1955 Monaco Grand Prix
The Grand Prix of Monaco in 1955 was on May 22, 1955, the Circuit de Monaco in Monte Carlo and was the second race of the Formula 1 season 1955. The Grand Prix also had the FIA honorary title of European Grand Prix.
- 3.1 Start -up
- 3.2 race
- 4.1 Drivers' Championship
Reports
Background
The Grand Prix of Monaco in 1950 was overshadowed by a pile-up, which had a long break of the race result. The Monaco Grand Prix 1955 was held again after five -year hiatus; without interruption is the Monaco race since an integral part of the Formula 1 racing calendar. Juan Manuel Fangio, who won the first Monaco Grand Prix in 1950 and the first race of the season in Argentina, was one of the favorite for the race win. His team-mate at Mercedes, Karl Kling, paused a race. Ferrari entered with five cars, in addition to the regular drivers Giuseppe Farina and Maurice Trintignant drove Harry Schell, Piero Taruffi and Paul Frère. Maserati sat in Monaco on his three regular driver Jean Behra, Roberto Mieres and Luigi Musso. A fourth car came for Cesare Perdisa used, which made his Formula 1 debut race. Lancia kept the driver pairing of the first race of the season and set a fourth car for Louis Chiron ready. The Monegasque on race day was 55 years and 292 days old and therefore the oldest rider to ever participated in a Formula 1 race. It was also his last race. At the Grand Prix of Monaco in 1958 he tried to qualify what he was not able.
Mike Hawthorn returned to Formula 1 and drove for Vanwall Vanwall VW with the new 55 Gordini also brought with the Gordini Type 32 for Robert Manzon a new car.
In addition, four drivers took part in private cars in the race. The Formula 1 World Champion 1952 and 1953, Alberto Ascari died four days after the Monaco Grand Prix testing at Monza. Lancia then rose after only three races in Formula 1 from and sold his car to Ferrari. 1956 Ferrari won the World Cup with the technology of these cars, the Ferrari D50.
Training
The training was determined by the battle between Mercedes and Lancia for pole position. Fangio drove on Friday a time of 1:41,1 minutes. He broke the course record from 1937, when Rudolf Caracciola, also drove 1:46,5 minutes with a Mercedes. On Saturday Ascari drove the same lap time as Fangio, however, a day later, so Fangio was considered the fastest, Ascari Start position two. A tenth of a second behind was Stirling Moss in the second Mercedes, from fourth started the second Lancia Castel Lotti. Maserati was on the fifth and sixth position with Jean Behra and Roberto Mieres. For Ferrari, the training was disappointing. Trintignant reached with three seconds behind Fangio only ninth place, Farina started from 14, Hawthorn went from twelfth place for Vanwall in the race, the best starting place for a Gordini driver was position 13 by Robert Manzon. The training was overshadowed by a serious accident of Mercedes driver Hans Herrmann, who drove in a boundary wall at the harbor. By his injuries, he fell out of the rest of the season and returned only in 1957 back into Formula 1. Mercedes undertook to replace Herrmann the Ecurie Rosier driver André Simon for the race. Lance Macklin and Ted White Away drove in training with private car, but did not qualify because the driver field for security was limited to 20 cars. For White Away it was the only attempt to qualify for a Formula 1 race.
Race
At the start of the two Mercedes drivers Fangio and Moss took the lead and dueled during the first laps with Behra Maserati, which, however, after a few laps the pace of the Mercedes was too fast, so that a gap to the leader was. On lap seven and eight left with Rosier and Musso, the first two Maseratifahrer due to technical defects of. Fangio and Moss, meanwhile, built their lead on the competition further and dominated the race. After 22 rounds began a major series of failures that affected the race result greatly. Hawthorn put his Vanwall from problems with the gas pedal, two laps later Simons Mercedes suffered an engine failure on lap 38 Manzon was Gordini in the race with a gearbox failure on. In round Behra 42 burst onto third place lying a tire. In response, Lancia, Behra and Perdisa decided to have replaced the car. A few laps later, Fangio retired with transmission failure, the leadership took over his teammate Moss. With similar defects eliminated in the following rounds also the second Gordini with Élie Bayol and another Maserati with Mieres. Moss was at this point in the race clearly in the lead and another superior Mercedes- victory seemed certain. However, the car suffered an engine failure, the Ascari took the lead. Ascari misjudged in a chicane, touched the track barrier and flew his car into the harbor. He was able to free himself from the sinking car, swam ashore and was rescued by a sailor of the shipowner Onassis from the cold water. The world champion of 1952 and 1953 broke in this accident the nasal bone and pulled to some bruises; four days later he died in an accident in a sports car. 1965, ten years after Ascaris accident, even Paul Hawkins crashed into the harbor of Monaco, but was uninjured. These two events were the only Formula 1 history, where a car crashed into the sea. Moss drove the engine failure a few feet and turned off his car, but was seen as ninth. Trintignant took over the inferior for the weekend Ferrari the lead and won his first of two races. Ferrari benefited from the reliability of its cars compared to the competition. Only the Ferrari driver Schell retired on lap 67 with an engine failure. Was Trintignant thus the first French Formula 1 winner and it was for the tire manufacturer Englebert the first race win for Ferrari and Trintignant the only Grand Prix success in 1955. Eugenio Castellotti drove the Lancia in second place 20 seconds behind Trintignant and secured the first and only podium finish for the team Lancia in his last Grand Prix. The podium was completed by the Formula 1 Debutanten Perdisa Cesare, who had taken the Maserati of Behra in the race. More points for fourth place and five received Farina in the second Ferrari and Luigi Villoresi in the second Lancia.
Fangio was awarded a point for the fastest lap of the race, but lost the lead in the drivers' standings Trintignant. Thus led for the first time in the history of Formula 1, a Frenchman in the overall standings. With second place in the race, Castel Lotti moved up to fourth place, Farina was involved in two of seven races in third place.
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.