1950 Monaco Grand Prix

1950 Monaco Grand Prix
Previous←	1950 British Grand Prix
Round	2 of 1950
Next→	1950 Indianapolis 500
The 1950 Monaco Circuit
Race Details
Date	May 21, 1950
Official Name	XI Grand Prix Automobile de Monaco
Location	Circuit de Monaco Monaco, Monte Carlo
Course	Temporary Street Circuit 3.181 km (1.977 mi)
Distance	100 laps, 318.1 km (197.658 mi)
Pole Position
Driver	Juan Manuel Fangio Alfa Romeo
Time	1:50.2
Fastest Lap
Driver	Juan Manuel Fangio Alfa Romeo
Time	1:51.0
Podium
First	Juan Manuel Fangio
Second	Alberto Ascari
Third	Louis Chiron
Lap Leaders

The 1950 Monaco Grand Prix was the second race of the inaugural Formula One World Championship in 1950. The 100-lap race took place on May 21 1950 and was won by Juan Manuel Fangio from lights to flag. Fangio also set the fastest lap, thus completing the second hat-trick in Formula One history, in the second race.

Background

1950 saw a return to the calendar for the Monaco Grand Prix, the event had seen a year's absence from the grand prix calendar following the death of Prince Louis II in 1949. The last race in 1948 had been won by Giuseppe Farina, the Alfa Romeo driver having also just came off the backbone of his victory at Silverstone one week earlier. Monaco had one representive for its nation in the race, Louis Chiron, the Monagasque veteran would be participating for Maserati in the race. There was talk of Chiron taking a one-off drive at Alfa Romeo, the home favourite was a popular candidate and would be in prime position for the potential for a second home win, adding to his Monaco victory from way back in 1931. However Alfa Romeo opted to stick with its regular line-up of Farina, Fangio and Fagioli, although the team did name Chiron as reserve driver if something were to happen to their regular line-up.

The Monaco race would see the debut of manufacturers, Ferrari and Simca-Gordini in the world championship. Ferrari had snubbed the opening round of the championship at Silverstone, the team feeling the prize money provided was not worth competing over, Enzo Ferrari placing greater value of a minor Formula Two race at Mons over the World Championship debut event. Following the Alfa Romeo domination at Silverstone, the Ferrari drivers of Luigi Villoresi, Alberto Ascari and Raymond Sommer were believed to be the only true rivals to the Alfa's strength. Aside from the works Ferrari's, Peter Whitehead would enter his privately owned Ferrari 125 to enter for the event.

The other manufacturer to debut at Monaco was the Simca-Gordini outfit. The minor French manufacturer was expected to be a solid midfield team with Maurice Trintignant, André Simon and Robert Manzon racing at their helm. Simon, however would cancel his entry prior to the beginning of the event. After a disappointing run in Silverstone, the major French manufacturer had scaled back its works team to fielding only Yves-Giraud Cabantous, although Philippe Étancelin, Louis Rosier, Pierre Levegh, Charles Pozzi and Johnny Claes would continue to compete in the modern T26C's as privateer racers.

Louis Chiron and Franco Rol continued as the works Maserati drivers whilst privateer team, Scuderia Achille Varzi made their debut with Maserati machinery. The youthful Argentine, José Froilán González, had joined the team as successor to Juan Manuel Fangio's place in the team and alongside him was Alfredo Piàn. The Enrico Platé squad continued with Prince Bira and Baron de Graffenried as their drivers, whilst Clemente Biondetti was also racing a Maserati 4CLT, albeit the car had been modified by his team, Scuderia Milano.

Bob Gerard and Cuth Harrison would also participate as minor privateers, the duo competing in old A and B Type ERA machinery. Notably making his grand prix debut was American, Harry Schell. Schell would notably debut with a Cooper car designed for Formula Two and Formula Three racing, the small nimble Cooper was powered by a JAP motorcycle engine. It was also notably the first car in Formula One in which the engine manufacturer and chassis design had been built independently from one another.

