1954 Formula One season

The 1954 Formula One season was the eighth season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the fifth World Championship of Drivers, which was contested over nine races between 17 January and 24 October 1954. The season also included several non-championship races for Formula One cars.

Juan Manuel Fangio won his second Drivers' Championship, after previously winning it in 1951.^[1] After the first couple of races, he switched teams, going from Maserati to Mercedes-Benz, making him the only F1 driver in history to win a championship driving for more than one team in the same season.

After the championship had been run under Formula Two regulations for two seasons, the maximum engine displacement was increased to 2.5 litres for 1954. This increased average power outputs by 150%^[2] and attracted several new constructors. At the same time, some F2 constructors withdrew, while others intended to compete but could not get an F1 chassis ready in time.

Argentinian Onofre Marimón suffered a fatal accident during practice for the German Grand Prix. Coming over one of the steep hills, he went straight through the corner at the bottom. His Maserati hit a ditch, somersaulted and landed on top of him. It was the first fatality during an F1 championship weekend.

In 1955, the movie The Racers came out, the story of which was based on the life of Rudolf Caracciola. Real-life racing footage from the 1954 F1 season was used, including in-race shots from a camera car that started behind the drivers in the Belgian Grand Prix. This approach would be recreated in the 1966 film Grand Prix.