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  JUAN FANGIO

  1951 - 1957

  ‘Getting to know the Nurburgring was likegetting to know a woman. You can’t memorize 176curves over more than 14 miles, just as you can’tmemorize 176 feminine wiles after a short acquaintance.’So said Juan Manuel Fangio in his book, MyRacing Life. By the time he first raced at the mostdemanding circuit in the world he was 40 yearsold, an age at which most sportsmen are ex-sportsmen and in pipe-and-slipper mode. But Fangiocannot be included in the phrase ‘most sportsmen’, for so deep was his well of skill, experienceand endurance that he continued racing until hewas 47. He also left his greatest race almost to thevery last, for his victory over the Ferraris of MikeHawthorn and Peter Collins in the German GrandPrix of 1957 is regarded by many as the greatestdrive of all time. It also completed his hat-trick ofvictories in the race, equalling the achievement ofhis greatest rival, Alberto Ascari, and it is worthnoting that Fangio never won at the Nurburgringwhile Ascari was around.Although separated by seven years and halfa-world, the two men began their racing careersalmost in tandem. The 27 year-old Fangio beganin 1938 with a Ford V8 in his native Argentina,whereas the 22 year-old Ascari got started withEnzo Ferrari’s Vettura 815 in the 1940 Mille Miglia.That same year Fangio scored his first win, witha Chevrolet, and he became Argentine Champion, a feat he repeated in 1941. The war in Europebrought road racing in Argentina to a halt until1947, when Fangio resumed his career and in 1948he travelled to Europe and took part in two racesat Reims, driving a Gordini. He retired in both,but went back to Argentina with a Maserati 4CLTunder his arm. With that he won the Mar del Plata GP early in 1949 and then returned to Europefor the season, racking up six wins, five with theMaserati. As a result, he was signed up for the 1950Formula One season by Alfa Romeo.

  In common with Alberto Ascari he was due tomake his debut at the Nurburgring in the first postwar German GP, but unlike Ascari he never madethe starting grid. As the race was for F2 cars hewas entered in a works 4CLT Maserati. However,its new 6-cylinder engine suffered a cracked blockand as no spare was availably it was withdrawnfrom the race. Ascari, on the other hand, won poleposition with his Ferrari and then romped away toan easy victory.The next German GP was a pukka Formula 1affair, counting towards the World Championship,which Nino Farina had won with Alfa Romeo in1950. Alfas sent four 159s to the Nurburgring, having already won the first three Grandes Epreuvesof the season, the third being the French GP at Reims, where Fangio had taken over Fagioli’s car toscore the 27th consecutive victory for the supercharged Alfa 158/159 since1946. However, this remarkable run came toan end in the very next race, when Jose FroilanGonzalez won the British GP at Silverstone withFerrari’s unblown 4.5-litre car, the 375. Was this thewriting on the wall for the 1.5-litre superchargedengine?Scuderia Ferrari certainly thought so and sentfour 375s to the Ring, their 4.5-litre V12s pushingout 350 bhp @ 7,000 rpm. By contrast, the straighteight Alfas produced around 420 bhp, but approximately 135 of this was required to drive the Rootstype two-stage supercharger, and the engine hada voracious thirst, consuming a gallon of fuel forevery 1.6 miles of road.The Ferraris were for Ascari, Gonzalez, GigiVilloresi and Piero Taruffi; the Alfas for Fangio,Farina, Felice Bonetto and one other. Louis Chiron and Willy Daetweiler were considered beforeAlfas finally settled on the German Paul Pietsch,who selection was so late that he only managedtwo practice laps.

  Fangio set about learning the circuit in thecar Alfa Romeo had given him as part of hiscontract, a 2.5-litre, six-cylinder coupe. ‘I tried tomemorize the circuit from the start onwards,’ hewrote. ‘When the day of the race came, I knew itby memory as far as the eighth mile.’This explains his crash in practice, when, byhis own admission, he confused one high-speedcurve with another and entered a left-hander toofast. ‘I was taken by surprise,’ he wrote, ‘triedto change down and the clutch didn’t respond.I went off the track sideways. In the end the tailhit a mound of earth that was between me and aline of trees and that stopped the car. I’m glad thatmound was there.’This makes his performance in practice allthe more remarkable for, as John Cooper wrote inThe Autocar, ‘The practice period for the race hadrevealed an unprecedented state of affairs, withAlfa Romeo positively rattled and Ferrari makingthe two best practice times.’ These were set by Ascari and Gonzalez, who recorded 9 min 55.8 secsand 9’ 57.5” respectively.Despite knowing only the first eight milesand driving the remaining six on reflexes, Fangioimmediately established himself as a Ringmeisterin waiting by recording 9’ 59.0”. Nevertheless, ‘Theold air of “invincibility” appears to have departed from the Alfa camp,’ noted Autosport, adding‘The state of affairs with Ferrari that same eveningseemed very different. The cars, looking new andclean and very formidable, were ready, but with afew mechanics carrying out unhurried tasks.’Despite this and his unwanted excursioninto the under¬growth, Juan Manuel made a superb start and led for the opening lap, houndedby Gonzalez, Farina and Ascari, but the latter wasin second place as they flashed past the pits. Andthat is where he stayed until the fifth tour, whenhe took the lead at Breidscheid. Next time roundand Fangio was in for fuel and new rear wheels,rejoining the race in fifth place after 38 seconds.Ascari now led from Gonzalez, who was only fourseconds behind.Things began to go wrong for Alfa Romeo onlap two, when Paul Pietsch left the road at the Karussell, losing some seven minutes in the processand then, on the following lap, Bonetto stopped atthe pits with his engine mis-firing badly. He wassent on his way with it in no better shape.Farina stopped shortly after Fangio, only toretire at the pits in disgust a couple of laps laterwith damaged oil and water pipes, due to thebumps and jumps on the tortuous circuit.