Qualifying

Qualifying Report

In order to increase competition for the qualifying sessions, the event organisers decreed the first five grid positions would be allocated to the first five fastest cars in the first timed practice sessions. This decision had caught Ferrari unawares, the works team had not planned to arrive at the circuit until the Saturday qualifying sessions. This provided a huge advantage for Alfa Romeo with their main rivals unable to secure a position in the top five grid slots, Fangio ran excellently to take pole, his time being 2.6 seconds faster than teammate Farina's best time. Fagioli appeared to be struggling in his Alfa and could not better his two teammates. In fact, the old Italian veteran was pushed down to fifth, young gun, José Froilán González had managed to put his Maserati third on the grid in his first grand prix qualifying. Philippe Étancelin had also done well to put his private Talbot-Lago into fourth. Fagioli who was struggling bounced back on the second day of qualifying, his time being good enough for second on the grid, however his poor run on Friday had meant he would have to start from fifth.

When Ferrari arrived for the second timed session, their times meant they were running competitively, however neither Villoresi, Ascari or Sommer could beat the top three of Fangio, Farina and surprisingly González's Maserati. There absence from the first session meant Villoresi and Ascari would start from sixth and seventh whilst Sommer had been bumped down to ninth when local hero, Louis Chiron put in a strong time to put his car into eighth. Rounding out the top ten was Louis Rosier's Talbot-Lago.

Robert Manzon was the fastest Simca-Gordini in eleventh ahead of De Graffenried's Maserati and his teammate Maurice Trintignant. Cuth Harrison was fourteenth ahead of a disappointed Prince Bira in fifteenth. Bob Gerard in his old ERA A Type was sixteenth ahead of Franco Rol and Johnny Claes. Whilst González had impressed for Scuderia Achille Varzi, his teammate Alfredo Piàn had also been running well. In unofficial practice he had put in times fast enough for sixth on the grid, but at the end of the session he had spun his Maserati on oil and crashed against the guard rail. Piàn sustained leg injuries and subsequently could not participate in the race, the team's expectations being pinned solely on González.

Yves-Giraud Cabantous's Talbot-Lago had significant mechanical troubles which saw him participate in none of the practice sessions at the circuit, the problems were so bad he was forced to withdraw his entry to the event. The withdrawal of Cabantous meant Talbot-Lago had no works entry for the race, the manufacturer having to rely on its privateers to represent its presence in the race. Peter Whitehead also withdrew his private Ferrari when he suffered three engine failures in rapid succession during practice, the costs being too high to maintain an entry into the race. The entry's of Charles Pozzi and Clemente Biondetti were also removed when they failed to turn up to the event. Harry Schell in his little JAP engined Cooper had experienced multiple problems during practice, he had failed to set a lap time in either timed session, however he vowed to continue on in the race albeit starting from the back of the grid.

