Review of 1955 season
1955 was a year of both great victories and great shocks for European motorsport, and both of these extremes were in one way or another associated with the name of the Daimler-Benz team. Before the start of the season, the engineers of the German team managed to lighten the weight of the Silver Arrows by 70 kg, simultaneously increasing the power of their engines to 290 hp, as a result of which the Mercedes cars, which were already superior in technical parameters to all their competitors, now received a clear advantage in speed and became almost invincible.
At the same time, the advantage of German cars became so obvious that in most Grand Prix Silver Arrows did not even have to use all their technical potential, which not only had a favorable effect on their reliability, but even allowed the head of the team, Alfred Neubauer, to successfully apply team tactics.
The logical outcome of this championship for the Silver Arrows was the second World title in a row and five Grand Prix victories, and only the unfortunate retirement of both cars in Monaco did not allow the German team to win all the races of the season.
Unfortunately, there is always a fly in the ointment, and for Daimler-Benz such was the terrible tragedy in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race, the unwitting culprit of which was the car of the German team.
This disaster, which became the most tragic in the history of motorsport in terms of the number of victims, although it occurred in another series, still had the most direct impact on the Formula-1 championship. Having received a wide public outcry, the tragedy at Le Mans led to the cancellation of four Grand Prix, reducing their total number by almost half, while Switzerland imposed an indefinite ban on holding races on its territory at all, which exists to this day. Among other things, this accident only strengthened the Daimler-Benz management in determination to leave motorsport at the end of this season, which came as a surprise to the entire Formula-1 public and changed the entire further history course of this motorsport. At the same time, the main reasons that pushed the German team to such a decision were exorbitant financial costs, which reached 6 million marks unthinkable at that time, as well as the concern's course for expanding the serial production of cars, which required the direct involvement of Formula-1 engineers in this process. Anyway, in two years of performances, Daimler-Benz managed to fulfill all its intended tasks and, having won two titles, the German team left motorsport with their head held high.
With the best car at his disposal, Juan-Manuel Fangio became the champion of Formula-1 for the third time in his career, who had the undoubted status of the leader of the Silver Arrows. However, it would be wrong to say that the Argentine won this title only due to his status or obvious favoritism on the part of Neubauer. Indeed, two of his four victories in the Netherlands and Italy, Juan-Manuel won thanks to team tactics that forbade his teammates to overtake their first number. However, in Belgium, Fangio himself did not let anyone doubt his superiority, and at the home stage in Argentina, Juan-Manuel held one of the best Grand Prix in his career at all, having managed to win a heroic victory in hellish heat, having single-handedly spent a three-hour race in red-hot cockpit.
Fangio's main rival this year has certainly been his team-mate Stirling Moss, who at the wheel of the Silver Arrow was finally able to truly unleash his potential. At the same time, the championship title was out of reach for the Englishman, given his status as the second number in the team, and Moss was forced to spend most of the Grand Prix behind Fangio, obeying team orders.
Nevertheless, this year Stirling finally managed to win his first victory, which he achieved not just anywhere, but in his homeland in the Great Britain, and at the end of the championship the Englishman became the vice-champion, losing only to Fangio. However, even with these successes, it was clear that Moss looked every bit as good as the three-time world champion and deserved much more.
As for the rest of the Mercedes drivers, they were clearly inferior to both Fangio and Moss, and in most races they could only count on the bottom step of the podium. For Karl Kling, this championship, which became the last in his career, was generally a complete disappointment. Not only did he have more technical problems than his teammates, but in addition to this, the French and the German Grand Prix, in which the German shone last year, were also canceled. The disappointing result of this season for Kling was just one podium finish in the Great Britain and only 10th place in the final standings, after which the 44-year-old German retired from Formula-1 following his team.
Meanwhile, the young Hans Herrmann was even less fortunate. Already in the second Grand Prix of the season in Monaco, Hans got into a very serious accident, which almost cost him his life and put him out of action until the end of the championship, so one point earned by Herrmann in Argentina remained the only one for him for the entire season. Against the background of two Germans, Piero Taruffi, who joined Daimler-Benz at the end of the season, looked just lucky. Having spent only two races for the German team, the Italian finished one of them in points, and in his native Italy he finished second at all, which allowed him to eventually take 6th place in the overall standings.
Meanwhile, before the start of the season, the Italian Lancia team was considered the most serious rival of the Silver Arrows, which had at its disposal not only magnificent cars designed by Vittorio Jano, but also one of the best racers of that period, two-time world champion Alberto Ascari.
Unfortunately, the Italian managed to spend only two Grands Prix at the wheel of Lancia, after which Alberto tragically died in Monza while testing a Ferrari sports car.
