1955 British Grand Prix
The Grand Prix of Great Britain in 1955 was held on July 16, 1955 held at the Aintree Circuit at Liverpool and was the sixth race of the Formula 1 season 1955.
- 3.1 Start -up
- 3.2 race
- 4.1 Drivers' Championship
Reports
Background
The race was the first Grand Prix of Great Britain at the Aintree Circuit, and the penultimate race of the season 1955. Reigning World Champion Juan Manuel Fangio had in this Grand Prix the opportunity to defend his title prematurely.
Mercedes had won the last two races to consider each with double victories and entered at this time with an additional fourth car for Piero Taruffi. Maserati also went with an additional car for André Simon at the start. For Gordini drove alongside Robert Manzon and Hernando da Silva Ramos Frenchman Mike Sparken, who played his only Formula 1 race. Mike Hawthorn drove back as a regular driver at Ferrari next to Maurice Trintignant and Eugenio Castellotti. Vanwall took break after a race for the first time with two cars in part, with drivers Ken Wharton and Harry Schell. As in previous British race many British drivers were reported in private cars, among them Peter Collins and Roy Salvadori. The preferred trolley of these drivers were Maserati 250F and Connaught Type B. These cars were used by the official team Connaught for the driver Kenneth McAlpine and Jack Fairman. This team took part only in the traditional Grand Prix of Great Britain. Some Connaughtwagen were similar to Mercedes a streamlined full fairing.
In addition, the Australian Jack Brabham was reported in a Cooper T40 for the race. For Brabham began a successful career in which he became world champion in 1959, 1960 and 1966, his car was the British team Cooper was the beginning of a new era in Formula 1 history, the mid-engined cars. It was the first time in Formula 1 history that was appropriate for a car of the engine behind the driver. The car came only in this race to use and was also equipped with a full fairing, but not competitive. Only a few years later Cooper revolutionized significantly the design of Formula 1 cars and was involved at the end of the era of front-wheel drive car.
Training
Mercedes again dominated the training and positioned his four cars in the top fifth Stirling Moss was faster than Fangio in this training, and secured his first pole position. It was also the first by a British rider.
As in the previous races, it was the only Maserati, the mithielten with Mercedes. Jean Behra pushed for third place between the four Mercedes. Before him lay Fangio, Kling and Taruffi behind him. Behind on position six was the second Maserati of Roberto Mieres. Schell reached in his Vanwall the seventh fastest time, which was a significant improvement for Vanwall in comparison to the previous race. The best Ferrari was the Castel Lotti on position ten, coinciding with the Gordini Manzon, behind the Ferraris of Hawthorn and Trintignant. It was thus clear that the Ferrari was not capable of winning and had to deny duels in the midfield.
Connaught and the driver with private cars were positioned in the back of the midfield, Brabham in Cooper qualified as the last by a large margin to the competition.
Race
When starting, Fangio and Moss kept in the first three rounds of the lead. Fairman not stepped up to the race, since his Connaught encountered engine problems.
Moss grabbed Fangio in round three and overtook him at the first time in the race to take the lead. In round ten fell to the carriage of Simon and Behra of two Werksmaserati, which Mercedes was in the lead with all four cars. Castellotti Ferrari retired on lap 17 as the fourth driver with technical problems, a lap later, Fangio took the lead again.
While Mercedes led to consider the race and again only Musso in Maserati was able to keep up with the fourth Mercedes of Taruffi, the competition struggled with many technical problems. 15 cars had to give up in this way the race, among them Trintignant, Brabham, Mieres and Collins, only nine cars crossed the finish line.
The race was dominated by the duel between Fangio and Moss. Fangio went again on lap 18 in the lead, Moss overtook him again in round 26 then kept Moss first place until the last lap when Fangio again launched an attack. Both drivers drove the same level across the finish line, Moss defended his lead and won.
This was the first Formula 1 victory for Moss and the first win by a British driver. Moss won in his career, 15 more races, for Mercedes, it was his only. 57 years later won a British driver in a Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton at the Grand Prix of Hungary 2013. Moss reached next to the race win and the pole position and the fastest lap of the race.
Kling completed the podium with third place, Taruffi fourth place secured the triumph four times from Mercedes. Musso was the only driver of the Mercedes- competition points for fifth place. Hawthorn handed his car due to nausea after a night of the already eliminated Castel Lotti, who then finished the race in sixth place.
In the drivers' championship, the first five positions remained unchanged, Fangio lost little of its prominence and was a races to world champion since it was not possible for Moss eleven points behind to catch up in the last race of the season. This Fangio defended his drivers' title in 1954 and was the first driver to three -time world champion. Two more titles Fangio in the following years. For Mercedes, it was the second and so far last driver world championship. Moss also secured in this race in the World Championship in 1955.
Message list
Comments
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.