Qualifying Results

Pos	No.	Driver	Constructor	Time	Gap	%	Avg Speed
1	34	Juan Manuel Fangio	Alfa Romeo	1:50.2		100%	103.884
2	32	Nino Farina	Alfa Romeo	1:52.8	+2.6	102.4%	101.489
3	2	José Froilán González	Maserati	1:53.7	+3.5	103.2%	100.686
4	14	Philippe Étançelin	Talbot-Lago-Talbot	1:54.1	+3.9	103.5%	100.333
5	36	Luigi Fagioli	Alfa Romeo	1:54.2	+4	103.6%	100.245
6	38	Luigi Villoresi	Ferrari	1:52.3	+2.1	101.9%	101.941
7	40	Alberto Ascari	Ferrari	1:53.8	+3.6	103.3%	100.598
8	48	Louis Chiron	Maserati	1:56.3	+6.1	105.5%	98.435
9	42	Raymond Sommer	Ferrari	1:56.6	+6.4	105.8%	98.182
10	16	Louis Rosier	Talbot-Lago-Talbot	1:57.7	+7.5	106.8%	97.264
11	10	Robert Manzon	Simca-Gordini	2:04.0	+13.8	112.5%	92.323
12	52	Emmanuel de Graffenried	Maserati	2:00.7	+10.5	109.5%	94.847
13	12	Maurice Trintignant	Simca-Gordini	2:19.4	+29.2	126.5%	82.123
14	24	Cuth Harrison	ERA	2:01.6	+11.4	110.3%	94.145
15	50	Prince Bira	Maserati	2:02.2	+12	110.9%	93.682
16	26	Bob Gerard	ERA	2:03.4	+13.2	112%	92.771
17	44	Franco Rol	Maserati	2:04.5	+14.3	113%	91.952
18	6	Johnny Claes	Talbot-Lago-Talbot	2:12.0	+21.8	119.8%	86.727
19	8	Harry Schell	Cooper-JAP	No Time
20	4	Alfredo Piàn	Maserati	No Time

Grid

Pos		Pos		Pos
Driver		Driver		Driver
				______________
		______________		1
______________		2		Juan Manuel Fangio
3		Giuseppe Farina
José Froilán González
			______________
	______________		4
	5		Philippe Étancelin
	Luigi Fagioli
				______________
		______________		6
______________		7		Luigi Villoresi
8		Alberto Ascari
Louis Chiron
			______________
	______________		9
	10		Raymond Sommer
	Louis Rosier
				______________
		______________		11
______________		12		Robert Manzon
13		Emmanuel de Graffenried
Maurice Trintignant
			______________
	______________		14
	15		Cuth Harrison
	Prince Bira
				______________
		______________		16
______________		17		Bob Gerard
18		Franco Rol
Johnny Claes
			______________
	______________		19
	20		Harry Schell

Race

Carnage at Tabac

In the morning before the race it rained heavily but luckily before the race started the clouds went away, however they still left a very wet track. Peter Whitehead's private Ferrari failed to start the race due to engine issues that had troubled him all weekend. At the start Fangio got made the best start as Farina spun his wheels up.

Podium at Monaco for Ascari

As the cars made there way around the first lap, little did they know there had been a large wave at the harbour based circuit and had flooded some of the corners.

As the drivers entered Tabac, Nino Farina who was running second spun his Alfa on the wet track and was rammed by José Froilán González and in turn, he was rammed by Luigi Fagioli. This caused a multi-car pile up counting for Louis Rosier, Robert Manzon, Emmanuel de Graffenried, Maurice Trintignant, Cuth Harrison, Franco Rol and Harry Schell all retiring.

Fangio on his way to Monaco victory

Most got away unscathed but González had had oil spilt over him in the accident which badly burned him and would keep him out for the next couple of races. Also, Franco Rol suffered a broken wrist which would put him out of action for awhile. Only 9 cars survived the incident and Ferrari was the only team to not lose at least one car in the first lap incident. Villoresi and Ascari quickly overtook Philippe Étancelin for third and the two began a hard battle for second. Étançelin retired later with an oil leak, this paved the way for the third Ferrari of Sommer to take fourth place behind his two teammates but was under pressure from local driver and racing veteran Louis Chiron.

Luigi Villoresi who had stalled early in the race negotiating the mele at Tabac had a strong day fighting back to second but it came to a sad end when his axle broke. This left second place open to Ascari, and after a long hard battle Louis Chiron finally managed to get his Maserati past Raymond Sommer and took a podium finish in front of his home crowd. However, the race was dominated by Fangio, who saw absolutely no challenge from any of his rivals, and showed Ferrari had work to do if they were going to catch the Alfas.

