1957 French Grand Prix

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Flag of France.svg 1957 French Grand Prix
Racing data
4th of 8 races in the 1957 World Automobile Championship
Route profile
Surname: XLIII Grand Prix de l'ACF
Date: May 19, 1957
Place: Grand Couronne , France
Course: Rouen-les-Essarts
Length: 503.734 km in 77 laps of 6.542 km

Weather: dry, sunny
Pole position
Driver: ArgentinaArgentina Juan Manuel Fangio ItalyItaly Maserati
Time: 2: 21.5 min
Fastest lap
Driver: ItalyItaly Luigi Musso ItalyItaly Ferrari
Time: 2: 22.4 min
Podium
First: ArgentinaArgentina Juan Manuel Fangio ItalyItaly Maserati
Second: ItalyItaly Luigi Musso ItalyItaly Ferrari
Third: United KingdomUnited Kingdom Peter Collins ItalyItaly Ferrari

The 1957 French Grand Prix took place on July 7, 1957 at the Rouen-les-Essarts near Grand-Couronne and was the fourth race of the 1957 World Cup .

Reports

background

Model of the Ferrari 801

The French Grand Prix took place in Reims in previous years , but was held in Rouen-les-Essarts for the second time since 1952 in 1957 . Reims, however, was the venue for a race that was not part of the world championship. Two world championship races planned in the weeks leading up to the race, the 1957 Belgian Grand Prix and the 1957 Dutch Grand Prix, were canceled due to financial disputes.

In the drivers' standings, Fangio was clearly ahead of the competition, while Sam Hanks in second place and Jim Rathmann in third place were Indianapolis 500 drivers who did not take part in any other Grand Prix of the 1957 Formula 1 season.

Maserati only contested the race with four works cars; in previous races, more cars were often used. The reigning world champion Juan Manuel Fangio , as well as Jean Behra , Harry Schell and Carlos Menditéguy started for the Italian team . Also Maserati's biggest competitor, Ferrari only used four cars. The regular drivers Luigi Musso , Peter Collins , Mike Hawthorn and Maurice Trintignant received a cockpit, Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips was forced to pause this race. For the first time, Ferrari only used the new Ferrari 801 for all of its drivers , the Ferrari D50 from last year was no longer used.

All three British teams were also registered for the 1957 French Grand Prix, but changed their respective driver line-ups. At Vanwall , the two regular drivers Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks were not present, so Stuart Lewis-Evans and Roy Salvadori started. Moss was absent due to illness, Brooks due to an injury sustained in an accident at the Le Mans 24 Hours . Salvadori switched from BRM to Vanwall, who thus had a cockpit free. Ron Flockhart's new teammate was Herbert MacKay-Fraser , who was recommended by Colin Chapman and who contested his first and only Formula 1 race. A few days later he had a fatal accident in a Formula 2 Lotus. After Eugenio Castellotti , Alfonso de Portago and Keith Andrews, MacKay-Fraser was the fourth Formula 1 driver to have a fatal accident in 1957.

Cooper relied again on the revolutionary Cooper T43 , the only mid-engine car in the field. Les Leston , who missed out on qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix , has been replaced by Mike MacDowel . MacDowel, however, received a weaker engine than his teammate Brabham, and for him it was the only Formula 1 Grand Prix of his career.

With Horace Gould , a driver took part in the race with a private Maserati 250F . The field of drivers thus shrank to 15 cars, and all drivers qualified for the race.

No former winner took part in the 1957 French Grand Prix in Rouen-les-Essarts, Ferrari has already won once on this track.

training

Practice was again dominated by Maserati, the Maserati drivers were more than a second faster than the competition from Ferrari. Fangio and Behra fought for pole position , which Fangio achieved for the second time in the season with a time of 2: 21.5 minutes. For Maserati, it was the third pole position in the third race of the season in which they participated. In addition to the two Maserati drivers, Musso qualified for the front row in the Ferrari. On the second row of the grid, Schell drove in the third Maserati in fourth place ahead of Collins in the second Ferrari in fifth.

Row three included two other Ferrari drivers, Hawthorn and Trintignant, Salvadori finished sixth on the grid in his debut race for Vanwall, making it the fastest driver on a British team. However, he was more than three seconds short of Fangio's time, making Vanwall only a midfield team in this race. Menditeguy in the fourth Maserati and Lewis-Evans in the second Vanwall completed the top 10.

BRM achieved positions eleven and twelve, followed by Cooper's two mid-engined cars in 13th and 15th. Gould, the only driver with private cars in the field qualified in 14th place, the penultimate place.

run

At the start, Behra managed to overtake Fangio, who in turn also fell behind Musso. In the first lap of the race, Musso also overtook Behra and put the Ferrari in the lead in front of two Maseratis. With Collins and Schell, two more cars from the top Italian teams Ferrari and Maserati followed. In sixth place, MacKay-Fraser worked his way up in the BRM, who had started from twelfth place, overtook several cars and was the best-placed driver of a British car after one race lap.

