1954 Italian Grand Prix
The Italian Grand Prix 1954 took place on 5 September at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza near Monza and was the eighth race of the Formula 1 season 1954.
- 3.1 Start -up
- 3.2 race
- 4.1 Drivers' Championship
Reports
Background
In the drivers' standings, Juan Manuel Fangio had already secured the world title in 1954. Since Fangio had won all the races of the 1954 season, with the exception of Silverstone and the Indianapolis 500 race, the competition in the high-speed track in Monza now tried to beat the superior Mercedes.
The long awaited debut of the new Lancia team has been postponed again, as the car still was not ready. The hope of the Italian motorsport fans rested thus on the Italian team Ferrari and Maserati, which were attributed to chance to win in this race. While Mercedes continued as in the previous race on the combination of drivers Fangio, Karl Kling and Hans Herrmann, Ferrari went with five cars at the start, Alberto Ascari returned for this race back to his team with which he has been 1952 and 1953 World Champion. Fangio was after the victory at the Grand Prix of Switzerland, the driver with the most wins in Formula 1, he had a more than the previous record holder Ascari. The comeback of Ascari promised an exciting fight between the two at this record. Fangio, however, could expand the record for the most wins further in the following years and kept him from now until the year 1968 when Jim Clark outdid him a victory.
Maserati sat in this race a six-car and took additional Luigi Villoresi and the experienced Ferrari driver Louis Rosier Luigi Musso and the team, the car of his teammate Sergio Mantovani took over in 1953 the Grand Prix of Italy in the race. Thus Musso completed his first full race weekend, as well as Giovanni de Riu, which started in a private Maserati. This should be the only Formula 1 Grand Prix of his career for de Riu, however. While Rosier drove for Maserati, Robert Manzon went for his team Ecurie Rosier in a private Ferrari at the start. Peter Collins drove the second race for Vanwall, the team that in 1958 won the first Constructors' World Championship titles. Fred Wacker and Jorge Daponte drove the last of her Grand Prix Formula 1 careers.
Training
Mercedes brought in training for Fangio and Kling again the car with the streamlined full fairing for use as Monza came to meet as a high- speed line of this body style. Fangio drove the fastest training time again. The short distance of a few tenths to the competition from Ferrari and Maserati showed that the top Italian teams could compete in training with the Mercedes. Ascari reached at his comeback at first the front row with the second best time, third-party training was Moss who could confirm the strong form of the previous race. However, he was regarded at the time as material- destructive driver what his many technical failures documented in previous races, where each was forced to retire in a promising position. In row two, the second Mercedes went from Kling, the Ferrari of the World Cup second José Froilán González and a Maserati Villoresi in the race. The Mercedes of Herrmann without the full fairing reached eighth place. Collins put his Vanwall to a disappointing 16th place and the financially troubled Gordini team reached with Jean Behra twelfth place.
Race
The Autodromo Nazionale Monza offered in the 1950s, always exciting race, as the long straights and the famous steep curves offered many opportunities for overtaking. The races were mostly determined by slipstream duels and frequent change of leadership and a large number of overtaking. Already at the start went Kling, started from fourth on the grid, in the lead ahead of Fangio, Ascari and Gonzalez. The Mercedes led the field to the next rounds, but could not build up a lead over the competition. In round 4, a mistake by Kling made sure that Fangio took the lead of the race. Kling dropped back to 5th place, but could continue the race. To the delight of Italian fans overtook the Mercedes of Fangio and Ascari was the fact that the Mercedes is not impossible to beat on high speed tracks. Behind the two dueled himself Moss with Gonzalez for 3rd place, the Moss laid claim after Gonzalez gave up a gear damage the race. However, for the Argentines, the race was not so completely lost, because in 1954 you could still continue to drive the car of a team mate. Umberto Maglioli was forced by the team to make his car available, so Gonzalez resumed the race and a chase began. A few laps later, Roberto Mieres retired with a damaged suspension, and Karl Kling damaged his car in an accident so much that he had to retire also. The peak remained unchanged in the next rounds until Villoresi himself struggled forward and Moss and Fangio outdated. However, a fight with Ascari around the tip remained the fans denied because Villoresi gave up on lap 42 with a broken clutch. Then sat Moss his opponents under pressure, overtook only Fangio and after he took over the leadership of Ascari. Ascari won against Moss for Weir and the two delivered an exciting battle for the lead, the Ascari decided for themselves. On lap 48 thus led Ascari before Moss and Fangio, as the leader, blurted an engine valve and he had to retire due to the resulting engine damage. Moss took the lead only for a brief moment, he was forced to insert a pit stop to make up oil. He then suffered another engine failure and retired, but was counted with 9 laps still in the class. Fangio benefited from the many failures of his opponents, took the lead and won with one lap in the race. Hawthorn rose in the rankings up to second place, Gonzalez was third with the carriage of Maglioli. The other points won Herrmann and Maurice Trintignant in the Mercedes Ferrari. Wacker missed in his last race the points just barely, so that the Gordini team remained unsuccessful. Collins scored in the Vanwall a moderate success, starting from position 16, he improved to seventh place, however, had in the target five laps behind the winner Fangio.
This was the penultimate race of the season. Fangio had already secured the world title, Gonzalez confirmed in this race for the time being in the World Championship. Only the fight for third place in the drivers' championship was still open for the season finale in Spain, Trintignant and Hawthorn were on points here almost on a par. The race proved that the competition from Mercedes had caught up, however, was still inferior in speed and reliability.
Message list
Classifications
Line-up
Race
Standings after the race
The first five of the race were 8, 6, 4, 3, 2 points. The driver with the fastest lap of the race also received 1 point. It included only the five best results from nine races.