Results

Pos	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Avg Speed	Grid	Pts
1	34	Juan Manuel Fangio	Alfa Romeo	100	3:13:18.7	98.701	1	9
2	40	Alberto Ascari	Ferrari	99	+ 1 lap	97.251	7	6
3	48	Louis Chiron	Maserati	98	+ 2 laps	96.191	8	4
4	42	Raymond Sommer	Ferrari	97	+ 3 laps	95.451	9	3
5	50	Prince Bira	Maserati	95	+ 5 laps	93.363	15	2
6	26	Bob Gerard	ERA	94	+ 6 laps	92.317	16
7	6	Johnny Claes	Talbot-Lago	94	+ 6 laps	92.254	18
Ret	38	Luigi Villoresi	Ferrari	63	Axle		6
Ret	14	Philippe Étancelin	Talbot-Lago	38	Oil leak		4
Ret	2	José Froilán González	Maserati	1	Accident		3
Ret	32	Giuseppe Farina	Alfa Romeo	0	Accident		2
Ret	36	Luigi Fagioli	Alfa Romeo	0	Accident		5
Ret	16	Louis Rosier	Talbot-Lago	0	Accident		10
Ret	10	Robert Manzon	Simca-Gordini	0	Accident		11
Ret	52	Emmanuel de Graffenried	Maserati	0	Accident		12
Ret	12	Maurice Trintignant	Simca-Gordini	0	Accident		13
Ret	24	Cuth Harrison	ERA	0	Accident		14
Ret	44	Franco Rol	Maserati	0	Accident		17
Ret	8	Harry Schell	Cooper-JAP	0	Collision		19
DNS	4	Alfredo Pián	Maserati		Accident
DNS	28	Peter Whitehead	Ferrari		Engine
DNP	18	Charles Pozzi	Talbot-Lago		Not present
DNP	20	Yves Giraud-Cabantous	Talbot-Lago		Not present
DNP	22	Pierre Levegh	Talbot-Lago		Not Present
DNP	46	Clemente Biondetti	Maserati		Car unavailable

Fastest Laps

Pos	No.	Driver	Constructor	Lap	Time	Gap	Avg Speed	Race
1	34	Juan Manuel Fangio	Alfa Romeo	?	1:51.0		103.135	1
2	14	Philippe Étancelin	Talbot-Lago	?	1:57.9	6.9s	97.099	Ret
3	6	Johnny Claes	Talbot-Lago	?	2:00.2	9.2s	95.241	7

Lap Leaders

Lap-by-lap

Stint	Driver	Laps	Total	Distance
1	Juan Manuel Fangio	1–100	100	318.000 km

Total

Pos.	Driver	Laps	Distance
1	Juan Manuel Fangio	100	318.000 km

Standings

Drivers Championship only

Pos	Driver	Pts
1	Giuseppe Farina	9
2	Juan Manuel Fangio	9
3	Luigi Fagioli	6
4	Alberto Ascari	6
5	Reg Parnell	4
6	Louis Chiron	4
7	Yves Giraud-Cabantous	3
8	Raymond Sommer	3
9	Louis Rosier	2
10	Prince Bira	2

Milestones

• Juan Manuel Fangio's first pole position, victory, fastest lap, double, hat-trick and Grand Chelem.

• First Formula One grand chelem.

• Débuts for drivers Alberto Ascari, Raymond Sommer, Robert Manzon, Luigi Villoresi, Harry Schell, José Froilán González, Maurice Trintignant and Franco Rol.

• Débuts for constructors Ferrari, Simca Gordini and Cooper

• Début for engine manufacturers Ferrari, Simca Gordini and JAP.

• First entry for Peter Whitehead, Charles Pozzi, Pierre Levegh, Clemente Biondetti and Alfredo Pián,

• Alfredo Piàn's only entry.

← Previous Race 1950 British Grand Prix	Formula One Races	Next Race → 1950 Indianapolis 500
← Previous Race None	Monaco Grand Prix	Next Race → 1955 Monaco Grand Prix

v·d·e

Nominate this page for Featured Article