Goodwood Revival to celebrate Alfa Romeo’s greatest motorsport achievements

Alfa Romeo’s sporting presence has been constant since it first appeared as A.L.F.A at the 1911 Targa Florio. The marque grew to become a major force through its first decade with the 40/60 HP, but the brand’s first major motorsport triumph came in 1923 when Ugo Sivocci and Antonio Ascari finished first and second in the Targa Florio, both driving Alfa Romeo RLs. A symbolic race for many reasons, this was the first time we saw the famous cloverleaf motif, which Alfa retains to this day to signify its most capable performance cars.

Automotive progress continued apace, and in 1925 Alfa Romeo announced itself on the world stage with its exemplary P2. A car that won on its Grand Prix debut at the Circuit of Cremona in Italy and twice more at Lyon and Monza in 1924, it was the class of the motorsport world in ’25. The P2 took victory at two of the three World Championship Grands Prix it entered, becoming the first ever Manufacturers’ Champion.

It wasn’t the perfect season, however, as Alfa’s beloved driver, Antonio Ascari, suffered a fatal crash at the French Grand Prix at Montlhéry. Gastone Brilli-Peri took an emotional victory for thousands of grieving Italians two months later to confirm Alfa Romeo’s status as the best in the world.

In all, the Alfa Romeo P2 won 14 Grands Prix between 1924 and 1930, making it one of the preeminent cars of the era. That was only the beginning of the marque’s illustrious motor racing history, though, because this burgeoning manufacturer was already working on its next world beater.  

The World Championship for Manufacturers fell by the wayside in 1927, but the new European Drivers’ Championship was introduced in 1931 in an attempt to maintain an organised Grand Prix season. While Alfa managed to claim another Championship triumph thanks mainly to superior reliability, its performance advantage was reinstated in 1932 with the introduction of the new Tipo B, more commonly known as the Alfa Romeo P3.

Widely considered the original single-seater racing car, the P3 was a remarkable feat of engineering. An evolution of the already hugely successful P2, it was immediately the class of the Grand Prix field. In the hands of Tazio Nuvolari, it won on its first outing at Monza by a huge margin, and completed a clean sweep of 1932 European Championship to once again confirm Alfa Romeo’s superiority on the Grand Prix stage.

Financial struggles threatened to see the P3’s life ended there, but after several months gathering dust the P3 was eventually handed over to Enzo Ferrari, whose Scuderia Ferrari used it to win six of the final 11 Grands Prix of 1933.

More victories followed in 1934, even as Mercedes and Auto Union gathered momentum with their own bespoke racers. The P3 still managed to win 18 of the 35 Grands Prix held in Europe, by this time making it one of the most successful cars of the pre-war era. It was only by 1935, when the German manufacturers were developing ever more powerful engines that Alfa Romeo was finally overthrown, but by then the legend had already been written.

Alongside its exploits in Grand Prix racing, Alfa was also developing a reputation in sportscars. The likes of Giuseppe Campari, Nuvolari and Achile Varzi contributed to ten Mille Miglia victories between 1928 and 1938, first with the 6C and later the 8C. It was only a matter of time until these cars were taken for a run at Le Mans, and the inevitable success came when Francis Curzon, the 5^th Earl Howe, and Sir Henry Birkin drove their 8C 2300 to victory in 1931.

That was the first of four consecutive triumphs at the Circuit de la Sarthe, as the 8C proved nigh unbeatable ahead of the best that Talbot, Aston Martin and Bugatti had to offer. By the beginning of World War II, Alfa Romeo was the undisputed benchmark. Among its final creations at that time was the Alfa Romeo 158, which in the hands of Giuseppe Farina (among others) quickly became the dominant force of Voiturette racing.

Although its early momentum was scuppered by global events, the 158 picked up where it left off in 1946, winning virtually at will for the rest of the decade before arriving at Silverstone on 13^th May 1950 with an opportunity to create a legacy that would survive ad infinitum.

The best car of the age lured the best drivers, and with Farina and Juan Manuel Fangio at the wheel, the 158 ‘Alfetta’ won all five races it entered to see Farina crowned as the first ever Formula 1 World Champion. Alfa drivers completed the top three positions, with Fangio second and Luigi Fagioli third, a remarkable demonstration of engineering brilliance that rendered its competitors mere also-rans.

It was updated for 1951, and the 159 maintained its advantage over emerging challengers from Ferrari and Maserati. This time it was Fangio who made best use of his equipment, and he breezed to his first World Championship. However, faced with increasing costs to keep up with the ever-steepening development curve F1 demanded to remain competitive, Alfa Romeo shook the world of motorsport by announcing its immediate withdrawal from Grand Prix racing at the end of that ’51 season.

While no-one could have expected the world’s greatest sporting marque to make such a drastic decision, that wasn’t the end of Alfa Romeo’s journey. In place of F1, the Italian manufacturer made a successful return to road racing, first with the Giulietta SZ and later with the Giulia TZ and GTA, winning the Alpine Rally six times between 1956 and ’66. Alfa also made its first forays into rallying, winning the Italian Rally Championship three years on the trot in 1962, ’63 and ’64.

Next up was the beginning of what would become an illustrious association with touring car racing, as once again Alfa Romeo came, saw and conquered. Between 1966 and 1972 the marque claimed ten championships with several cars in multiple classes, demonstrating its ability to turn any of its cars into a force to be reckoned with.

Throughout this time, however, Alfa Romeo had begun sowing the seeds for its next assault on a World Championship, this time in sportscars. The Tipo 33 first appeared on 12^th March 1967 at the relatively low-key Fléron hillclimb in Belgium, and took victory with Teodoro Zeccoli to immediately confirm its potential. It was a distinct machine, with a bulbous canopy-like windscreen and an F1-style airbox integrated into the roll hoop, and powered by a 274PS (201kW) 2.0-litre V8.

More development was needed before it would trouble the likes of Porsche and Ferrari in the World Sportscar Championship, though, and Alfa introduced several iterations of the T33 through the late 1960s and into the ‘70s. The engine grew to 3.0-litres, power rose to 400PS (298kW), but still it wasn’t enough to overthrow the might of the 5.0-litre Porsche 917s and Ferrari 512s.

The 5.0-litre cars were outlawed for 1972, and suddenly Alfa had a fighting chance, but first the T33 would need a radical overhaul. The V8 was out, a 3.0-litre flat-12 was in, and in 1974 the F1-style airbox was back. Alfa Romeo’s newly-categorised Group 5 Tipo 33TT12 was finally ready to conquer the world.

It did so in traditional Alfa fashion, absolutely annihilating the competition in 1975 in the hands of drivers Arturo Merzario, Jacques Lafitte, Henri Pescarolo, Derek Bell and Jochen Mass. In all, the car won seven of the eight races it entered that season, enough to claim maximum points for the Championship standings. It was the culmination of almost a decade of hard work and dedication to return Alfa Romeo to the top of world motorsport, bringing this remarkable story that spanned half a century to an appropriate close.

And that’s where Goodwood’s Alfa Romeo celebration will end at the 2025 Revival, giving those in attendance the opportunity to experience many of these great stories first hand. It’s sure to be a spectacular and evocative part of the event, with a wide variety of machinery set to take part in a dynamic parade on the Motor Circuit, from the all-conquering P3 to the Tipo 33.

Tickets for the Goodwood Revival are now available and you can save up to 10% when you buy before 1^st May 2025 with early bird pricing.