1957 – Favorite year for Maserati and Fangio
Fifth title for Fangio, ‘the greatest race ever’ for 250F

This year is the golden anniversary of a truly momentous achievement for Maserati: the year that Juan Manuel Fangio, driving a Maserati 250F, won the Formula One World Championship.

The Maserati 250F is rightly venerated as one of the finest grand prix cars ever created. Partly as a result of Fangio’s exploits, it has become one of the most researched and written-about cars of all time. Around half a dozen books have been written about the 250F, with more than seventy others containing some discussion of it. David McKinney, author of one of the books on the 250, once said: “It is possible that more words have been written about the Maserati 250F than any other post-war grand prix car...”

The 250F was introduced in 1954, with immediate results: Fangio won on the car’s debut in Argentina, and went on to take victory in the Belgian Grand Prix later the same year. For the 1957 season, the factory made major changes to the car, including a completely redesigned lightweight frame made of narrow gauge steel tubes; the 2.5-liter straight-six engine was tweaked to give 270bhp, and the already powerful drum brakes were further upgraded to match the car’s phenomenal performance.

Such engineering excellence, when paired with the sublime talent of Juan Manuel Fangio, who had already won four world championships, was always likely to be a formidable combination. The 1957 races proved that Fangio, and the uprated 250F, were virtually unbeatable.

The season opened in January, with the Argentine Grand Prix - and the result was just as it had been four years earlier, Fangio winning the race in a Maserati 250F. Victory in his home race was far from easy; the race was held in the oppressive heat of the South American summer, team-mate Jean Behra led the early laps, and the squad of Lancia Ferrari 801 cars were quick in the opening stages until clutch problems took out three in the space of ten laps. Fangio swept into the lead on lap 26 of the 100-lap race; apart from two laps led by Behra in the closing stages, Fangio led all the remaining laps, and took the checkered flag almost 20s ahead of Behra – and it was a Maserati 1-2-3-4, with Menditeguy claiming the final podium spot with Schell fourth.

After a gap of four months the next race was the Monaco Grand Prix, on the tight, twisting street circuit. The race may have been over 105 laps, but as a competition it lasted only five. Stirling Moss led the first four laps, but then the brakes on his Vanwall failed and he crashed – and Peter Collins, in a Lancia Ferrari, crashed trying to avoid him. Fangio managed to avoid the two of them, but Mike Hawthorn wasn’t so fortunate, and hit Collins’ car in his own Lancia Ferrari. Fangio didn’t look back; he led the remaining 101 laps and came home more than 25 seconds clear; Masten Gregory took third in his privateer 250F.

The third ‘official’ round of the championship was the Indianapolis 500, but none of the teams or drivers competing in the other races took part. So the next race, as far as the regulars were concerned, was the French Grand Prix at Rouen-les-Essarts in early July. Different circuit, same result – victory for Fangio. This time, the win was even more emphatic; taking the lead on the fourth lap, he drove a beautifully controlled race to stretch out his lead, and came home more than 50 seconds ahead of his nearest pursuer. At this stage in the Championship Fangio had three wins from three starts, and had amassed 25 points – no other driver had made it into double figures.

Two weeks later, the prayers of his opponents were answered. Fangio had a poor weekend at the British Grand Prix, at Aintree; he qualified a relatively lowly fourth, and was forced into retirement with spark-plug problems. Worse, team-mate Jean Behra was leading the race when his clutch disintegrated; it would be the only race of the season with no Maserati driver on the podium.

Then came the German Grand Prix, held on the fearsome N�rburgring Nordschleife circuit – dubbed the ‘Green Hell’. 14.1 miles long, the track winds through the Adenau forest, combining more than a hundred turns with blind crests, fearsome downhill approaches and the famous ‘Karussel’ hairpin, ending with the Döttinger Höhe straight, more than a mile long. The entire circuit was lined with trees, which could hand out the most severe punishment for any mistake.

