1955 Argentine Grand Prix

1955 Argentine Grand Prix
Previous←	1954 Spanish Grand Prix
Round	1 of 1955
Next→	1955 Monaco Grand Prix
The Autódromo Municipal Ciudad de Buenos Aires in 1954
Race Details
Date	January 16, 1955
Official Name	III Gran Premio de la Republica Argentina
Location	Autódromo 17 de Octubre Buenos Aires
Course	Permanent racing facility 3.912 km (2.431 mi)
Distance	96 laps, 375.552 km (233.357 mi)
Pole Position
Driver	José Froilán González Ferrari
Time	1:43.1
Fastest Lap
Driver	Juan Manuel Fangio Mercedes
Time	1:48.3 on lap 45
Podium
First	Juan Manuel Fangio
Second	José Froilán González Giuseppe Farina Maurice Trintignant
Third	Giuseppe Farina Maurice Trintignant Umberto Maglioli
Lap Leaders

The 1955 Argentine Grand Prix (formally the III Gran Premio de la Republica Argentina) was the first race of the 1955 Formula One Season and the third Argentine Grand Prix. It was held at the Autódromo 17 de Octubre on 16 January 1955.

Run in extremely hot conditions, the race was won by Juan Manuel Fangio, ahead of the shard drive of José Froilán González, Giuseppe Farina and Maurice Trintignant. Farina and Trintignant, along with Umberto Maglioli, also finished third. Fangio took the fastest lap. The conditions caused many drivers to stop for relief, which resulted in drivers sharing different cars. The situation was so confusing that the organizers called in an accounting firm to audit the results.

As a result of the shared drives, Fangio lead the championship, 5 ²⁄₃ points ahead of Farina and Trintignant.

Background

Weather Conditions
Qualifying	Sunny
Race	Sunny

The first race of the season, four months ahead of the second, was to the third held at the Autódromo 17 de Octubre.

Local hero and double World Champion, Juan Manuel Fangio, was joined at Mercedes by old teammates Karl Kling and Hans Herrmann, and new teammate Stirling Moss.

Ferrari, having lost Mike Hawthorn to Vanwall, entered with 1950 champion Giuseppe Farina, Argentine José Froilán González, Frenchman Maurice Trintignant and spare driver Umberto Magioli for just his fifth race.

Maserati took new recruit Jean Behra to race alongside Luigi Musso, and Sergio Mantovani and Harry Schell as Roberto Mieres got to drive his home race. Local drivers Carlos Menditeguy and Clemar Bucci also drove for the team.

Lancia took along double World Champion Alberto Ascari and his teammates Luigi Villoresi and Eugenio Castellotti.

Gordini's three-man team included Frenchman Élie Bayol and Argentines Pablo Birger and Jesús Iglesias.

The only private entry was that of Uruguayan Alberto Uria, who drove a Maserati.

Qualifying

Qualifying Results

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Time	Gap
1	12	José Froilán González	Ferrari	1:43.1	—
2	32	Alberto Ascari	Lancia	1:43.6	+ 0.5
3	2	Juan Manuel Fangio	Mercedes	1:43.7	+ 0.6
4	16	Jean Behra	Maserati	1:43.8	+ 0.7
5	10	Giuseppe Farina	Ferrari	1:43.9	+ 0.8
6	4	Karl Kling	Mercedes	1:44.1	+ 1.0
7	28	Harry Schell	Maserati	1:44.3	+ 1.2
8	6	Stirling Moss	Mercedes	1:44.6	+ 1.5
9	40	Pablo Birger	Gordini	1:44.8	+ 1.7
10	8	Hans Herrmann	Mercedes	1:44.9	+ 1.8
11	34	Luigi Villoresi	Lancia	1:45.2	+ 2.1
12	36	Eugenio Castellotti	Lancia	1:45.3	+ 2.2
13	24	Carlos Menditeguy	Maserati	1:45.4	+ 2.3
14	14	Maurice Trintignant	Ferrari	1:45.8	+ 2.7
15	38	Élie Bayol	Gordini	1:46.1	+ 3.0
16	18	Roberto Mieres	Maserati	1:46.2	+ 3.1
17	42	Jesús Iglesias	Gordini	1:46.3	+ 3.2
18	22	Luigi Musso	Maserati	1:46.4	+ 3.3
19	20	Sergio Mantovani	Maserati	1:46.4	+ 3.3
20	26	Clemar Bucci	Maserati	1:47.6	+ 4.5
21	30	Alberto Uria	Maserati	1:52.1	+ 9.0

Grid

Pos		Pos		Pos		Pos
Driver		Driver		Driver		Driver
						______________
				______________		1
		______________		2		José Froilán González
______________		3		Alberto Ascari
4		Juan Manuel Fangio
Jean Behra
					______________
			______________		5
	______________		6		Giuseppe Farina
	7		Karl Kling
	Harry Schell
						______________
				______________		8
		______________		9		Stirling Moss
______________		10		Pablo Birger
11		Hans Herrmann
Luigi Villoresi
					______________
			______________		12
	______________		13		Eugentio Castellotti
	14		Carlos Menditeguy
	Maurice Trintignant
						______________
				______________		15
		______________		16		Élie Bayol
______________		17		Roberto Mieres
18		Jesús Iglesias
Luigi Musso
					______________
			______________		19
	______________		20		Sergio Mantovani
	21		Clemar Bucci
	Alberto Uria

Race

Report

The cars seemed closely matched and on the front row of the grid was one of each of the cars from the big four teams: Gonzalez just ahead of Ascari, Fangio and Behra.