  Ascari made his scheduled pit stop on lapnine, allowing Gonzalez and Fangio to go past.Gonzalez then stopped and Ascari, going like thewind, caught and passed Fangio. But not for long,as the latter came back with a lap in 9 mins 56.0secs to retake the lead on lap 11. He then completed lap 12 in 9’ 55.8”, which was to be the fastest lapof the race, and led Ascari by 14.5 secs.Alfa Romeo then suffered another blow whenPaul Pietsch, in fifth place and out of his depth inthe very powerful 159, overdid things in the NorthTurn, shot up into the air backwards and disappeared from view. Happily, he reappeared on foota few moments later, to great applause from thespectators on the grandstand, who had seen thewhole thing and feared the worst for their man,but another Alfa was out of the race and only Fangio was left to do battle with Ascari and Gonzalez.On lap 14 he made his second pit stop, stillonly 14 seconds ahead of Ascari. To make mattersworse he stalled the Alfa on take off and then hadtrouble changing gear as he was pushed back intothe race, which was now lost to Ferrari. However,the Alfa pit saw a glimmer of hope on lap 17 whenAscari took everyone by surprise and made an unscheduled stop for new rear tyres. This detainedhim for 40 seconds, and Rodney Walkerley notedthat ‘Ascari sat tapping his knee with nervous impatience and looking over his shoulder,’ but hewas away again before the snarl of the Alfa enginecould be heard approaching the pits. Ascari wasstill half a minute ahead and with the Alfa’s gearbox playing up, there was nothing Fangio could doabout it. He completed the 20 laps 30.5 secs behindthe Ferrari.‘Alfa Romeo certainly did not deserve to win,’wrote John Cooper in The Autocar, ‘There was analmost defeatest air about their camp at times, andan unwonted air of indecision. Not to have decided earlier on the axle ratio and tyre size was a cardinal error; the ratios were changed twice, in spiteof Fangio’s definite statement as to which ratio heconsidered correct, and the mechanics literallywere on the verge of a strike during the Saturdayafternoon. As it was, they had to work all throughthat night.‘One thing is certain: Alfa Romeo will haveto do some very hard thinking before the ItalianGP at Monza in September. The days of their easysupremacy in Grand Prix racing are over, for thepresent at least.’Fangio’s second place at the Ring meant thathe now led the World Championship by 28 pointsto Ascari’s 17 and although Alberto won the Italian GP and Juan Manuel retired, Alfa Romeo recovered to enable the latter to win the last race, theSpanish GP, and to secure his first World Championship.It was nearly h
is last, too, for in June, 1952 hecrashed a Maserati at Monza. The World Championship was now for 2-litre F2 cars and Omer Orsiof Maserati asked Fangio to drive his new car in anon-Championship race on June 9. Fangio agreed- a foolish decision in view of the fact that he wasto drive a BRM in the Ulster Trophy in Belfast theday before. After that race he and Louis Rosierflew to London, but there were no flights to Italy.They flew to Paris, only to find that all flights toItaly had been cancelled due to bad weather. Rosier then drove Fangio to Lyon in his Renault and,finding that there were still no flights, told Fangioto complete the journey to Monza in the car.‘What happened next is not a long story,’ recalled Fangio in My Racing Life, ‘I got to the autodrome at two in the afternoon, at half-past twoI was racing and at three I was in hospital. Simpleas that.’As he had not practiced with the Maserati hestarted at the back of the grid, but was unconcernedas he knew the Monza circuit well. However, hewas very fatigued after his hectic journey acrossEurope and it caught up with him on the secondlap when he crashed at Lesmo. He was lucky tosurvive. He suffered a broken vertebra and spentthe next three months encased in a plaster cast.This was removed in time for the Italian GP inSeptember and he was invited to start the race, buthe had lost that whole Championship season - toAlberto Ascari.So Fangio’s next visit to the Nurburgring wasfor the 1953 German GP, when he was leader of theMaserati team of six-cylinder A6GCS cars.One of his team-mates was his compatriot,Jose Froilan Gonzalez, but he had hurt himself ina crash in Portugal. He was replaced at the Ring byFelice Bonetto. Third man was another Argentine,Fangio’s protege Onofre Marimon.His two team-mates were hopelessly off thepace, both being almost 40 seconds slower thantheir leader, whose time of 10 mins 03.7 secs wasalmost four seconds slower than - you’ve guessedit - Ascari. Fangio shared the front row of the gridwith the three Ferraris of Ascari (9’ 59.8”), Farina (10’ 04.1”) and Hawthorn (10’ 12.6”). All three1956 German GP, Nurburgring - Juan Manuel Fangio would lead the race at one time or another – Fangio would not.

