1951 French Grand Prix

 1951 French Grand Prix

Racing data
4th of 8 races in the 1951 World Automobile Championship
Surname:	XXXVIII Grand prix de l'ACF Grand Prix d'Europe
Date:	July 1, 1951
Place:	Reims
Course:	Circuit de Reims-Gueux
Length:	601.755 km in 77 laps of 7.815 km
Weather:	very hot
Spectator:	~ 70000
Pole position
Driver:	Juan Manuel Fangio	Alfa Romeo
Time:	2: 25.7 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Juan Manuel Fangio	Alfa Romeo
Time:	2: 27.8 min (lap 32)
Podium
First:	Luigi Fagioli Juan Manuel Fangio	Alfa Romeo
Second:	José Froilán González Alberto Ascari	Ferrari
Third:	Luigi Villoresi	Ferrari

The 1951 French Grand Prix took place on July 1st at the Circuit de Reims-Gueux and was the fourth race of the 1951 World Automobile Championship . The race also had the FIA title of honor European Grand Prix .

background

Guy Mairesse in the Talbot T26C; on the way to ninth place in the overall standings

In contrast to the Belgian Grand Prix, a decent number of entries were made for the French Grand Prix with 24. However, the announced BRMs were still missing. For this, Tony Vandervell's team made its first appearance on the Grand Prix stage, but not yet with its own vehicle, but with a 4.5-liter Ferrari, which was driven by Reg Parnell . Alfa Romeo again used a fourth car for Fagioli . Technically, however, this was not quite the same as the other three vehicles. The fast route from Reims was favored by the Alfa-Romeo because of its significantly higher top speed, which, however, was bought with an enormously high consumption (approx. 1.5 l of methanol per 1 km) and two additional pit stops. At Ferrari González replaced the sick Taruffi in the works team. In contrast to the 425 hp Alfa Romeo, the Ferrari engines only developed 380 hp, but came over the entire race distance with a single refueling stop. Simca-Gordini sent four cars to the home race, but due to the low engine power (150 hp) they had practically no chance of a place in the front. The other French team Talbot was only represented by the private reports of Louis Rosier and Louis Chiron .

training

The training was again marked by the duel between Alfa Romeo and Ferrari. Ascari was the fastest on the first day of training, but Fangio secured pole position in the Alfa Romeo in front of his team-mate Farina and the Ferrari drivers Ascari and Villoresi .

run

It was very hot on race day. Fangio had the best start - in contrast to Farina, who dropped to sixth place right at the start due to spinning rear wheels. From the first lap, however, Ascari returned as the leader ahead of Fangio and Villoresi. The first retirement was recorded by Peter Whitehead who, like de Graffenried , stopped in the second lap. Also Marimon and Manzon were early out there. Sanesi pitted in the Alfa Romeo on lap 5 and complained of misfires. Farina was able to work her way up to third place again by the ninth lap. Shortly afterwards he was in the lead when Ascari fell back on lap ten and had to park his Ferrari at the pits with a gearbox failure and Fangio also got into trouble due to a misfire. His pit stop to replace the distributor lasted 12 minutes. Farina now had a lead of almost a minute, just enough not to lose the lead with the necessary extra pit stop for refueling. Fagioli in the fourth Alfa Romeo was third. He was then called to the pits to hand his car over to Fangio. This started a race to catch up and overtook Villoresi on lap 34 and three laps later also González, who had to hand over his car to Ascari immediately afterwards. Another refueling stop for the Alfa Romeo allowed Ascari to pass Fangio in González's car and took the lead when Farina, who was still ahead, made his second stop on lap 44.