Race day was extremely hot and Fangio delighted the locals by getting into the lead on the first lap with Ascari and a fast-starting Stirling Moss chasing him. Then came Gonzalez and Farina.

Fangio's lead did not last long. Ascari challenged him and got ahead only to lose the lead soon afterwards to a flying Gonzalez. The racing stayed close in the early laps but on lap 22 Ascari made a mistake and crashed. His Lancia team mate Villoresi was already out because of early mechanical trouble and had taken over Castellotti's car but before Ascari could claim the car, Villoresi crashed, ending the Lancia challenge.

Moss disappeared with a fuel feed problem and a few laps later Trintignant went out with an engine problem.

And then the heat began to tell on the drivers. Farina pitted because he was exhausted, his car being taken over by Ferrari's spare driver Umberto Maglioli. Then Gonzalez came into the pits and so a revived Farina was sent out in his place. Fangio had to stop for some water and this enabled Schell and Mieres to go ahead although an exhausted Schell was soon handing over to Behra. Mieres ran into technical trouble and that meant that Fangio was soon back in the lead.

He was caught in the closing laps by Gonzalez - who was back in his own car which had been driven in the interim by Farina and Trintignant - but he then had an accident and ruined his chances. He did manage to rejoin and handed the car back to Farina who brought the Ferrari home in second place.

Third place in this complicated race went to Farina's original car which had been driven by Maglioli and then handed on to Trintignant before being handed back to Maglioli.

Post-race

The hottest F1 race at the time meant that multiple drivers required replacements, and only Juan Manuel Fangio and Roberto Mieres survived the whole race without partaking in a shared drive. All in all, sixteen replacements took place, and three of the shared drives scored points, and while Fangio took the fastest lap, nine drivers scored points, and Fangio was left with a lead of 5 ²⁄₃ points in the championship over both Giuseppe Farina and Maurice Trintignant. Trintignant, Jean Behra and Harry Schell all managed to drive three different cars during the race.

Fangio suffered severe burns to his right leg after it rubbed against some exhaust-heated chassis frame for the duration of the race. It took the Argentine three months to recover, but he did not miss any championship events.

Results

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	2	Juan Manuel Fangio	Mercedes	96	3:00:38.6	3	9
2	12	José Froilán González Nino Farina Maurice Trintignant	Ferrari	96	+ 1:29.6	1	2 2 2
3	10	Giuseppe Farina Maurice Trintignant Umberto Maglioli	Ferrari	94	+ 2 laps	5	1 1⁄3 1 1⁄3 1 1⁄3
4	8	Hans Herrmann Karl Kling Stirling Moss	Mercedes	94	+ 2 laps	10	1 1 1
5	18	Roberto Mieres	Maserati	91	+ 5 laps	16	2
6	28	Harry Schell Jean Behra	Maserati	88	+ 8 laps	7
7	22	Luigi Musso Sergio Mantovani Harry Schell	Maserati	83	+ 13 laps	18
Ret	20	Sergio Mantovani Jean Behra Luigi Musso	Maserati	54	Engine	19
Ret	26	Clemar Bucci Harry Schell Carlos Menditeguy	Maserati	54	Fuel Pressure	20
Ret	42	Jesús Iglesias	Gordini	38	Transmission	17
Ret	14	Maurice Trintignant	Ferrari	36	Engine	14
Ret	36	Eugenio Castellotti Luigi Villoresi	Lancia	35	Accident	12
Ret	6	Stirling Moss	Mercedes	29	Fuel System	8
Ret	30	Alberto Uria	Maserati	22	Out of Fuel	21
Ret	32	Alberto Ascari	Lancia	21	Accident	2
Ret	38	Élie Bayol	Gordini	7	Transmission	15
Ret	16	Jean Behra	Maserati	2	Accident	4
Ret	4	Karl Kling	Mercedes	2	Accident	6
Ret	34	Luigi Villoresi	Lancia	2	Fuel Leak	11
Ret	40	Pablo Birger	Gordini	1	Accident	9
Ret	24	Carlos Menditeguy	Maserati	1	Accident	13

Shared drives

Note: The lap figures are the number of laps driven in the car of each entrant, not the individual stints.

