1956 French Grand Prix

 1956 French Grand Prix

Racing data
5th of 8 races of the 1956 World Automobile Championship
Surname:	XLII Grand Prix de l'ACF
Date:	July 1, 1956
Place:	Reims , France
Course:	Circuit de Reims-Gueux
Length:	506.422 km in 61 laps of 8.302 km
Weather:	dry, sunny
Pole position
Driver:	Juan Manuel Fangio	Ferrari
Time:	2: 23.2 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Juan Manuel Fangio	Ferrari
Time:	2: 25.8 min
Podium
First:	Peter Collins	Ferrari
Second:	Eugenio Castellotti	Ferrari
Third:	Jean Behra	Maserati

The 1956 French Grand Prix took place on July 1, 1956 on the Circuit de Reims-Gueux near Reims and was the fifth race of the 1956 World Cup .

Reports

background

After the cancellation of the French Grand Prix in 1955, the race took place again on the Circuit de Reims-Gueux after a one-year break . Juan Manuel Fangio won the Grand Prix three times in previous years, Mike Hawthorn once. Of the teams participating in the 1956 French Grand Prix, only Ferrari won a race on this track in 1953.

Ferrari relied on its three regular drivers Fangio, Eugenio Castellotti and the winner of the previous race, Peter Collins . Another car was made available to the Spaniard Alfonso de Portago , who contested his first Formula 1 race, and a fifth car was used for Olivier Gendebien .

Ferrari's greatest competitor in the 1956 Automobile World Championship was Maserati up to this point , which gave Piero Taruffi a cockpit . This cockpit became vacant after Mike Hawthorn joined the Vanwall team. There he was a teammate of Harry Schell and Colin Chapman , who contested his only race and later became known as a racing car designer.

Maurice Trintignant , who previously started for Vanwall, switched to Bugatti , who entered Formula 1 as a team. Trintignant was the only driver for the team, the car used was the new Bugatti T251 , which was powered by a rear engine. For Bugatti, however, this was the only participation in a Formula 1 race, as the car was not competitive.

Bugatti Type 251

The French team Gordini also took part in a race again, with three cars for the drivers Robert Manzon , Hernando da Silva Ramos and André Pilette and three drivers with private Maserati.

In the drivers' standings, Collins and Maserati driver Stirling Moss led just ahead of Jean Behra and Fangio.

There were arguments behind the scenes at Ferrari after drivers Fangio and Castellotti complained about poor preparation of the cars. An impending strike by the two was prevented. However, Fangio's distrust of Ferrari remained and in 1957 he switched back to Maserati.

training

In practice, the Ferrari were once again superior to the competition and occupied the entire front row with three cars. As in the previous races, Fangio was the fastest in practice and won pole position by over a second over second-placed Castellotti. Another second back, Collins qualified in third place.

Maserati lost speed in practice compared to previous races, while Vanwall again reported an increase in performance. Vanwall's three cars were able to keep up with the Ferraris and qualified fourth to sixth. During the training, however, there was a collision between Chapman and Hawthorn, which prevented further time improvements for the team. Due to an injury and the damaged car as a result of the accident, Chapman was not able to take part in the race. Schell improved to fourth after the accident, half a second slower than Collins.

The title candidates and Maserati drivers Moss and Behra finished in seventh and eighth place, just behind Vanwall, while fourth Ferrari driver and debutant Portago started from ninth place. The top ten on the grid was completed by Luigi Villoresi , who was the best of those drivers who took part in the race with a private Maserati.

Gordini qualified again in the lower midfield, the best starting position was 14th place for da Silva Ramos. Trintignant in his Bugatti, the only rear-engined car in the field, started from third from last place, over 18 seconds behind Fangio's training time.

run

The dominance of Scuderia Ferrari was already evident on the first lap of the race. Collins took the lead ahead of Castellotti and Fangio and the three Ferrari drivers set themselves apart from the competition by several seconds on the first lap of the race. Behind them, Moss and Schell dueled, who secured fourth place behind the Ferrari. Moss fell further back when Hawthorn overtook him in Vanwall. On the next two laps of the race, Hawthorn overtook his team-mate Schell and was behind the three leading Ferraris. Trintignant in the new Bugatti was lagging behind at the end of the field and had difficulties handling the car.

