1955 Argentine Grand Prix
The Grand Prix of Argentina in 1955 took place on January 16, 1955 at the Autódromo Juan y Oscar Gálvez in Buenos Aires instead of Alfredo and was the first race of the Formula 1 season 1955.
- 3.1 Start -up
- 3.2 race
- 4.1 Drivers' Championship
Reports
Background
For the opening race of the Formula 1 season 1955, the four top teams Mercedes, Ferrari, Maserati and Lancia went to the start and the French team Gordini and with the Uruguayan Alberto Uria a driver in a private car. For Mercedes, the drivers of the year season, world champion Juan Manuel Fangio, Karl Kling and Hans Herrmann started, a fourth car came for Stirling Moss used, the more private and work -Maserati drove in 1954. For Ferrari drove like last year, Maurice Trintignant and José Froilán González, in addition, the World Champion from 1950, Giuseppe Farina and Umberto Maglioli. Maserati sat for the race a seven cars, the Frenchman Jean Behra Gordini moved from the Italian top team. Also, Lancia put forth on his previous driver Alberto Ascari and Luigi Villoresi; new to the team and made his debut in Formula 1, the Italians Eugenio Castellotti. Gordini was launched with the new French team driver Élie Bayol and Pablo Birger and Jesús Iglesias. For both Argentine driver, this was the last race of their Formula 1 careers. Also this Grand Prix was the last for another Argentine driver, Clemar Bucci, who took part in the race for Maserati.
At the weekend it was extremely hot; in the race the temperature was in the shade 37 ° C, the track temperature was approximately 50 ° C. This meant not only a very high burden on the cars, but also for the drivers. Water bottles in the cockpit, it did not exist yet, so the drivers were forced to drink plenty of water before the race and insert in the race pit stops for liquid increase, so as not to become dehydrated. While many drivers drank before the race large amounts of water, Fangio pursued a different tactic. In preparation for the race, he trained it to get by with very little liquid a day. This " camel tactics " paid off for him. He and his compatriot Roberto Mieres were the only two who held out the whole race distance without exchanging the cockpit. The race was thus marked by many driver changes the individual cars and a high failure rate, due to the very high temperatures and the dehydration of all participating in the race driver. 1955 were still allowed in the race driver change, however, has been so often made use of this rule interpretation that up to three drivers drove in a car and that Trintignant and Moss paused two podiums. A total of 16 driver change at this Grand Prix were recorded. The race was probably the hottest Formula 1 races of all time, only at the U.S. Grand Prix in 1984 and the Grand Prix of Bahrain in 2005 similar temperatures were measured. The next race was held until months later, so all riders recovered from the rigors of the Argentine Grand Prix and could contest the next race without health problems.
Training
In the 1954 Formula 1 season, the battle for pole position was mostly a duel between Mercedes and Ferrari, Fangio in the Mercedes often decided in his favor. However, in practice for the Grand Prix of Argentina, the top four teams were on par and in each case a driver of these teams qualified for the front row in a time window of half a second. The fastest lap while Ferrari pilot Gonzalez, who thus secured the third and final pole position of his career. Next to him in second place Ascari started in Lancia, ranked third reigning World Champion Fangio in the Mercedes and fourth place Jean Behra Maserati. Farina went from fifth on the grid, Moss became a disappointing eighth place. Trintignant, who still finished fourth in the championship last year, went from position 14 in the race. The best Gordini driver was Birger with the neuntbessten training time. Was started in the 4-3-4-3-4-3 system.
Race
The best start had Fangio, who took the lead. Behind his Mercedes were after the start of the Ascari Lancia, Moss in the second Mercedes and the two Ferrari drivers González and Farina. Ascari then overtook Fangio, but subsequently lost the lead to González, who only lost several places in the first lap, but then quickly fought back on top. With Birger and Carlos Menditeguy eliminated two Argentinians in the first lap by accident.
One lap later injured Kling and Behra, and Villoresi had to leave again because of technical problems early in the race his Lancia. After Birger's accident retired on lap seven, the second of three Gordini cars. However Villoresi could intervene in the race again, as his team-mate Castellotti was instructed in round 20, to give him his car. This was the first of a total of 16 driver changes; the heat now began to have a decisive influence the course of the race. Villoresis teammate Ascari crashed one lap later, so Lancia only had one car in the race. On lap 22 Uriah abode with his private Maserati stand because he ran out of fuel. On lap 29 Moss turned his car off due to technical problems and took over the Mercedes Herrmann.
The following phase of the race was dominated by driver changes, due to the onset of dehydration. Mantovani took a break and gave his Maserati at Behra, in round 26 gave Bucci his Maserati to Menditeguy. On lap 35 crashed Villoresi, so that all Lancias were also excreted in the second race of the team.
The great heat damaged during which not only the driver but the car claimed also very strong. Trintignant put his Ferrari with engine failure off the last remaining Iglesias Gordini due to a gearbox failure. Behra was in the next rounds of the Maserati again Mantovani, rest out of the heat and took a few laps later the car from Harry Schell. With this he then went to finish the race and missed sixth place just the points.
The chaos in the pits grew increasingly, Musso and Mantovani exchanged among themselves their car out, Menditeguy gave his car to clamp on. Thereupon Maglioli took a short break and let Trintignant a few rounds go on his car. After the break Maglioli reached its destination and the third place without another stop and driver swap. This podium he shared with Trintignant and Farina, who also drove for a while the car in the race. On lap 54 there were two more heat-related failures, Musso and Schell were forced to park their cars. Meanwhile, Moss took a short break to recover. Paramedics wanted to treat him, as they feared a heat stroke at him. Moss, however, was merely dehydrated and initially could continue the race, was in round 64 but still on and left his Mercedes Kling. This finished the race in fourth place. Mantovani abandoned the race and also left up to the end of the race clamp the wheel of his Maserati.
Most driver change took place in Gonzalez's Ferrari. At the start of the race in the lead, he passed the car at Farina. After the subsequent change of driver Trintignant drove the car before the Ferrari was finally driven back by González. This driver changes the car was no technical difficulties for several laps in the pits, but the Ferrari team did not find a driver who was able to drive the car. As González felt healthy enough to take the race again, he was able to catch up to the leading Fangio. González but also did not reach the goal, he damaged the car in an accident and gave it back to Farina, the Ferrari still second place finish, went to five driver changes on this car. This would give both Farina and Trintignant the second and third places, as they were driven at least once with both Ferraris placed on the podium.
Fangio won superior to the chaotic race because he needed no major breaks. Only Roberto Mieres also finished the race without a driver exchange through, reaching fifth place rank in the points. On Fangio he had this five laps behind. Fangio was severely dehydrated after the race and pulled burns to the leg. It took him three months to recover from this injury; the scar of the burn was decades after this race visible. Fangio won for the second time in a row the Argentine home race and built this series in the following years to four wins at the Grand Prix of Argentina in consequence of. Mercedes again won a race and continued the dominance of the previous year. Due to the many changes it prevented all drivers to collapse in the cockpit, only Castellotti had to be medically treated for heat stroke.
Fangio was in the drivers' standings clearly in the lead, as he won another point for the race win and eight points for the fastest lap. Thus led with nine points ahead of Farina and Trintignant, each with 3.5 points. No other driver scored more than two points for a single position in this race, since the points of the places were two to four divided among three drivers. However, Farina and Trintignant could score twice as they were second and third respectively. Mieres, who reached the target without driver change, received fifth place, two points, exactly as many as the runner-up and more than the third - and fourth-placed. A total of nine different drivers received points in this race.
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 seven races.