Fangio had always started relatively badly in the previous races, but often fought his way back to the top of the field. So in this race, too, in the second lap of the race, he overtook Behra, then caught up with Musso and took the lead on lap four, which he did not give up until the end of the race. On lap two, Flockhart had a serious high-speed accident in the BRM, which he survived unscathed and the car was badly damaged. In response to the accident, Flockhart did not take part in any other races of the 1957 Formula 1 season and did not return to the BRM works team until 1959.

In the further course of the race, Collins overtook Behra. Thus, in the Maserati, Fangio led the three Ferraris from Musso, Collins and Hawthorn, who also passed Behra. This order did not change for a large part of the race and was retained until the finish line.

Jack Brabham was eliminated on lap four due to an accident, took over his teammate's car halfway through the race and finished seventh. Trintignant retired on lap 23 with an electrical fault, MacKay-Fraser gave up the race due to a lack of power transmission on his car. So none of the BRM cars reached the destination. The two Vanwall drivers also did not see the checkered flag due to engine failure at Salvadori and defective steering at Stewart-Evans. Menditeguy also retired on lap 30 due to an engine failure.

Of the seven cars that reached the destination, Behra would have reached position five. However, since he suffered an engine failure on the last lap, needed more than seven minutes for this lap, spread a lot of oil on the road and finally pushed the car over the finish line, he was punished with a penalty lap and fell to sixth place, outside the points back. This unusual sentence was decided by the local racing stewards and was not specified in the official Formula 1 regulations, either as a rule or as an associated punishment.

Fangio and Maserati each won their only race in Rouen-les-Essarts and Fangio extended the lead in the drivers' standings to 17 points ahead of the runner-up. Musso scored the first points of the season and improved to fourth place, Behra dropped one position to fifth. The fastest lap of the race, which was rewarded with an additional point, was achieved by Musso in a Ferrari. It was the only fastest race lap of his career and the only one for Ferrari in the 1957 Formula 1 season.

Registration list

team No. driver chassis engine tires
ItalyItaly Officine Alfieri Maserati 02 ArgentinaArgentina Juan Manuel Fangio Maserati 250F Maserati 2.5 L6 P
04th France 1946Fourth French Republic Jean Behra
06th United States 48United States Harry Schell
08th ArgentinaArgentina Carlos Menditeguy
ItalyItaly Scuderia Ferrari 10 ItalyItaly Luigi Musso Ferrari 801 Ferrari 2.5 V8 E.
12 United KingdomUnited Kingdom Peter Collins
14th United KingdomUnited Kingdom Mike Hawthorn
16 France 1946Fourth French Republic Maurice Trintignant
United KingdomUnited Kingdom Vandervell Products Ltd 18th United KingdomUnited Kingdom Stuart Lewis-Evans Vanwall VW57 Vanwall 2.5 L4 P
20th United KingdomUnited Kingdom Roy Salvadori
United KingdomUnited Kingdom Cooper Car Cooperation 22nd AustraliaAustralia Jack Brabham Cooper T43 Climax 2.0 L4 D.
24 United KingdomUnited Kingdom Mike MacDowel Climax 1.5 L4
AustraliaAustralia Jack Brabham
United KingdomUnited Kingdom Owen Racing Organization 26th United KingdomUnited Kingdom Ron Flockhart BRM P25 BRM 2.5 L4 D.
28 United States 48United States Herbert MacKay-Fraser
United KingdomUnited Kingdom HH Gould 30th United KingdomUnited Kingdom Horace Gould Maserati 250F Maserati 2.5 L6 D.

Remarks

  1. a b Mike MacDowel drove the car 30 laps, Jack Brabham 38 laps.