Maserati and Fangio opted to start the race with the fuel tanks half-full, believing that he would be able to pull out a lead great enough to allow for a pit-stop for fuel and tires. Taking the lead on the third lap, he repeatedly broke the lap record as he pulled out a gap of 28 seconds by lap 11. But then, a minor pitstop mishap – one of the ‘knock-off’ hubs rolled under the car, and the mechanic had to struggle to retrieve it. By the time he got back on track, Fangio was almost a minute behind the two leaders.

The next hour and a half have passed into motor racing legend; they may well have been the finest ninety minutes in the entire history of Formula One. Reveling in the power and handling of the 250F, Fangio set a truly unbelievable pace, closing in at six and seven seconds a lap. He repeatedly broke the lap record, and his fastest race lap was more than eight seconds faster than his pole position time!

The Ferrari pit crew kept Hawthorn and Collins informed of the ever-decreasing gap, but the two English drivers were powerless to respond. This was, quite simply, motor racing magic, a brilliant driver in a wonderful car; with Fangio ‘in the groove’ at the N�rburgring, almost anything was possible. As they started the final lap, the three cars crossed the line almost together, Fangio only 100 yards behind; he passed both of them with half a lap to spare and crossed the line 3.5 seconds ahead after 3 � hours of racing.

In these days of super-fit grand prix drivers, 90 minutes of concerted effort may not sound too impressive. We must bear in mind that Fangio was 46 years old at the time, and that those 90 minutes came after he had already been racing for two hours. What is more, they came on the most difficult and challenging track on the calendar, where the smallest mistake could result in tragedy. It is hardly surprising that, for many people, Fangio’s drive in the Maserati makes the 1957 German Grand Prix ‘the greatest race of all time’.

Making the victory even sweeter was the fact that it meant Fangio had secured his fifth world title. With two races remaining, he had 34 points – his nearest challenger had just 13...

The penultimate race of the year was held at Pescara, in Italy – the only time Formula One would race there. Remarkably the track, based on public roads, was even longer than the Nordschleife – but it was very different. Essentially a triangle, two sides were almost straight, while the third side wended its way along the coast. Fangio took pole position and was well-placed in the race – but then, he hit oil dropped by a Ferrari and spun, damaging a wheel. He made it back to the pits for a tire change but had to settle for second, some three minutes behind the Vanwall of his great rival, Stirling Moss.

The final race of the season was the Italian Grand Prix, held on the ultra-fast Monza circuit, although for the first time the banking wasn’t used. Vanwall had modified their engines to give an extra 10bhp, and so they qualified 1-2-3; Fangio was fourth fastest.

When the race got under way there was a terrific scrap for the podium places – the lead changed hands eight times over the first twenty laps. Both Fangio and Behra led, the latter racing a 250F fitted with a V12 engine. Unfortunately the experimental engine overheated soon after half-distance, and Behra was forced to retire.

While Fangio put up a strong battle the extra power of the Vanwall allowed Stirling Moss to gradually pull away and claim the victory ahead of Fangio’s Maserati. The fierce pace of the leading two can be judged by the fact that third place went to the Lancia Ferrari of Wolfgang von Trips – two laps down!

So the historic 1957 Formula One season drew to a close. In his eight races Fangio won four and twice finished second, with just a single retirement. Under the complex scoring system in use at the time he finished on 40 points, having actually scored 46 – only the five best results counted. His nearest challenger, Stirling Moss, had just 25 points. Looking at the number of laps led, Fangio again beat Moss, by 263 laps to 136 laps. In fact, Fangio led over half of the total number of laps of the season!

The driving genius of Fangio, combined with the speed, reliability and predictable handling of the Maserati 250F, was a match made in heaven. Maserati has commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of the historic championship, and in particular his incredible victory at the N�rburgring, on a dedicated Web site, where you can read race reports and even watch actual footage of the German Grand Prix. You can also read about the Maserati 250F – the car which enabled Juan Manuel Fangio to win his fifth and final Formula One World Championship.