1953 Grand Prix of Argentina

 1953 Grand Prix of Argentina

Racing data
1st of 9 races of the 1953 Automobile World Championship
Surname:	I Gran Premio de la Republica Argentina
Date:	January 18, 1953
Place:	Buenos Aires
Course:	Buenos Aires
Length:	379.464 km in 97 laps of 3.912 km
Weather:	hot
Pole position
Driver:	Alberto Ascari	Ferrari
Time:	1: 55.4 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Alberto Ascari	Ferrari
Time:	1: 48.4 min
Podium
First:	Alberto Ascari	Ferrari
Second:	Luigi Villoresi	Ferrari
Third:	José Froilán González	Maserati

The 1953 Grand Prix of Argentina took place on January 18 at Autódromo 17 de Octubre near Buenos Aires and was the first of nine races in the 1953 World Cup .

background

With the Grand Prix of Argentina, a world championship run took place outside of Europe for the first time, apart from the 500 miles from Indianapolis , which were only part of the drivers’s championship pro forma, an exchange between American and European drivers took place very rarely. As in 1952, the new season was held according to the rules of Formula 2 . The only real new design for the season was the Maserati A6SSG , which was not finished until the European races. Regular drivers were González and Bonetto , Juan Manuel Fangio , who recovered after his accident in Monza in 1952 . Ferrari had only slightly modified the Type 500 , which was unbeaten in the previous year . In addition to Ascari , Villoresi and Farina , the regular cast of the team included for the first time a non-Italian - Mike Hawthorn , whose transfer to an Italian team in England caused controversy. Behra , Manzon and Trintignant drove again for Gordini , who competed with unchanged vehicles . Only 16 drivers registered for the race. The transport costs were not manageable for the numerous private teams in Europe. The works teams supplemented the driver line-up with local drivers, for example Oscar Gálvez drove the fourth Maserati, Gordini provided a car for Pablo Birger and Carlos Menditéguy . Adolfo Schwelm-Cruz was allowed to drive a Cooper .

training

As expected, the practice was dominated by Ferrari and Maserati . Ascari secured pole position from Fangio. Villoresi and Farina followed. Bonetto's suspension was broken during practice and so he was only able to place his Maserati on the back row of the grid.

run

Before the race, the police faced the problem that numerous spectators were standing right next to the track. Since entry was free, many more people came than expected. Despite concerns from the drivers, the race started with only a slight delay. Alberto Ascari immediately took the lead in front of González and Fangio, while Hawthorn stalled the engine and fell back to last place. Together with Villoresi, who had to make a pit stop on the second lap, he fought his way back through the field to the top positions. On the 32nd lap one of the most momentous accidents in the history of motorsport occurred, which is now almost forgotten. Farina lost control of his vehicle while trying to avoid a spectator running across the street and drove into a crowd. Ten spectators - according to other information even 15 were killed and numerous injured. Farina herself was almost unharmed. From today's perspective, unimaginable, the race continued. Due to the resulting chaos, hardly anyone noticed that local hero Fangio had to retire in the 36th round with a defective suspension. This put Manzon in second place, but lost it again in an unfortunate pit stop to change tires. He eventually had to retire on lap 68 after losing a bike. Ascari drove towards a safe start-to-finish victory, while González lost his second place to Villoresi. His Maserati's tank wasn't big enough to last a race distance without refueling.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Officine Alfieri Maserati	2	Juan Manuel Fangio	Maserati A6GCM	Maserati 2.0 L6	P
	4th	José Froilán González
	6th	Felice Bonetto
	8th	Oscar Gálvez
Scuderia Ferrari	10	Alberto Ascari	Ferrari 500	Ferrari 2.0 L4	P
	12	Giuseppe Farina
	14th	Luigi Villoresi
	16	Mike Hawthorn
cooper	20th	Alan Brown	Cooper T20	Bristol 2.0 L6	D.
	22nd	John Barber (racing driver)	Cooper T23
	24	Adolfo Schwelm-Cruz	Cooper T20
Equipe Gordini	26th	Robert Manzon	Gordini T16 (1952)	Gordini 2.0 L6	E.
	28	Maurice Trintignant
	30th	Jean Behra
	32	Carlos Menditeguy
	34	Pablo Birger	Simca-Gordini T15GC	Gordini

