1953 Argentine Grand Prix
The first round of the 1953 World Championship took place on 18 January in Argentina at the new circuit in Buenos Aires, becoming the first ever World Championship Grand Prix to be held in South America. The implementation of the Grand Prix became possible thanks to the efforts of the President of Argentina, Juan Peron, who loved motorsport and initiated the construction of a new circuit. The track was built in 1951 and was unique in that it had a whole set of configurations created with the help of numerous branches. In 1952, the Juan Perón Trophy race was held in the №4 configuration, while the 1953 Argentine Grand Prix saw the first use of the №2 configuration, which was 3.91 km long.
The favorite for the first Grand Prix of the season was, of course, Scuderia Ferrari, which crushed all rivals last year by winning every World Championship Grand Prix. In Argentina, the team was represented by four main drivers: 1952 world champion Alberto Ascari, 1950 world champion Nino Farina, regular team driver Luigi Villoresi, and team rookie Mike Hawthorn, who all got at their disposal Ferrari 500 cars that dominated last season.
However, all the attention of the public was riveted to another Italian team, Maserati, which was represented by Argentine national hero Juan Manuel Fangio and his friend and protégé Jose-Froilan Gonzalez.
In addition to the two Argentines, the Modena team also included the Italian Felice Bonetto, and another well-known Argentine driver Oscar Galvez, who was Fangio's longtime rival in road racing, but never competed abroad.
The Gordini team was represented by the unchanging trio of French racers Manzon-Behra-Trintignant, who competed in last year's Gordini T16 cars. In addition, the team invited local drivers Carlos Menditeguy and Pablo Birger for this one race, the latter getting an outdated Simca-Gordini T15 chassis.
Cooper was the last team to take part in the Argentine Grand Prix, which was their debut in the World Championship as a factory team. Last year, Cooper cars performed well in the hands of private drivers, especially Mike Hawthorn, so this season the team decided to drive under its own name, represented by Alan Brown, John Barber and guest local driver Adolfo Schwelm-Cruz.
Qualification
The first qualifying session of the season was held in rather changeable conditions, with heavy rains alternating with bright sunshine, however the Ferrari team was still ahead of their rivals, with Alberto Ascari claiming another pole position with a result of 1'55.4.
Nonetheless, the Maserati team also confirmed their high form from the last race of last season, with Fangio taking 2nd place on the starting field, just 0.7 seconds behind, even despite two spins and transmission problems. Meanwhile, the third, behind Ascari a little more than a second, was another Scuderia driver Villoresi, who in his turn was ahead by 0.6 seconds of his teammate Farina, who had serious engine problems on his bolid. As for Fangio's teammate, José-Froilan Gonzalez, he also showed quite decent result, taking 5th place on the starting grid, while Ferrari rookie Hawthorn expectingly looked much paler than all his teammates, finishing the qualifying in 6th. Meanwhile, the Gordini drivers Trintignant and Manzon had to settle here for 7th and 8th place on the grid, but they still managed to beat the local hero Galvez in another Maserati. The top ten was closed by another Argentine Carlos Menditeguy, being ahead of his teammate Jean Behra, who still appears to be recovering from the injuries he sustained in last year's Carrera Panamericana race. As for the Cooper team, the debut qualification turned out to be a complete failure for them, with their cars being the slowest on the track. At the same time, the main loser of the qualification was Bonetto, who, due to transmission problems, was unable to match the high results of his teammates and in the end took only the penultimate place on the starting field.
Race
On the day of the race, Argentine President Juan Peron, who was actively involved in the Grand Prix and dreamed of making this day unforgettable, announced that entry for all spectators would be free, which led to a massive influx of the public to the track. According to preliminary estimates, from 300 to 400 thousand people came to watch the race, who settled down in all corners of the track, even in the most dangerous places. This caused serious concern among the drivers, who asked the organisers to take some action, but they simply ignored their opinion, not daring to question the president's decision.
Start. Ascari makes a great start and immediately takes the lead, but his teammate Villoresi, who has made an even better start, tries to overtake him straight away at the first corner, but makes a mistake and flies off the track, dropping to 6th place! Meanwhile, Gonzalez also begins the Grand Prix very well, breaking through to 2nd, ahead of Fangio, but even better the race begins for Bonetto, who like a rocket rushes past most of his rivals and breaks from penultimate place to 4th! As for Hawthorn, the Englishman, on the contrary, fails the start and ends up only in 13th.