This tragedy was a truly fatal blow for the Turin team, since it was with Ascari that Gianni Lancia connected the future successes of his team, and after the death of the Italian champion, Lancia remained practically decapitated and began to experience serious financial problems. In the end, Lancia was forced to sell all of his cars to Enzo Ferrari, and, unfortunately, thus the short history of the Turin team in Formula-1 came to an end. To understand what heights Lancia could reach, it is enough to look at the results of its performances: having held only four Grand Prix, Turin cars twice won pole position, led the Grand Prix three times and won one podium. Among other things, it was in the Lancia team that the debut of the young Italian Eugenio Castellotti took place, who became the main discovery of this season.
Coming to Formula-1 as Ascari's protégé, Eugenio made a big name for himself already in the second race of the season in Monaco, having managed to impose a serious fight on both the Mercedes drivers and his mentor, and brought Lancia its first and only podium. After the death of Ascari, Castellotti suddenly found himself in the role of the leader of the Turin team, and the young Italian did not lose face, having managed to win his first pole position in Belgium. Unfortunately, the Grand Prix itself did not work out for Eugenio: he was clearly inferior in speed to the Silver Arrows, and subsequently retired due to a gearbox failure. As it turned out, this Grand Prix was the last in the history of Lancia, but Enzo Ferrari himself had already laid eyes on the talented Italian, and Eugenio spent the next races as Scuderia driver. The end of the season Castellotti also spent superbly, managing to bring Ferrari a podium at the home stage in Monza, and thus the Italian took third place in the overall standings, losing only to Fangio and Moss!
Meanwhile, for Scuderia Ferrari itself, this season has been a complete disappointment. The new Maranello cars, nicknamed the Super Sharks, were clearly inferior in speed to all their main competitors and could only boast of reliability. It was thanks to the latter that the Ferrari drivers still managed to save the team from complete failure and win several podiums, while Maurice Trintignant in Monaco even managed to celebrate his first victory, which was the only one for Scuderia for the entire season.
Nonetheless, the weakness of the scarlet cars was so obvious that already in the middle of the season Nino Farina left Ferrari, who decided to end his racing career on this, while Mike Hawthorn, who replaced the Italian champion, could not even earn a single point. The result of this championship for Ferrari was only 4th place in the overall standings for Trintignant and 5th for Farina, and only the appearance of new Lancia cars purchased from the Turin team gave Scuderia hope for a more successful next season.
Meanwhile, for Maserati team this championship was even less successful. Despite the fact that Maserati 250F cars received significant upgrades during the off-season, allowing the team's drivers to regularly compete for podiums, all too often their efforts were thwarted by various breakdowns. Besides, the Modena team clearly lacked a strong leader, since Jean Behra, who was chosen for this role, did not cope with his task at all. Certainly, the Frenchman was very fast, which he proved more than once in qualifications, but in the races he made mistakes quite often that cost the team broken cars and important points, and besides this, Jean was distinguished by outright bad luck, which led him to retire at the most inopportune moments and cost him a podium in the Great Britain and a probable victory in Monaco. As a result, the Frenchman took only 8th place in the overall standings, gaining about the same points as his teammates Musso and Mieres.
For Luigi Musso, this season turned out quite well, and the Italian was able to show off his talent several times, questioning the leadership of Jean Behra in the Modena team. However, technical problems also overcame him, and as a result, Luigi managed to climb the podium only once, taking only 9th place in the overall standings. As for Roberto Mieres, although he did not perform as brightly as Behra or Musso, nevertheless he was lucky to get to the finish line more often than his teammates, which allowed the Argentine to eventually get ahead of both of them and take 7th place in the championship.
Meanwhile, for the only British team, Vanwall, this season was as unsuccessful as the previous one. Despite some changes applied, the British cars were still much inferior to German and Italian cars and were also extremely unreliable. Due to the low competitiveness of Vanwall, after only two races Mike Hawthorn left the team, changing places with the American Harry Schell, who was neglected at Ferrari.
Unfortunately, the American faced the same problems as Mike, although in the Great Britain he came very close to bringing the British team the first points. Nevertheless, Schell and Vandervell still found a common language, and the American remained in Vanwall for the next season, while the team's engineers began developing a new car, the need for which was already obvious.
However, the most disappointing this season turned out to be for the French team Gordini. Given that the team's racers went to the start driving cars developed back in 1950, they had practically no chance of defeating their rivals in the new Mercedes, Lancias, Maseratis or Ferraris, and even Robert Manzon, who returned to Gordini, could not save the situation.
Moreover, all the hopes of Amadeus Gordini for his new development, the T32 model, which was released in the last race of the season in Italy, were dashed to smithereens by the team's newcomer Jean Lucas, who could not compete even with his teammates in old cars.
As a result, Gordinis failed to score a single point in this year, which had not happened to the team since 1951, and it was obvious that only a miracle could save it next season…
Alternative driver standings
Alternative team standings