classification

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	km / h	Starting row
1.	Alberto Ascari	Ferrari	1: 55,400	122.98	1 row
2.	Juan Manuel Fangio	Maserati	1: 56.100	122.24	1 RM
3.	Luigi Villoresi	Ferrari	1: 56,500	121.82	1 ch
4th	Giuseppe Farina	Ferrari	1: 57.100	121.19	1 L
5.	José Froilán González	Maserati	1: 58,500	119.76	2 rows
6th	Mike Hawthorn	Ferrari	1: 59,400	118.86	2 M.
7th	Maurice Trintignant	Gordini	2: 00.400	117.87	2 L
8th.	Robert Manzon	Gordini	2: 00,900	117.38	3 rows
9.	Oscar Gálvez	Maserati	2: 01,300	117.00	3 RM
10.	Carlos Menditeguy	Gordini	2: 01.800	116.52	Ch 3
11.	Jean Behra	Gordini	2: 02.600	115.75	3 L
12.	Alan Brown	cooper	2: 03,200	115.19	4 rows
13.	Adolfo Schwelm-Cruz	cooper	2: 03.700	114.73	4 M.
14th	Pablo Birger	Simca-Gordini	2: 03.800	114.63	4 L
15th	Felice Bonetto	Maserati	2: 04.200	114.26	5 R
16.	John Barber (racing driver)	cooper	2: 06.800	111.92	5 RM

Race result

Item	driver	constructor	Round	time	km / h	s. Rd.	guide
1.	Alberto Ascari	Ferrari	97	3: 01: 04,600	126.7	1: 48,400	97
2.	Luigi Villoresi	Ferrari	96	3: 01: 36,300	125.03
3.	José Froilán González	Maserati	96	3: 02: 19,200	124.54
4th	Mike Hawthorn	Ferrari	96	3: 02: 33,500	124.38
5.	Oscar Gálvez	Maserati	96	3: 02: 48,100	124.21
6th	Jean Behra	Gordini	94	3: 01: 10,000	122.72
7th	Maurice Trintignant	Gordini	50	3: 01: 07,100	118.84
	Harry Schell		41
8th.	John Barber (racing driver)	cooper	90	3: 01: 40.600	117.17
9.	Alan Brown	cooper	87	3: 02: 48,600	112.56
DNF	Robert Manzon	Gordini	67	lost wheel
DNF	Juan Manuel Fangio	Maserati	36	Power transmission
DNF	Felice Bonetto	Maserati	33	transmission
DNF	Giuseppe Farina	Ferrari	31	accident
DNF	Carlos Menditeguy	Gordini	25th	transmission
DNF	Adolfo Schwelm-Cruz	cooper	21st	lost wheel
DNF	Pablo Birger	Simca-Gordini	21st	rim

World Cup stand after the race

In 1953, points were awarded according to the following scheme:

1st place	place 2	place 3	4th place	5th place	Fastest lap
8th	6th	4th	3	2	1

• Only the four best results from nine races counted. Deleted results are shown in brackets.
• The numbers marked with * include the point for the fastest lap.
• Fields marked in the same color indicate shared vehicles.

Item	driver	constructor										Points
1.	Alberto Ascari	Ferrari	9 *									9
2.	Luigi Villoresi	Ferrari	6th									6th
3.	José Froilán González	Maserati	4th									4th
4th	Mike Hawthorn	Ferrari	3									3
5.	Oscar Gálvez	Maserati	2									2

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Lang, Mike; Grand Prix 1950-1965; Haynes Publishing Group, Sparkford Summer Set 1981 p54. ( ISBN 0-85429-276-4 ) (Engl.)
2. ↑ http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/rr024.html
3. ↑ http://www.motorsportmemorial.org/LWFWIW/focusLWFWIW.php?db2=LWF&db=ms&n=33