Per car

No.	Pos.	Laps	Starting drive		Second drive		Third drive		Points
			Driver	Laps	Driver	Laps	Driver	Laps	Total	Per driver
8	4th	94	Hans Herrmann	30	Karl Kling	30	Stirling Moss	34	3	1
10	3rd	94	Giuseppe Farina	50	Umberto Maglioli	22	Maurice Trintignant	22	4	1 1⁄3
12	2nd	96	José Froilán González	60	Giuseppe Farina	20	Maurice Trintignant	16	6	2
20	Ret	54	Sergio Mantovani	30	Jean Behra	14	Luigi Musso	10	0	0
22	7th	83	Luigi Musso	50	Sergio Mantovani	20	Harry Schell	13	0	0
26	Ret	54	Clemar Bucci	30	Harry Schell	14	Carlos Menditeguy	10	0	0
28	6th	88	Harry Schell	50	Jean Behra	38			0	0
36	Ret	35	Eugenio Castellotti	20	Luigi Villoresi	15			0	0

Per driver

Driver	Starting drive				Second drive				Third drive				Totals
	No.	Laps	Result	Pts	No.	Laps	Result	Pts	No.	Laps	Result	Pts	Laps	Pts
Jean Behra	16	2/2	Ret	0	20	14/54	Ret	0	28	38/88	6th	0	54	0
Clemar Bucci	26	30/54	Ret	0									30	0
Eugenio Castellotti	36	20/35	Ret	0									20	0
Giuseppe Farina	10	50/94	3rd	1 1⁄3	12	20/96	2nd	2					70	3 1⁄3
José Froilán González	12	60/96	2nd	2									60	2
Hans Herrmann	8	30/94	4th	1									30	1
Karl Kling	4	2/2	Ret	0	8	30/94	4th	1					32	1
Umberto Maglioli					10	22/94	3rd	1 1⁄3					22	1 1⁄3
Sergio Mantovani	20	30/54	Ret	0	22	20/83	7th	0					50	0
Carlos Menditeguy	24	1/1	Ret	0	26	10/54	Ret	0					11	0
Stirling Moss	6	29/29	Ret	0	8	34/94	4th	1					63	1
Luigi Musso	22	50/83	7th	0	20	10/54	Ret	0					60	0
Harry Schell	28	50/88	6th	0	26	14/54	Ret	0	22	13/83	7th	0	77	0
Maurice Trintignant	14	36/36	Ret	0	12	16/96	2nd	2	10	22/94	3rd	1 1⁄3	74	3 1⁄3
Luigi Villoresi	34	2/2	Ret	0	36	15/35	Ret	0					17	0

Fastest lap

Note: No other fastest laps were recorded.

No.	Driver	Constructor	Lap	Time	Avg Speed	Race
2	Juan Manuel Fangio	Mercedes	45	1:48.3	130.039	1

Laps in the lead

By Lap

Stint	Driver	Laps	Total	Distance
1	Juan Manuel Fangio	01 – 02	02	007.824 km
2	Alberto Ascari	03 – 04	02	007.824 km
3	José Froilán González	05 – 10	06	023.472 km
4	Alberto Ascari	11 – 21	11	043.032 km
5	José Froilán González	22 – 25	04	015.648 km
6	Juan Manuel Fangio	26 – 34	09	035.208 km
7	Harry Schell	35 – 38	04	015.648 km
8	Roberto Mieres	39 – 42	04	015.648 km
9	Juan Manuel Fangio	43 – 96	54	211.248 km

Totals

Pos.	Driver	Laps	Distance
1	Juan Manuel Fangio	65	254.280 km
2	Alberto Ascari	13	050.856 km
3	José Froilán González	10	039.120 km
4	Harry Schell	04	015.648 km
	Roberto Mieres	04	015.648 km

Milestones

• Joint-hottest F1 race with 1984 Dallas Grand Prix and 2005 Bahrain Grand Prix, at 40°C (104°F), although Dallas would have registered hotter if the race had not started in the morning.
• Championship débuts for Eugenio Castellotti, Alberto Uria.
• Only race for Jesús Iglesias.
• Last race for Pablo Birger, Clemar Bucci and Sergio Mantovani.
• Juan Manuel Fangio's 14th win put him clear in the list of most victories. It was also his 20th podium finish.
• Fifth win for Mercedes.
• 3rd (and final) pole position and 15th (and final) podium for José Froilán González.
• 2nd (and final) podium for Umberto Maglioli.

Standings after race

Drivers Championship only

Drivers' World Championship
Pos.	Driver	Pts
1	Juan Manuel Fangio	9
2	Giuseppe Farina	3 1⁄3
	Maurice Trintignant	3 1⁄3
4	José Froilán González	2
	Roberto Mieres	2
6	Umberto Maglioli	1 1⁄3
7	Hans Herrmann	1
	Karl Kling	1
	Stirling Moss	1

External links

• Wikipedia article
• STATS F1 page
• Grand Prix Encyclopedia article
• Silhouet page
• Chicane F1 page