On the next lap, Farina was already back in the pits with a detached tread on his tire, but drove past where he was standing. It took him three minutes to get back on track, now falling back to third place. Fangio continued to chase the lead Ascari and was able to take the lead on lap 50 when Ascari pitted to have his brakes checked. As a result, Fangio gained such a large lead that he did not lose the lead with the additional refueling stop and won the race by almost a minute. Farina lost her third place, believed to be safe, to Villoresi in the final laps due to problems with the ignition system. He also fell behind Parnell and only came in fifth. Parnell was lucky enough to be able to finish the race despite a broken axle just before the finish line. Although Fagioli was not in the lead for a single lap in 1951, this was the first and only time that he entered the list of winners in a Formula 1 world championship run. The Italian, born in 1898, is the oldest Formula 1 winner to this day.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Alfa Romeo Motorsport	2	Giuseppe Farina	Alfa Romeo 159	Alfa Romeo	P
	4th	Juan Manuel Fangio
	6th	Consalvo Sanesi
	8th	Luigi Fagioli
Scuderia Ferrari	10	Luigi Villoresi	Ferrari 375	Ferrari	E.
	12	Alberto Ascari
	14th	José Froilán González
Enrico Platé	18th	Emmanuel de Graffenried	Maserati 4CLT	Maserati	P
	20th	Harry Schell
Team Peter Whitehead	24	Peter Whitehead	Ferrari 125	Ferrari	D.
Vanwall	26th	Brian Shawe-Taylor	Ferrari 375	Ferrari	P
	26th	Reg Parnell
Ecurie Belge	28	Johnny Claes	Talbot-Lago T26C-DA	Talbot	D.
Gordini	30th	Robert Manzon	Gordini type 15	Gordini	E.
	32	Maurice Trintignant
	34	André Simon
	36	Aldo Gordini
Team Philippe Etancelin	38	Philippe Étancelin	Talbot-Lago T26C-DA	Talbot	D.
Ecurie Rosier	40	Louis Rosier	Talbot-Lago T26C-DA	Talbot	D.
	42	Louis Chiron	Talbot-Lago T26C
Team Eugène Chaboud	44	Eugène Chaboud	Talbot-Lago T26C-DA	Talbot	D.
Team Yves Giraud-Cabantous	46	Yves Giraud-Cabantous	Talbot-Lago T26C	Talbot	D.
Ecurie Belgique	48	Guy Mairesse	Talbot-Lago T26C	Talbot	D.
Scuderia Milano	50	Onofre Marimón	Maserati Milano	Maserati	P

classification

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	km / h	Starting row
1.	Juan Manuel Fangio	Alfa Romeo	2: 25.700	193.095	1 row
2.	Giuseppe Farina	Alfa Romeo	2: 27,400	190.868	1 M.
3.	Alberto Ascari	Ferrari	2: 28,100	189.966	1 L
4th	Luigi Villoresi	Ferrari	2: 28,500	189.455	2 rows
5.	Consalvo Sanesi	Alfa Romeo	2: 28,900	188,946	2 L
6th	José Froilán González	Ferrari	2: 30.800	186.565	3 rows
7th	Luigi Fagioli	Alfa Romeo	2: 33,100	183.762	3 M.
8th.	Louis Chiron	Talbot-Lago	2: 43.700	171.863	3 L
9.	Reg Parnell	Ferrari	2: 44,000	171.549	4 rows
10.	Philippe Étancelin	Talbot-Lago	2: 44.800	170.716	4 L
11.	Yves Giraud-Cabantous	Talbot-Lago	2: 45.700	169.789	5 R
12.	Johnny Claes	Talbot-Lago	2: 46.600	168.872	5 M
13.	Louis Rosier	Talbot-Lago	2: 48,000	167.464	5 L
14th	Eugène Chaboud	Talbot-Lago	2: 49.600	165.884	6 R
15th	Onofre Marimón	Maserati	2: 49.800	165.689	6 L
16.	Emmanuel de Graffenried	Maserati	2: 50.100	165.397	7 R
17th	Aldo Gordini	Simca-Gordini	2: 50.300	165.203	7 M.
17th	Maurice Trintignant	Simca-Gordini	2: 50.300	165.203	7 L
19th	Guy Mairesse	Talbot-Lago	2: 58,400	157.702	8 R
	Peter Whitehead	Ferrari	without time		8 L
	André Simon	Simca-Gordini	without time		9 R
	Harry Schell	Maserati	without time		9 M.
	Robert Manzon	Simca-Gordini	without time		9 L