Classifications

Starting grid

Item driver constructor time Ø speed begin
01 ArgentinaArgentina Juan Manuel Fangio ItalyItaly Maserati 2: 21.5 166.44 km / h 01
02 France 1946Fourth French Republic Jean Behra ItalyItaly Maserati 2: 22.6 165.16 km / h 02
03 ItalyItaly Luigi Musso ItalyItaly Ferrari 2: 22.7 165.04 km / h 03
04th United States 48United States Harry Schell ItalyItaly Maserati 2: 23.2 164.46 km / h 04th
05 United KingdomUnited Kingdom Peter Collins ItalyItaly Ferrari 2: 23.3 164.35 km / h 05
06th United KingdomUnited Kingdom Roy Salvadori United KingdomUnited Kingdom Vanwall 2: 25.1 162.31 km / h 06th
07th United KingdomUnited Kingdom Mike Hawthorn ItalyItaly Ferrari 2: 25.6 161.75 km / h 07th
08th France 1946Fourth French Republic Maurice Trintignant ItalyItaly Maserati 2: 25.9 161.42 km / h 08th
09 ArgentinaArgentina Carlos Menditeguy ItalyItaly Maserati 2: 26.1 161.20 km / h 09
10 United KingdomUnited Kingdom Stuart Lewis-Evans United KingdomUnited Kingdom Vanwall 2: 27.6 159.56 km / h 10
11 United KingdomUnited Kingdom Ron Flockhart United KingdomUnited Kingdom BRM 2: 27.8 159.35 km / h 11
12 United States 48United States Herbert MacKay-Fraser United KingdomUnited Kingdom BRM 2: 29.9 157.11 km / h 12
13 AustraliaAustralia Jack Brabham United KingdomUnited Kingdom Cooper-Climax 2: 30.9 156.07 km / h 13
14th United KingdomUnited Kingdom Horace Gould ItalyItaly Maserati 2: 35.0 151.94 km / h 14th
15th United KingdomUnited Kingdom Mike MacDowel United KingdomUnited Kingdom Cooper-Climax 2: 38.6 148.49 km / h 15th

run

Item driver constructor Round Stops time begin Fastest lap Failure reason
01 ArgentinaArgentina Juan Manuel Fangio ItalyItaly Maserati 77 3: 07: 46.4 01
02 ItalyItaly Luigi Musso ItalyItaly Ferrari 77 + 50.8 03
03 United KingdomUnited Kingdom Peter Collins ItalyItaly Ferrari 77 + 2: 06.0 05
04th United KingdomUnited Kingdom Mike Hawthorn ItalyItaly Ferrari 76 + 1 lap 07th
05 United States 48United States Harry Schell ItalyItaly Maserati 70 + 7 rounds 04th
06th France 1946Fourth French Republic Jean Behra ItalyItaly Maserati 69 + 8 rounds 02
07th United KingdomUnited Kingdom Mike MacDowel Jack Brabham
AustraliaAustralia 
United KingdomUnited Kingdom Cooper-Climax 68 + 9 rounds 15th
- United KingdomUnited Kingdom Stuart Lewis-Evans United KingdomUnited Kingdom Vanwall 30th DNF 10 steering
- ArgentinaArgentina Carlos Menditeguy ItalyItaly Maserati 30th DNF 09 Engine failure
- United KingdomUnited Kingdom Roy Salvadori United KingdomUnited Kingdom Vanwall 25th DNF 06th Engine failure
- United States 48United States Herbert MacKay-Fraser United KingdomUnited Kingdom BRM 24 DNF 12 Power transmission
- France 1946Fourth French Republic Maurice Trintignant ItalyItaly Ferrari 22nd DNF 08th electrical damage
- AustraliaAustralia Jack Brabham United KingdomUnited Kingdom Cooper-Climax 04th DNF 13 accident
- United KingdomUnited Kingdom Horace Gould ItalyItaly Maserati 04th DNF 14th Half wave
- United KingdomUnited Kingdom Ron Flockhart United KingdomUnited Kingdom BRM 11 DNF 02 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 ArgentinaArgentina Juan Manuel Fangio Maserati 25th
02 United States 48United States Sam Hanks Epperly-Offenhauser 8th
03 United States 48United States Jim Rathmann Epperly-Offenhauser 7th
04th ItalyItaly Luigi Musso Ferrari 7th
05 France 1946Fourth French Republic Jean Behra Maserati 6th
06th United KingdomUnited Kingdom Tony Brooks Vanwall 6th
07th United States 48United States Harry Schell Maserati 5
08th ArgentinaArgentina Carlos Menditeguy Maserati 4th
09 United States 48United States Masts Gregory Maserati 4th
10 United States 48United States Jimmy Bryan Kuzma-Offenhauser 4th
Item driver constructor Points
11 United KingdomUnited Kingdom Peter Collins Ferrari 4th
12 United KingdomUnited Kingdom Stuart Lewis-Evans Connaught-Alta 3
13 United States 48United States Paul Russo Kurtis Kraft-Novi 3
14th United KingdomUnited Kingdom Mike Hawthorn Ferrari 3
15th France 1946Fourth French Republic Maurice Trintignant Ferrari 2
16 United States 48United States Andy Linden Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser 2
17th Spain 1945Spain Alfonso de Portago Ferrari 1
18th ArgentinaArgentina José Froilán González Ferrari 1
19th United KingdomUnited Kingdom Stirling Moss Maserati 1

Individual evidence

  1. "GRAND PRIX RESULTS: FRENCH GP, 1957" (www.grandprix.com on October 8, 2013)

Web links