Schells Vanwall suffered an engine failure on lap five, Moss Maserati retired on lap twelve with a defective transmission. Both drivers continued the race a short time later, Schell continued in the Hawthorn car from lap ten and Moss took over the car of his team-mate Cesare Perdisa on lap 20 as in the previous race . At the top the Ferrari dueled each other, Fangio claimed the lead for himself. On the tenth lap of the race behind him were Collins and Castellotti, as well as Hawthorn, Portago and Gendebien. Hawthorn handed his car over so early in the race that he lacked concentration because he had competed in a 12-hour race the night before.

The end of the race for Trintignant followed on lap 18 after technical problems with his Bugatti. The Grand Prix was so disappointing and unsuccessful for the team that it was decided not to take part in any further races and Bugatti was therefore eliminated from Formula 1.

De Portago, who had a prospect of placing points in his first race, retired on lap 20 with a gearbox damage, which put Schell back in fourth position. He set a new lap record, reduced the Ferraris' lead in the following laps and attacked Castellotti and Collins on lap 31. Schell overtook both of them and was in second place for six laps, until Ferrari noticed that Schell was not back one lap as expected, but was driving in Hawthorn's car. They then increased the pace and both Collins and Castellotti overtook Schell again, who shortly afterwards had technical problems with his car and had to have the Vanwall repaired in the pit for five minutes. At the same time, Fangio came to the pits, also for a repair pit stop of several minutes, which let him drop to fourth place.

The race result was decided a few laps before the end, as Ferrari instructed its drivers to keep their positions at the top. Collins won his second consecutive Grand Prix and finished just 0.3 seconds ahead of teammate Castellotti. Behra on Maserati completed the podium as Fangio couldn't catch up with him despite a new lap record on the final lap of the race. The last two points for fifth place went to Maserati and were shared by Moss and Perdisa.

With the win, Collins built up a five-point lead over second place in the drivers' standings, which Behra now held. Fangio was still one point behind Behra and moved up one place to third. Moss lost the lead in the drivers' championship and fell back to fourth. The Indianapolis 500 winner Pat Flaherty was still in fifth place in the drivers' standings, but he did not take part in any other races of the season.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Officine Alfieri Maserati	02	Stirling Moss	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	P
	04th	Jean Behra
	06th	Cesare Perdisa
		Stirling Moss
	08th	Piero Taruffi
	40	Paco Godia
Scuderia Ferrari	10	Juan Manuel Fangio	Ferrari D50	Ferrari 2.5 V8	E.
	12	Eugenio Castellotti
	14th	Peter Collins
	16	Alfonso de Portago
	44	Olivier Gendebien
Vandervell Products Ltd	22nd	Harry Schell	Vanwall VW56	Vanwall 2.5 L4	P
	24	Mike Hawthorn
		Harry Schell
	26th	Colin Chapman
Automobiles Bugatti	28	Maurice Trintignant	Bugatti Type 251	Bugatti 2.5 L8	E.
Equipe Gordini	30th	Robert Manzon	Gordini Type 32	Gordini 2.5 L8	E.
	32	Hernando da Silva Ramos
	34	André Pilette	Gordini Type 16	Gordini 2.5 L6
Ecurie Rosier	36	Louis Rosier	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	P
Luigi Piotti	38	Luigi Villoresi	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	P
André Simon	42	André Simon	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	P

Remarks

1. ↑ Cesare Perdisa drove the car 20 laps, Stirling Moss 39 laps.
2. ↑ Mike Hawthorn drove the car 10 laps, Harry Schell 46 laps.