Position after lap 1: Ascari, Gonzalez, Fangio, Bonetto, Farina, Villoresi, Menditeguy, Manzon, Trintignant, Brown.
Lap 2: Ascari starts to break away from Gonzalez, while his teammate Farina attacks and passes Bonetto for 4th.
Lap 3: Fangio passes Gonzalez for 2nd while Villoresi drives into the pits to check the car and falls back to 13th. Meanwhile, on the same lap, Galvez overtakes both Behra and Brown, taking 9th, while Brown also lets Hawthorn through.
Lap 4: Hawthorn, after a bad start, continues his breakthrough to the top, overtaking Galvez and Behra. Caught behind the Englishman, Villoresi also does not sit idly by and passes Brown.
Lap 5: Ascari is the fastest driver on the track and already 7 seconds ahead of second-placed Fangio!
Meanwhile, Villoresi overtakes Behra and moves up another position.
Lap 6: Bonetto misses two Gordinis of Menditeguy and Manzon and falls to 7th place. Meanwhile, Trintignant has trouble with his Gordini and makes a long pit stop, dropping to last place, whereas Birger passes Barber for penultimate place.
Lap 8: Manzon attacks his temporary teammate Menditeguy for 5th and gets ahead!
Meanwhile, Villoresi also continues his breakthrough, leaving Galvez behind this time.
Lap 9: Hawthorn wins back one more position, overtaking Bonetto, and thus the Englishman is already 7th!
Lap 10: Clogged with paper flying around the track, the radiator on Gonzalez' Maserati begins to overheat, forcing the Argentine to pull into the pits! At the same time, albeit the pit-stop doesn't take very long, Jose-Froilan still loses one position and gets back to the track, missing Farina!
Meanwhile, on the same lap, Villoresi overtakes Bonetto for 7th and ends up behind Hawthorn, and thus the two Ferraris, breaking through from the back rows, are now following each other.
Position after 10 laps: Ascari, Fangio, Farina, Gonzalez, Manzon, Menditeguy, Hawthorn, Villoresi, Bonetto, Galvez.
Lap 11: Hawthorn and Villoresi pass Menditeguy one after the other, thus pushing the Argentine back to 8th! Meanwhile, on the same lap, Brown makes a mistake, letting Schwelm-Cruz and Birger pass him through, whereas Trintignant wins back one position, overtaking Barber.
Lap 13: Villoresi clearly has no intention of staying behind Hawthorn and the Italian goes on the attack against his teammate, taking 6th place from him!
Lap 16: Trintignant wins another position, leaving Brown behind.
Lap 19: Birger passes Schwelm-Cruz, thus taking 12th.
Lap 20: Two Maserati drivers Galvez and Bonetto engage in a battle with each other, which results in the Argentinean taking the lead.
Lap 21: The first retirement of the race shows that the fears of the drivers were not in vain: Schwelm-Cruz' Cooper loses a wheel that flies straight into the ranks of the spectators, miraculously without hitting anyone.
Meanwhile, some spectators, completely ignoring the danger, begin to run across the track right in front of the racing cars to get a better view!
Lap 22: Birger retires with a broken differential.
Lap 24: The fight between Galvez and Bonetto continues, and now it is the Italian who gets ahead!
Lap 25: Galvez is not going to give in to his teammate, and by counterattacking him, he leaves "the Pirate" behind again!
Meanwhile, on the same lap, Menditeguy is forced to retire due to gearbox problems.
Lap 26: The enigine in Gonzalez' Maserati starts to overheat again, forcing the Argentinian to turn into another pit stop, as a result of which he loses one more position, this time to Manzon! Meanwhile, back to the race, the audience in the stands suddenly burst into applause. What is this, has Fangio taken the lead?? No, this is one of the spectators who ran out onto the track, tore off his shirt and waves it in front of Hawthorn's passing car, posing as a matador! Fortunately, the Englishman manages to get away from the collision, but this show leaves the audience in complete delight!
Lap 28: Barber overtakes Trintignant and moves up another position.
