1956 German Grand Prix

 1956 German Grand Prix

Racing data
7th of 8 races of the 1956 World Automobile Championship
Surname:	XVIII Grand Prix of Germany
Date:	5th August 1956
Place:	Nuerburg , Germany
Course:	Nürburgring
Length:	501.82 km in 22 laps of 22.81 km
Weather:	dry, sunny
Pole position
Driver:	Juan Manuel Fangio	Ferrari
Time:	9: 51.2 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Juan Manuel Fangio	Ferrari
Time:	9: 41.6 min
Podium
First:	Juan Manuel Fangio	Ferrari
Second:	Stirling Moss	Maserati
Third:	Jean Behra	Maserati

The 1956 German Grand Prix took place on August 5, 1956 at the Nürburgring near Nürburg and was the seventh race of the 1956 World Cup .

Reports

background

The 1956 German Grand Prix was the penultimate race of the season in the 1956 World Cup . The drivers' world championship was still open at this point and eleven drivers had theoretical chances to become world champions. In the drivers' championship, Peter Collins was one point ahead of Juan Manuel Fangio and four points ahead of Jean Behra . All three had a good chance of becoming world champion, while Stirling Moss had to hope that his competitors would fail in order to preserve his chances for the drivers' title.

The race took place again after a year off. In 1955, the planned German Grand Prix was canceled after the accident at the Le Mans 24-hour race in 1955 . Ferrari won three of the previous four Formula 1 races at the Nürburgring, 1954 Fangio won in a Mercedes . Fangio was the only participating driver in the 1956 German Grand Prix to have won the race before.

The British teams Vanwall and BRM were absent from this Grand Prix, so that the Italian teams Ferrari and Maserati were the only candidates for victory. Gordini also took part in the race, but the cars were not competitive and more than two minutes per lap slower than the competition.

Due to the absence of the top British teams, Ferrari and Maserati used more cars to fill the field. In addition to Collins and Fangio, Eugenio Castellotti , Luigi Musso and Alfonso de Portago competed for Ferrari . In addition to Behra and Moss, Maserati also provided cars for Cesare Perdisa and Paco Godia . Gordini brought two cars to the start, and André Pilette drove for the team alongside regular driver Robert Manzon .

The Scuderia Centro Sud team provided Harry Schell and Giorgio Scarlatti with two cars, a Maserati 250F and a Ferrari 500 . In addition, six drivers took part in the race with private cars, including Louis Rosier , who contested his last Formula 1 Grand Prix.

training

Training for the German Grand Prix was dominated by Ferrari, as was so often the case in the 1956 Formula 1 season. Fangio secured pole position in a time of 9: 51.2 from his teammates Collins and Castellotti. Ferrari again occupied the entire front row. The two world championship contenders Fangio and Collins separated only three tenths of a second, while Castellotti was three seconds slower. Another ten seconds behind the Ferraris, Maserati driver Moss qualified in fourth place ahead of Musso, who also started for Ferrari but was half a second slower than Fangio.

Cesare Perdisa was injured in an accident with his Maserati and was unable to continue training. Umberto Maglioli replaced him and finished in seventh place. Behra, who finished third in the last two races and still had a good chance of winning the drivers' title, qualified eighth, ahead of Roy Salvadori and de Portago. This made Salvadori again the best in training among drivers with private cars. Rosier finished 14th in his last race, Milhoux in last place in his only race. Gordini qualified his three cars in the back field, the best starting position was position 15 for Manzon.

Pilette was also injured in an accident and then did not take part in the race. André Milhoux replaced him and was allowed to compete in the Grand Prix even though he did not drive any time. This was the only Grand Prix participation for the Belgian Milhoux.

run

Even before the first corner, Collins managed to overtake his team-mate and world championship rival Fangio and take the lead. Behind them, Moss broke the Ferrari trio in the lead by overtaking Castellotti. Most of the positions at the start were made up by Behra and Salvadori, who overtook several opponents and were behind Castellotti after the first lap of the race and dueled for fifth place.

Fangio already overtook Collins on the first lap of the race and did not give up the regained lead until the end of the race. Behind Fangio, Moss and Collins dueled on the next laps. Behind were Behra, Salvadori and Portago. Scarlatti and Manzon were eliminated in the first round. This failure streak continued in the following laps, on lap two Salvadori parked his car, at this point he was fifth in the points. Gould and Maglioli also retired shortly afterwards due to technical defects. Castellotti, who was in a duel with Moss, made a driving error and spun off the track. He then drove back to the pits, but also retired.

