive Britishmade Grand Prix car. Finally, at the Daily Express-sponsored International Trophy race at Silverstone, a former RAF station, the wait was over or should have been.

This was the debut race of the 400 bhp V16 BRM, the most advanced racing car Britain had built. Armed with a Rolls-Royce supercharger, like those that had given the Spitfire's Merlin engines their extra Battle of Britain-winning oomph, it produced so much power that wheelspin was possible in all five gears.

The new machine almost didn't make it as it needed a last-minute engine change. Race sponsors the Daily Express, hearing about this 11th-hour panic, arranged for it to be airlifted from BRM's workshops in Bourne, Lincolnshire, to the track.

When the start flag dropped, the field surged forward - all except the BRM, which remained stranded on the start line. The moment its driver Raymond Sommer lifted the clutch, both drive shafts had sheared, the enormous torque of the V16 was too much for them.

Mechanics rushed to assist, but Sommer levered himself from the cockpit and walked away in disgust. A group of spectators near the start line jeered and threw halfpennies at the car.

Alfa Romeo cruised to victory, just as they had in the British Grand Prix three months before. And they made it look so effortless.