  Predictably, Ascari surged into the lead, hellbent on winning his fourth German GP in a row.After four laps he was 37 seconds ahead of Hawthorn, who had Fangio right with him, but on lapfive Ascari’s Ferrari shed a front wheel and hecame into the pits for a new one (See Ringmeister4, Alberto Ascari).Mike Hawthorn now led the German GPand try as he might, Fangio could not get past theEnglishman. A month earlier the two had enjoyeda monumental dice in the French GP, which hadbeen dubbed ‘The Race of the Century’. Hawthornhad won by a few feet and was now showing thathe was every bit as much at home on the helterskelter of the Nurburgring as he had been flashingthrough the fields of Reims. He led for three lapsuntil Farina surprised everyone by uncorking abottle of vintage Nino and storming past first Fangio and then Hawthorn - and there was nothingeither could do about it.At half-distance (9 laps) Farina led Fangio byalmost 13 seconds with Hawthorn the same distance behind. Ascari had given up on his own carand was waiting at the Ferrari pit to take over fromhis friend, Gigi Villoresi, which he did next timeround. He set a new lap record on lap 12 with aremarkable 9’ 56.0”, but that was too much for theFerrari, which expired two laps later.By lap 12 Farina had extended his lead overFangio to 30 seconds and Juan Manuel was looking decidedly black in the face as the exhaust pipeshad fallen off his Maserati, which was soundingvery odd as a result. He continued to the end, however, finishing second, just over a minute behindthe flying Farina and almost 40 secs in front ofHawthorn.A few weeks later Fangio was back at theRing, this time driving for Lancia in the first 1000Kms race, amid rumours that Gianni Lancia wastrying to sign him up to drive his new Grand Prixcar in 1954. There were two of the latest 3.3-litreD24 models on hand for Fangio/Felice Bonetto andPierо Taruffi/Robert Manzon and a 3-litre D23 forEugenio Castellotti/Giovanni Bracco.Fangio set fastest time in practice with 10mins 12.8 secs and Taruffi was next with 10’ 16.6”,both way faster than the 4.5-litre Ferrari of Ascariand Farina, which Ascari could only get round in10’ 24.9”. Lancia had used a spare D23 for privatepractice earlier in the month and it served the samepurpose for the race, covering more than 150 lapsaltogether with no problems. In the circumstances,things were looking good for Fangio’s first win atthe Nurburgring, but the reliability of the practicehack was not to be found in the race cars.Ascari took an immediate lead from the LeMans start, ahead of the Lancias of Taruffi andFangio, but within a couple of laps Juan Manuel’srace was run. The D24 came to a halt at Schwalbenschwanz and Fangio was seen to be workingon the car, first under the bonnet and then underthe car itself. It was to no avail, for the fuel pumphad failed. The other two Lancias soon overtookAscari and ran away from the Ferrari until the firstpit stop, when both refused to start due to flat batteries. Ascari and Farina sailed on to an untroubled victory, Alberto securing his fourth win at theRing in four years. He was the undisputed King ofthe Nurburgring, while Juan Manuel was still notyet a Ringmeister.All this was about to change, for at the end ofthe season Ascari would leave Ferrari for Lanciaand Fangio would leave Maserati for MercedesBenz and it was Fangio who would get what wasimmeasurably the better deal. Having Fangio onhis sportscar team in 1953 made Gianni Lanciavery keen to sign him up for his new Grand Prixprogramme early in 1954, but by this time Ascarihad already made his move from Maranello to Turin (taking Villoresi with him) and Fangio clearlydid not fancy joining him.Also, Alfred Neubauer of Mercedes-Benz hadbeen making overtures to Fangio since 1951. In the1930s, Mercedes had enjoyed the skills of threeof the great German drivers - Rudolf Caracciola,Manfred von Brauchitsch and Hermann Lang.Now, in 1953, only Lang was a possible candidatefor a place in the team and Neubauer had to lookhard to find another German driver of any repute.In the event, he chose 44 year-old Karl Kling and23 year-old Hans Herrmann, neither of whom hadany real Grand Prix experience. Lang was held inreserve. If Mercedes were going to return to racingwith a chance of success, they had to have Fangio.