1954 Swiss Grand Prix
The Grand Prix of Switzerland 1954 took place on August 22, held at the Bremgarten circuit in Bern and was the seventh race of the Formula 1 season 1954.
- 3.1 Start -up
- 3.2 race
- 4.1 Drivers' Championship
Reports
Background
The Grand Prix of Switzerland in 1954 was the last race on the Bremgarten circuit. After the disaster at Le Mans in 1955 all track races were prohibited by law in Switzerland in response, which since then is no formula 1 race in Switzerland more took place. A world championship run with the title Grand Prix of Switzerland was still held in 1982, but outside of the country at the Circuit de Dijon -Prenois in France.
Fangio went with a big lead in the Drivers' Championship in this race and could prematurely become world champion in 1954 with a win. As favorites for victory, the teams included with Fangio Mercedes and Ferrari with José González and Maurice Trintignant Froilán who finished at this point in the Drivers' Championship 2nd and 3rd place. Maserati, who pledged in 1954 Stirling Moss after the fatal accident of Onofre Marimon during practice for the Grand Prix of Germany, have also been attributed to chance. In addition, the financially troubled Gordini team took part in the race weekend and with Jacques Swaters and Ken Wharton two drivers with private cars.
Training
The training, in which the starting grid was determined, was an exciting battle between the two World Cup opponents Fangio and Gonzalez. Gonzalez was in a Ferrari with a time of 2:39,5 two tenths of a second faster than Fangio, thereby securing the second pole position of his career. Maserati 's new signing Moss completed the front row, behind Fangio started teammate Karl Kling and Hans Herrmann and Ferrari driver Mike Hawthorn. Wharton achieved moderate success with start eighth in his private Maserati. In his later Owen Racing Team was successful especially in the 1960s BRM cars. Another team whose cars were expected in Formula 1 at this time, Lancia, but their cars were not ready in time for the Grand Prix was.
Race
At the start of Fangio could immediately take the lead, which he kept in the further course of the race to the finish. Gonzalez did not keep with the pace of Fangio and Moss overtook him in the first laps. The Maseratifahrer then tried to catch Fangio, however, was attacked after a short period of Hawthorn. After a hard battle the Maserati Moss suffered an engine failure that forced him to abandon the race. This Hawthorn took second place, but fell later in the race also due to technical problems on his Ferrari. This Fangio won again superior to a race, he had the second placed Gonzalez almost a full minute ahead and rounded up at him the entire field. Fangio's teammate Herrmann came third, the other points went to Roberto Mieres and Sergio Mantovani, each for Maserati. Wharton confirmed its strong performance in training in the private Maserati and came in sixth place finish. The race was marked as already at the Grand Prix in front of many defects, again finished in less than half of the driver the destination. Particularly disappointing it was for the Gordini team, all three riders fell after eleven rounds with defects.
This victory Fangio secured him the world title in 1954. Indeed His compatriot Gonzalez reached second place in this race, could not go by Fangio after the former points system and the associated void results control in the drivers' standings in the remaining two races. The provisional title win was the beginning of Fangio's title series, in which he won from 1954 to 1957 four drivers' titles in a row. By its second World Cup he pulled the same at this time with Alberto Ascari, the only driver in front of him, who managed this. For Mercedes, it was the first Formula 1 drivers' title in their debut year. This achievement has been in Formula 1 history to date also achieved only by Alfa Romeo, who reached the drivers' title with Giuseppe Farina 1950.
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.