As soon as automobiles were created, people began racing them.

As with many sports, early efforts were often unorganized and disjointed.

After World War II, however, an effort was made to provide an organized

championship series for the world's best drivers.

Over the last seven years, this series has grown into the world's foremost racing circuit

and has become a business worth billions of dollars.

Learn more about Formula One and how it became such big business

on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. The origin of Formula One, aka F1, dates back to the earliest days of auto racing.

While every country with cars had people who started racing them, this story starts with auto racing in France.

In the early 20th century a type of auto racing known as Grand Prix racing developed.

Some of the earliest races were sponsored by car manufacturers as a form of marketing for their vehicles.

Grand Prix is just the French word for Grand Prize, and the term is now used generically for many different

types of car races.

The first races were literal road races where cars and drivers would race from one town to another.

These races were more about endurance than they were about speed.

In 1904, the International Association of Recognized Automobile Clubs, or AICR, as the acronym is in French, was formed.

At this point, car ownership was still pretty rare, and many car owners were in clubs. The AIACR in addition to serving motorists

also created an organization for the new automotive racing scene. In 1922

the AIACR created the Commission for International Sports or CIS, again in French,

which organized races and set rules for Grand Prix Racing.

In 1925, they created the World Manufacturers Championship, which as the name would imply was for manufacturers and not drivers.

For the first three seasons there were four Grand Prix in the competition,

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