Position after 30 laps: Ascari, Fangio, Farina, Manzon, Gonzalez, Villoresi, Hawthorn, Galvez, Bonetto, Behra.
Lap 32: Desperate antics of the spectators eventually end in tragedy. At Curva Nor Este, a boy runs across the track right in front of Farina's car, forcing the Italian to swerve the steering wheel, and, losing control, his car flies off the track right into the crowd of spectators!
As a result of this accident, ten people are killed on the spot, about forty more are injured, and panic immediately sets in. Scared to death, another boy runs from the scene to the other side of the track, only to also end up under the wheels of Alan Brown's Cooper. Meanwhile, in the center of all this chaos, Farina struggles out of his wrecked Ferrari, silently looks at the bodies lying on the ground, shakes his head and, limping, heads back to the pits.
Meanwhile, the race continues, no matter what, and after Farina's accident, it is Manzon who now finds himself in third place. As for his teammate Trintignant, on the same lap, he manages to get ahead of Barber, while Bonetto pulls into the pits with engine problems and, after changing the spark plugs, falls back to the very end of the peloton.
Lap 33: Despite repairs, Bonetto still leaves the race due to a transmission failure.
Lap 37: Crowd favorite Juan Manuel Fangio pulls over with broken transmission!
After leaving the car, the Argentine shakes his head ruefully as Manzon's Gordini rushes past him, thus moving up to second place! Meanwhile, Fangio's teammate Gonzalez stops in the pits again, for the third time already, and lose three more positions! Besides, on the same lap, Trintignant leaves Brown behind.
Lap 40: Galvez is also in the pits, and the Argentinean lets his teammate Gonzalez through for 5th.
Position after 40 laps: Ascari, Manzon, Villoresi, Hawthorn, Gonzalez, Galvez, Behra, Trintignant, Brown, Barber.
Lap 44: The rear tires on Manzon's Gordini are already badly worn, and the Frenchman pulls into the pits for a new set. Thus, after a very confident race Robert has not only to give up his 2nd place to Villoresi but also lose some more positions, ending up in 6th.
Lap 51: Trintignant pulls into the pits and passes his car to Harry Schell.
Lap 55: Gonzalez catches up with Hawthorn and passes him for 3rd! However, Mike does not seem to be going to give in so easily.
Lap 61: After several laps of pursuit, Hawthorn manages to find a loophole in Gonzalez' defense, and the Englishman takes the lead again!
Lap 63: Gonzalez is not going to give in either, and with a successful counterattack he leaves Hawthorn behind again!
Meanwhile, on the same lap, Villoresi pulls into the pits to change wheels, and thus José-Froilan is already back in 2nd!
Lap 65: Ascari also turns into the pits for tire changing, but his advantage over all rivals is so great that he doesn't even lose the lead!
Lap 68: Manzon, like last year in Germany, loses one of the wheels again! Fortunately, the Frenchman was lucky enough to avoid an accident, but now he has no choice but to withdraw from the race.
Lap 74: Gonzalez pulls into the pits, for the fourth time already, for new tires, and he still lets Villoresi through, thus ending up in 3rd!
Last lap: Ascari, having spent the whole race all alone, wins another magnificent victory, confirming his excellent form this year as well! Moreover, having led from start to finish and shown the best lap, Alberto today also wins the Grand Slam, which is already the third in his career! Meanwhile, the second place goes to Villoresi, who had to work hard in this race, breaking through from the back of the field, whereas the best of the Argentines becomes Gonzalez, who after four pit-stops still takes the last place on the podium and receives a well-deserved ovation from the audience in his home Grand Prix. As for Hawthorn, he also looked very decent in his debut race for Ferrari, and he manages to finish 4th despite a disastrous start. As for fifth place, it goes to another Argentine, Galvez, who also did a good job, scoring points in his debut Grand Prix. However, all these achievements, of course, pale in comparison to the tragedy that unfolded on the 32nd lap of the race and the death of eleven spectators who laid down their lives on the altar of motorsport this day.
Interesting facts:
- Alberto Ascari's third Grand Slam;
- Oscar Galvez' debut and first points;
- Cooper team's debut.
Driver standings
Alternative GP results