At the front, the gap between Fangio and Collins had grown to several seconds and both of them took turns breaking the 17-year-old course record. Fangio improved this record to 9: 41.6. This time was almost ten seconds faster than his best time in training. A fuel line on Collins 'Ferrari broke a few laps later and fumes entered the cockpit, affecting Collins' perception. He kept losing time and pitted to relax for some time from the effects of the fumes. Ferrari meanwhile sent Musso back out onto the track in Castellotti's car, but he had an accident on lap 11, which ended the race for him too. Ferrari then took de Portago into the pits and had Collins take over his car. Collins fought his way up to fourth and was back to third after a repair pit stop by Behra.

On lap 13 Schell's Maserati overheated and Villoresi sustained an engine failure. That meant there were only nine cars left in the race. Collins, who was trying to catch up on Moss and Fangio, made a mistake, crashed and had to give up the race. That gave Fangio the chance to take the lead in the drivers' championship.

On lap 15, Milhoux retired from his only Formula 1 race and only seven drivers finished the race. Fangio won confidently with 45 seconds ahead of Moss, who crossed the finish line a few seconds before Behra.

Fangio thus took pole position, won the race and set the fastest race lap, and was leading after every race lap. It was a grand slam for him . In the drivers' championship, he took the lead again and went into the season finale with a lead of eight points. Moss 'second place wasn't enough to keep his world championship chances, while Behra drew level with Collins with three third places in a row and still had theoretical chances for the drivers' title. For this, however, Fangio would have had to retire in the last race of the season and Behra or Collins would have had to win and set the fastest race lap.

Paco Godia scored the first points of his career in fourth, while Rosier scored again in fifth in his last Formula 1 race. Bruce Halford was disqualified because he was pushed by marshals after a spin and then ignored black flags, Ottorino Volonterio was not counted because he was six laps behind the winner Fangio.

Fangio won the second race of three in a row at the Nürburgring, for Ferrari it was the fourth success in the fifth race on this circuit.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Scuderia Ferrari	01	Juan Manuel Fangio	Ferrari D50	Ferrari 2.5 V8	E.
	02	Peter Collins
	03	Eugenio Castellotti
	04th	Luigi Musso
		Eugenio Castellotti
	05	Alfonso de Portago
		Peter Collins
Officine Alfieri Maserati	06th	Jean Behra	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	P
	07th	Stirling Moss
	08th	Cesare Perdisa
		Umberto Maglioli
	20th	Paco Godia
Equipe Gordini	10	Robert Manzon	Gordini Type 32	Gordini 2.5 L8	E.
	11	André Pilette
		Andre Milhoux
Scuderia Centro Sud	12	Harry Schell	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	P
	14th	Giorgio Scarlatti	Ferrari 500	Ferrari 2.0 L4
Ecurie Rosier	15th	Louis Rosier	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	P
Gilby Engineering	16	Roy Salvadori	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	D.
Luigi Piotti	18th	Luigi Piotti	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	P
		Luigi Villoresi
Goulds' garage	19th	Horace Gould	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	D.
Bruce Halford	21st	Bruce Halford	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	D.
Ottorino Volonterio	22nd	Ottorino Volonterio	Maserati A6GCM / Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	P

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b} Musso drove the car 8 laps, Castellotti 3 laps.
2. ↑ ^{a b} de Portago drove the car 10 laps, Collins 3 laps.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Perdisa drove the car in practice, Maglioli in qualifying and the race.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Pilette drove the car in training, Milhoux in the race.
5. ↑ ^{a b} Piotti drove the car in training, Villoresi in the race.

