The European Drivers' Championship was an annual competition in auto racing that existed prior to the establishment of the Formula One world championship in 1950. It was established in 1931 and ran until the end of 1939 with a hiatus from 1933–34, and awarded points to drivers based on the results of selected Grand Prix races, the so-called Grandes Épreuves (this term had been used for the most prestigious races since the 1920s; the only Grande Épreuve to be excluded from the championship was the 1931 German Grand Prix). The championship was discontinued because of the outbreak of World War II in 1939, and no champion was officially declared for the last season.
The championship was run by the Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus (AIACR), the forerunner to the FIA who are today's world governing body of motorsport.
History
thumb|215px|[[Hermann Lang demonstrating a Mercedes-Benz W125 at the Nürburgring in 1977. Lang drove a W125 to victory on its 1937 début.]]
The 1931 and 1932 seasons were run to existing Formula Libre regulations, with a minimum car weight of 900 kg. The calendar consisted of the Italian Grand Prix, the French Grand Prix and the Belgian Grand Prix/German Grand Prix.
In 1934, the AIACR introduced a maximum weight limit of 750 kg for Grand Prix cars. Already in 1933, new chancellor Adolf Hitler had announced that he would provide 450,000 reichsmarks to German companies to build Grand Prix cars. Eventually, the money was split between bidders, Mercedes-Benz and the newly formed Auto Union. The cars had to weigh between 400 kg and 850 kg; the exact minimum weight specified in the regulations was dependent on a car's engine capacity and followed a linear scale. Langlois took several months to propose a new system and there is no evidence to suggest that the previous scoring system was rescinded. Hermann Lang was declared European champion by Korpsführer Adolf Hühnlein of the NSKK, who was also president of Germany's highest racing organisation, Oberste Nationale Sportbehörde für die Deutsche Kraftfahrt. Hühnlein's declaration was published as a statement in the Völkischer Beobachter, the official Nazi Party newsletter.