Review of 1953 season
The 1953 World Championship was the second and final season to be held under the Formula-2 technical regulations, prompting most of the teams to use last year's cars in the races, directing technical resources to prepare new Formula-1 cars for 1954. However, despite this, the alignment of forces in 1953 was completely changed thanks to the Maserati team, which took part in all Grand Prix this season and seriously challenged Ferrari's leadership. Maserati cars were equipped with 6-cylinder engines, which surpassed Ferrari power units in terms of power, and this allowed the Modena team to compete on equal terms with rivals from Maranello on fast tracks in Belgium, France and Italy. However, the Ferrari had a cornering advantage thanks to its well-balanced chassis, and on the twisty circuits that made up most of the World Championship Grand Prix, the scarlet cars were unrivaled. As a result, the overall balance of power was again in favor of the team from Maranello, and Ferrari won all the races of the season, except for the last one.
The best driver of the championship, as in the previous year, was Alberto Ascari, who won five of the eight Grands Prix, thus winning his second championship title. However, for the Italian, this championship was not at all as easy a walk as the previous one, since now he had to fight not only with his teammates, but also with Maserati drivers, who turned out to be extremely fast. Ascari laid the foundation for his second title at the very beginning, winning the first three races of the season, but the end of the championship was not easy for Alberto, because in the last three races he was let down by a car twice, and at home Grand Prix the Italian himself missed the victory in the last meters of the distance. Fortunately for Alberto, the fate of the title was already decided by that moment, and the Italian became the first two-time world champion in the history of circuit racing.
Second place in the championship went to Maserati leader Juan Manuel Fangio, who, despite constant car breakdowns at the beginning of the season, was very stable in the rest of the championship and, thanks to a number of second places, managed to reach the top of the standings. However, both the Argentine himself and the entire Maserati team were hungry for victory, and at the last stage of the World Championship in Italy, Juan Manuel, after an incredible struggle with Ferrari, managed to cross the finish line first, bringing the Italian trident its first victory in the World Championship and thereby securing the title vice champion. With this success, the Argentine has clearly shown that he is in excellent shape and has managed to fully recover from a neck injury he received last year in Monza.
For Nino Farina, the championship began in the most nightmarish way, when in Argentina the Italian flew off the track and crashed into the thick of spectators, cutting off the lives of ten of them. This accident clearly left its mark on the subsequent performances of the Italian, and in the next few races Nino was constantly inferior to his rivals, which made many think about the likely imminent end of the career of the first world champion. However, in Germany, after problems arose in the car of the leading Ascari and there was a real chance to fight for the victory, something seemed to click in Nino's head, and the Italian flew like on wings, overtook Fangio and Hawthorn one by one and won a magnificent victory, the first in almost two and a half years. The Italian also performed brilliantly in the last two races of the season, and only the order to slow down in Switzerland and Marimon's unsuccessful maneuver in the last corner of the Italian Grand Prix prevented Nino from completing the championship with three victories in a row. Naturally, after such strong performances, all the talk that Farina was no longer the same immediately subsided, and the Italian was able to extend his contract with Ferrari for the next season.
As for Ferrari's newcomer Mike Hawthorn, the Englishman started the championship noticeably inferior to his teammates, but already in the fourth Grand Prix in France, he amazed everyone, having managed to get ahead of all his rivals on the track and, after an incredible fight with Fangio for 30 laps Mike won a truly brilliant victory, becoming the first Briton to win World Championship Grand Prix! Unfortunately, Hawthorn did not succeed in building on the success, but he managed to get on the podium two more times, eventually finishing fourth in the championship behind three world champions.
The fourth Ferrari driver Luigi Villoresi had a great start to the season, finishing second twice in the first three races, but in the rest of the championship the Italian gave up and began to regularly lose not only to his teammates, but also to Maserati drivers. As a result, Luigi became the only Ferrari driver who did not manage to win a single victory and naturally took only fifth place in the championship, which was a repetition of his best result shown in 1951.
However, the main loser of the season was certainly Jose-Froilan Gonzalez. The Argentine started the season well, finishing on the podium at home Grand Prix, but in Belgium he lost a sure victory due to a broken accelerator pedal, in France and Great Britain, José-Froilan chose a risky strategy with one refueling, which did not justify itself at all, and before the German Grand Prix the Argentine, driving in the Portuguese sports car race, suffered a spinal injury that put him out of action for the rest of the season. As a result, Gonzalez got only sixth place in the championship, although in terms of performance he was only slightly inferior to his teammate Fangio.
The discovery of the season became Gonzalez's friend and compatriot Onofre Marimon. Having secured a Maserati seat thanks to the patronage of his mentor Fangio, Onofre immediately showed what he was capable of, finishing on the podium in the very first race, even with a broken car. Unfortunately, technical problems haunted the Argentine throughout the season, and these points remained the only ones for him, but despite this, Onofre made a strong impression with his performances in the last two races, and Maserati management, without thinking twice, extended his contract for next season.
The best private driver in 1953 was undoubtedly the Swiss baron Tulo de Graffenried, who, driving the latest Maserati A6GCM-53, managed to score three times and take 7th place in the overall standings, even ahead of Maserati factory driver Felice Bonetto, who became only 8th.
Given the complete superiority of Ferrari and Maserati over other rivals, the struggle for points for the rest of the teams turned into a real rodeo. The French team Gordini, who won several podiums last year and finished second behind Ferrari, this season rejoiced at every hard-won point. The difficulties of the French team were also added by Robert Manzon's departure at the very beginning of the season, who, after another wheel flew off, considered the car too dangerous. However, after Robert's retirement, the new leader of the team was not Jean Behra, who showed himself excellently last year, but Maurice Trintignant, who managed to completely outshine Jean and became the only championship driver who managed to score points, driving not a Ferrari or Maserati. These points probably could have been more, but the Frenchman, as before, was overcome by technical problems, so he took only 10th place in the championship. Nevertheless, the excellent performances of the Frenchman were not hidden from the keen eyes of Enzo Ferrari, and Trintignant spent the next season in the Maranello team.
As for Jean Behra, he had an absolutely nondescript season, never managing to get ahead of Trintignant and not gaining a single point. Moreover, the Frenchman was often inferior even to Gordini rookie, the American Harry Schell, who, having received a good car for the first time, was able to show quite decent speed and qualified several times in the top ten.
For British teams, the 1953 championship turned out to be simply devastating. The Cooper team, based on Hawthorn's last year success, decided to enter the championship with their own team this season, but neither the new Alta-powered car nor the talent of Stirling Moss brought them success. The Connaught team, thanks to Roy Salvadori, showed good speed in the races, but their cars retired too often due to all sorts of technical problems, and in the end the Englishman never managed to reach the finish line. Nor was the HWM team successful with their updated car, which was neither fast nor reliable, and the team's best finish was Peter Collins' 8th in the Netherlands.
And, unfortunately, 1953 was not without tragedies. In the very first Grand Prix of the season in Argentina, dozens of spectators died and were injured due to poor organization, and after the end of the season, the Grand Prix world lost the “Pirate” Bonetto, who died in the Carrera Panamericana sports car race.
Alternative driver standings
Alternative team standings