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	Juan Manuel Fangio	Ferrari	9: 51.2	138.90 km / h	01
02	Peter Collins	Ferrari	9: 51.5	138.83 km / h	02
03	Eugenio Castellotti	Ferrari	9: 54.4	138.15 km / h	03
04th	Stirling Moss	Maserati	10: 03.4	136.09 km / h	04th
05	Luigi Musso	Ferrari	10: 20.3	132.38 km / h	05
06th	Umberto Maglioli	Maserati	10: 26.7	131.03 km / h	06th
07th	Jean Behra	Maserati	10: 31.6	130.01 km / h	07th
08th	Roy Salvadori	Maserati	10: 32.4	129.85 km / h	08th
09	Alfonso de Portago	Ferrari	10: 37.1	128.89 km / h	09
10	Bruce Halford	Maserati	11: 04.1	123.65 km / h	10
11	Harry Schell	Maserati	11: 16.5	121.38 km / h	11
12	Horace Gould	Maserati	11: 32.2	118.63 km / h	12
13	Louis Rosier	Maserati	11: 39.0	117.48 km / h	13
14th	Robert Manzon	Gordini	11: 55.8	114.72 km / h	14th
15th	Paco Godia	Maserati	11: 57.6	114.43 km / h	15th
16	Giorgio Scarlatti	Ferrari	13: 05.2	104.58 km / h	16
17th	André Pilette	Gordini	no time		17th
18th	Luigi Piotti	Maserati	no time		18th
19th	Ottorino Volonterio	Maserati	14: 17.0	95.81 km / h	19th

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Juan Manuel Fangio	Ferrari	22nd		3: 38: 43.7	01
02	Stirling Moss	Maserati	22nd		+ 46.4	04th
03	Jean Behra	Maserati	22nd		+ 7: 38.3	07th
04th	Paco Godia	Maserati	20th		+ 2 rounds	15th
05	Louis Rosier	Maserati	19th		+ 3 rounds	13
-	Bruce Halford	Maserati	20th		DSQ	10
-	Ottorino Volonterio	Maserati	16		NC	19th		unclassified
-	Andre Milhoux	Gordini	15th		DNF	17th		Engine failure
-	Alfonso de Portago Peter Collins	Ferrari	14th		DNF	09		accident
-	Luigi Villoresi	Maserati	13		DNF	18th		Engine failure
-	Harry Schell	Maserati	13		DNF	11		Overheating
-	Luigi Musso	Ferrari	11		DNF	05		accident
-	Peter Collins	Ferrari	08th		DNF	02		Loss of fuel
-	Eugenio Castellotti	Ferrari	05		DNF	03		electrical damage
-	Umberto Maglioli	Maserati	03		DNF	06th		steering
-	Horace Gould	Maserati	03		DNF	12		oil pressure
-	Roy Salvadori	Maserati	02		DNF	08th		suspension
-	Robert Manzon	Gordini	00		DNF	14th		suspension
-	Giorgio Scarlatti	Ferrari	00		DNF	16		Engine failure

World Cup stand after the race

The first five of the race got 8, 6, 4, 3, 2 points. The driver with the fastest race lap received an additional 1 point. Only the five best results from eight races counted.

Driver ranking

Item driver constructor Points 01  Juan Manuel Fangio Ferrari 30th 02  Peter Collins Ferrari 22nd 03  Jean Behra Maserati 22nd 04th  Stirling Moss Maserati 19th 05  Pat Flaherty Watson 8th 06th  Eugenio Castellotti Ferrari 7.5 07th  Sam Hanks Kurti's power 6th 08th  Paul Brother Ferrari 6th 09  Luigi Musso Ferrari 4th 10  Mike Hawthorn Maserati 4th 11  Don Freeland Phillips 4th 12  Johnnie Parsons Kuzma 3 13  Harry Schell Vanwall 3

Item driver constructor Points 14th  Cesare Perdisa Maserati 3 15th  Alfonso de Portago Ferrari 3 16  Jack Fairman Connaught-Alta 3 17th  Paco Godia Maserati 3 18th  Olivier Gendebien Ferrari 2 19th  Hernando da Silva Ramos Gordini 2 20th  Dick Rathmann Kurti's power 2 21st  Luigi Villoresi Maserati 2 22nd  Horace Gould Maserati 2 23  Louis Rosier Maserati 2 24  Chico Landi Maserati 1.5 25th  Gerino Gerini Maserati 1.5 26th  Paul Russo Kurti's power 1

Web links

• Results at motorsportarchiv.de
• Photos at f1-facts.com
• GRAND PRIX RESULTS: GERMAN GP, 1956

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "GP Stories - The Races of 1956" (www.motorsport-magazin.com on September 16, 2013)