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	Juan Manuel Fangio	Ferrari	2: 23.3	208.56 km / h	01
02	Eugenio Castellotti	Ferrari	2: 24.6	206.69 km / h	02
03	Peter Collins	Ferrari	2: 25.6	205.27 km / h	03
04th	Harry Schell	Vanwall	2: 26.1	204.57 km / h	04th
05	Colin Chapman	Vanwall	2: 26.8	203.59 km / h	05
06th	Mike Hawthorn	Vanwall	2: 27.0	203.31 km / h	06th
07th	Jean Behra	Maserati	2: 27.8	202.21 km / h	07th
08th	Stirling Moss	Maserati	2: 29.9	199.38 km / h	08th
09	Alfonso de Portago	Ferrari	2: 30.9	198.06 km / h	09
10	Luigi Villoresi	Maserati	2: 33.3	194.96 km / h	10
11	Olivier Gendebien	Ferrari	2: 34.5	193.44 km / h	11
12	Louis Rosier	Maserati	2: 35.3	192.45 km / h	12
13	Piero Taruffi	Maserati	2: 35.6	192.08 km / h	13
14th	Hernando da Silva Ramos	Gordini	2: 35.9	191.71 km / h	14th
15th	Robert Manzon	Gordini	2: 36.0	191.58 km / h	15th
16	Cesare Perdisa	Maserati	2: 36.4	191.09 km / h	16
17th	Paco Godia	Maserati	2: 40.0	186.80 km / h	17th
18th	Maurice Trintignant	Bugatti	2: 41.9	184.60 km / h	18th
19th	André Pilette	Gordini	2: 46.8	179.18 km / h	19th
20th	André Simon	Maserati	2: 47.9	178.01 km / h	20th

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Peter Collins	Ferrari	61		2: 34: 23.4	03
02	Eugenio Castellotti	Ferrari	61		+ 0.3	02
03	Jean Behra	Maserati	61		+1: 29.9	07th
04th	Juan Manuel Fangio	Ferrari	61		+1: 35.1	01
05	Cesare Perdisa Stirling Moss	Maserati	59		+ 2 rounds	16
06th	Louis Rosier	Maserati	58		+ 3 rounds	12
07th	Paco Godia	Maserati	57		+ 4 rounds	17th
08th	Hernando da Silva Ramos	Gordini	57		+ 4 rounds	14th
09	Robert Manzon	Gordini	56		+ 5 rounds	15th
10	Mike Hawthorn Harry Schell	Vanwall	56		+ 5 rounds	06th
11	André Pilette	Gordini	55		+ 6 rounds	19th
-	André Simon	Maserati	45		DNF	20th		Engine failure
-	Piero Taruffi	Maserati	38		DNF	13		Engine failure
-	Olivier Gendebien	Ferrari	37		DNF	11		coupling
-	Luigi Villoresi	Maserati	21st		DNF	10		Brakes
-	Alfonso de Portago	Ferrari	19th		DNF	09		transmission
-	Maurice Trintignant	Bugatti	17th		DNF	18th		accelerator
-	Stirling Moss	Maserati	12		DNF	08th		transmission
-	Harry Schell	Vanwall	05		DNF	04th		Engine failure
-	Colin Chapman	Vanwall	00		DNS			Training accident

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  Peter Collins Ferrari 19th 02  Jean Behra Maserati 14th 03  Juan Manuel Fangio Ferrari 13 04th  Stirling Moss Maserati 12 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

Item driver constructor Points 12  Johnnie Parsons Kuzma 3 13  Harry Schell Vanwall 3 14th  Cesare Perdisa Maserati 3 15th  Olivier Gendebien Ferrari 2 16  Hernando da Silva Ramos Gordini 2 17th  Dick Rathmann Kurti's power 2 18th  Luigi Villoresi Maserati 2 19th  Chico Landi Maserati 1.5 20th  Gerino Gerini Maserati 1.5 21st  Paul Russo Kurti's power 1

Web links

• Results at motorsportarchiv.de
• Photos at f1-facts.com
• "1956 05 FRA Reims - P.Collins wins" on youtube.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Eric Wenzel: GP Stories - The races of 1956. In: motorsport-magazin.com , January 2, 2005, accessed on September 4, 2013.
2. ↑ Grand Prix Results: French GP, 1956. In: grandprix.com , accessed September 4, 2013.