Race result

Item	driver	constructor	Round	time	km / h	s. Rd.	guide
1.	Juan Manuel Fangio	Alfa Romeo	48	3: 22: 11,000	178.69	2: 27.800	27
	Luigi Fagioli		29
2.	Alberto Ascari	Ferrari	41	3: 23: 09,200	177.84
	José Froilán González		36
3.	Luigi Villoresi	Ferrari	74	3: 23: 28,500	170.64		6th
4th	Reg Parnell	Ferrari	73	3: 22: 48,500	168.89
5.	Giuseppe Farina	Alfa Romeo	73	3: 23: 51,500	168.02		35
6th	Louis Chiron	Talbot-Lago	71	3: 23: 29,000	163.71	2: 46,400
7th	Yves Giraud-Cabantous	Talbot-Lago	71	3: 24: 48,200	162.66	2: 49.700
8th.	Eugène Chaboud	Talbot-Lago	69	3: 22: 19,600	160.01	2: 50.200
9.	Guy Mairesse	Talbot-Lago	66	3: 24: 58.900	151.07	2: 57,500
10.	Consalvo Sanesi	Alfa Romeo	57	3: 22: 30,000	132.07
11.	Juan Manuel Fangio	Alfa Romeo	29	3: 22: 29,300	127.44		1
	Luigi Fagioli		26th
DNF	Johnny Claes	Talbot-Lago	54	accident		2: 50,500
DNF	Louis Rosier	Talbot-Lago	43	Power transmission		2: 48,000
DNF	Philippe Étancelin	Talbot-Lago	37	engine		2: 49.100
DNF	Aldo Gordini	Simca-Gordini	27	engine
DNF	Harry Schell	Maserati	23	steering
DNF	Maurice Trintignant	Simca-Gordini	11	engine
DNF	Alberto Ascari	Ferrari	9	transmission			8th
DNF	André Simon	Simca-Gordini	6th	engine
DNF	Robert Manzon	Simca-Gordini	3	engine
DNF	Onofre Marimón	Maserati	2	engine
DNF	Emmanuel de Graffenried	Maserati	1	Power transmission
DNF	Peter Whitehead	Ferrari	1	poetry

World Cup stand after the race

The first five got 8, 6, 4, 3 and 2 points respectively; there was a point for the fastest lap. Only the four best results from eight races count. (*) includes the point for the fastest lap, fields marked in the same color indicate a vehicle pick-up (point sharing).

Item	driver	constructor									Points
1.	Juan Manuel Fangio	Alfa Romeo	9 *		1*	5 *					15th
2.	Giuseppe Farina	Alfa Romeo	4th		8th	2					14th
3.	Lee Wallard	Kurti's power		9 *							9
	Alberto Ascari	Ferrari			6th	3					9
5.	Luigi Villoresi	Alfa Romeo			4th	4th					8th
6th	Piero Taruffi	Ferrari	6th								6th
	Mike Nazaruk	Kurti's power		6th							6th
8th.	Luigi Fagioli	Alfa Romeo				4th					4th
9.	Consalvo Sanesi	Alfa Romeo	3								3
	Andy Linden	Sherman		3							3
	Louis Rosier	Talbot			3						3
	José Froilán González	Ferrari				3					3
	Reg Parnell	Ferrari				3					3
14th	Emmanuel de Graffenried	Alfa Romeo	2								2
	Bobby Ball	Schroeder		2							2
	Jack McGrath	Kurti's power		2							2
	Manuel Ayulo	Kurti's power		2							2
	Yves Giraud-Cabantous	Talbot			2						2

Web links

Commons : 1951 French Grand Prix  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Results

Individual evidence

• Lang, Mike: Grand Prix! 1950-1965 ; Haynes Publishing Group, Sparkford Sommerset 1981 (English), ISBN 978-0854292769 .