From 1949 to 1976 the Isle of Man TT was part of the FIM Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing World Championship, serving as the British round of that series. Over time, growing concerns about the safety of the Snaefell Mountain Course led to a progressive boycott by leading riders and manufacturers. When Gilberto Parlotti was killed during the 1972 TT, his close friend and reigning world champion Giacomo Agostini announced he would never race on the Isle of Man again. Other prominent competitors joined Agostini's position, and by the 1976 season only a diminished field of serious Grand Prix riders was entering. Shortly after the 1976 TT, the FIM withdrew the event's world championship status and transferred the British Grand Prix to Silverstone for the 1977 season.
The race authorities of the Isle of Man TT worked with the Auto-Cycle Union to develop a replacement framework that would sustain international competition on the island. The result was the Formula TT series, divided into three capacity classes. TT Formula One was the premier class, admitting four-stroke engines between 600 and 1000 cc as well as two-stroke engines between 350 and 500 cc. The maximum four-stroke capacity was subsequently reduced to 750 cc from 1984 onwards. TT Formula Two covered smaller four-strokes from 400 to 600 cc and two-strokes from 250 to 350 cc, while TT Formula Three, which ran only from 1979 to 1981, admitted the smallest machines.
In the first two seasons, 1977 and 1978, the entire Formula TT programme consisted of a single event at the Isle of Man TT. From 1979 the Ulster Grand Prix at Dundrod in Northern Ireland was added as a second round. The championship gradually expanded through the early 1980s, incorporating additional venues including Vila Real in Portugal, the Dutch TT at Assen, Zolder in Belgium, and Brno in Czechoslovakia. By 1986 the TT Formula One championship encompassed eight events spread across multiple countries in Europe and Asia.
From 1987 onwards only Formula One races were contested, the smaller capacity classes having been dropped as commercial support contracted. The expanded calendar for 1986 and 1987 included venues such as Misano in Italy, the Hungaroring in Hungary, Sugo in Japan, and Donington Park in England alongside the traditional Isle of Man and Ulster rounds.
The launch of the Superbike World Championship in 1988 provided a commercially stronger alternative international series for production-based superbike machinery. The new championship proved popular with manufacturers, promoters, and television broadcasters, drawing support that had previously sustained the Formula TT. The FIM decided to conclude the Formula TT series at the end of the 1990 season, after which the Superbike World Championship became the dominant international road racing series for production-based machines.
The TT Formula One class thus served a transitional role in the history of motorcycle road racing, bridging the gap between the Grand Prix era at the Isle of Man and the establishment of modern superbike racing as the sport's primary non-Grand Prix international championship.
The Formula One machines of this era were high-performance derivatives of production road motorcycles, reflecting a philosophy that underpinned the later development of the WorldSBK rules. Dominant manufacturers included Honda, with its RC30 model becoming particularly associated with the class in its later years, along with Yamaha and Ducati machinery. The Snaefell Mountain Course, with its 37.73-mile length and 219 corners, remained the championship's spiritual home throughout the series' existence, and the Isle of Man round always carried the greatest prestige of any round in the calendar.