1951 British Grand Prix

 1951 British Grand Prix

Racing data
5th of 8 races of the 1951 World Automobile Championship
Surname:	IVth British Grand Prix
Date:	July 14, 1951
Place:	Silverstone
Course:	Silverstone Circuit
Length:	418.41 km in 90 laps of 4.649 km
Weather:	sunny and warm
Spectator:	~ 120,000
Pole position
Driver:	José Froilán González	Ferrari
Time:	1: 43.400 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Giuseppe Farina	Alfa Romeo
Time:	1: 44,000 min (lap 38)
Podium
First:	José Froilán González	Ferrari
Second:	Juan Manuel Fangio	Alfa Romeo
Third:	Luigi Villoresi	Ferrari

The 1951 British Grand Prix took place on July 14th at Silverstone and was the fifth race of the 1951 World Automobile Championship .

background

The Great Britain Grand Prix, originally planned for May, has been postponed by two months. Rumor has it that this was done to enable the planned entry of BRM , which were not yet ready to go in May. That this date could hardly be kept was shown when the BRM appeared on the track on race day without having driven a single training lap. They were allowed to start from the back row.

Alfa Romeo again entered four vehicles, the fourth was driven by Felice Bonetto , who replaced Luigi Fagioli . Fagioli fell out with Alfa Romeo after the French Grand Prix when he had to hand over his car to Juan Manuel Fangio , who drove him to victory.

Ferrari came up with three vehicles, whereby the third, driven by José Froilán González , had only one carburetor and consequently developed a little less power, around 350 instead of 380 hp. Peter Whitehead also reported a private Ferrari. Due to the relatively short straights at Silverstone , it was to be expected that the Ferrari could keep up with the Alfa Romeo. However, both only had to come to refuel once, as the race distance of 418 km was relatively short for the conditions at the time.

The remaining 10 participants were divided into 4 Talbots (all private), 3 Maserati , 2 ERA and Joe Kellys Alta .

training

As expected, the Ferraris were on par with the Alfa Romeos in practice. Gonzalez was able to secure pole position with the weakest car with 1: 43.4 minutes and was one second faster than his Argentinian compatriot Fangio in the Alfa Romeo. This was the first time that no Alfa Romeo had taken pole position in a World Championship race. Giuseppe Farina (Alfa Romeo) and Alberto Ascari (Ferrari) completed the front row . Only 18 vehicles took part in the training, as BRM did not appear until race day.

run

The best start was made by Bonetto, who shot to the top with his Alfa Romeo from the second row and was able to defend it over the first lap. By the ninth lap, however, he then fell back to fifth place. The untested BRMs performed surprisingly well. Reg Parnell had already overtaken half the field after the second lap and was in ninth place. Peter Walker managed a similar maneuver. In the tenth lap, Fangio pushed González out of first place, but was able to distance him by a maximum of 5 seconds. In the 38th lap he was able to push Fangio back from first place. Farina was third, overtaking Ascari. Although he turned the fastest lap, he was unable to catch up with the leading duo. When the Alfa Romeo pits to refuel around halfway through the race, González's lead increased to 72 seconds. It was not until the 55th lap that the first Ferrari, Ascari, had to refuel, only to stop shortly afterwards with a gearbox failure. When González came to refuel, he first jumped out of the car, believing that he would have to hand the vehicle over to Ascari. But he was allowed to continue. After that, the positions didn't change, with the exception of Farina's retirement on lap 76 due to a defective clutch. González achieved the first of his two victories in a Formula 1 world championship race with a lead of over 50 seconds, which was also the first victory for Scuderia Ferrari in this category. With 5th place (Parnell), BRM achieved an astonishingly good result for their debut in a Formula 1 world championship run.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Alfa Romeo Motorsport	1	Giuseppe Farina	Alfa Romeo 159	Alfa Romeo	P.
	2	Juan Manuel Fangio
	3	Consalvo Sanesi
	4th	Felice Bonetto
Team Joe Kelly	5	Joe Kelly	Alta GP	Alta	D.
British Racing Motors	6th	Reg Parnell	BRM P15	BRM	D.
	7th	Peter Walker
Team FR Gerard Cars	8th	Frederic Roberts-Gerard	ERA B	ERA	D.
Team Brian Shawe-Taylor	9	Brian Shawe-Taylor	ERA B	ERA	D.
Scuderia Ferrari	10	Luigi Villoresi	Ferrari 375	Ferrari	P.
	11	Alberto Ascari
	12th	José Froilán González
	14th	Peter Whitehead	Ferrari 125
Scuderia Ambrosiana	15th	David Murray	Maserati 4CLT	Maserati	D.
Team John James	16	John James	Maserati 4CLT	Maserati	D.
Team Fotheringham-Parker	17th	Philip Fotheringham-Parker	Maserati 4CL	Maserati	D.
Team Duncan Hamilton	18th	Duncan Hamilton	Talbot-Lago T26 C	Talbot	D.
Ecurie Rosier	22nd	Louis Rosier	Talbot-Lago T26C-DA	Talbot	D.
Ecurie France	23	Louis Chiron	Talbot-Lago T26 C	Talbot	D.
Ecurie Belge	25th	Johnny Claes	Talbot-Lago T26C-DA	Talbot	D.

classification

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	km / h	Starting row
1.	José Froilán González	Ferrari	1: 43,400	161.861	1
2.	Juan Manuel Fangio	Alfa Romeo	1: 44,400	160.310	1
3.	Giuseppe Farina	Alfa Romeo	1: 45,000	159.394	1
4th	Alberto Ascari	Ferrari	1: 45,400	158.789	1
5.	Luigi Villoresi	Ferrari	1: 45.800	158.189	2
6th	Consalvo Sanesi	Alfa Romeo	1: 50.200	151.873	2
7th	Felice Bonetto	Alfa Romeo	1: 52,000	149.432	2
8th.	Peter Whitehead	Ferrari	1: 54.600	146.042	3
9.	Louis Rosier	Talbot-Lago	1: 56,000	144.279	3
10.	Frederic Roberts-Gerard	ERA	1: 57,000	143.046	3
11.	Duncan Hamilton	Talbot-Lago	1: 57.200	142.802	3
12th	Brian Shawe-Taylor	ERA	1: 58.200	141.594	4th
13th	Louis Chiron	Talbot-Lago	2: 00,200	139.238	4th
14th	Johnny Claes	Talbot-Lago	2: 05.800	133.040	4th
15th	David Murray	Maserati	2: 06,000	132.829	5
16.	Philip Fotheringham-Parker	Maserati	2: 13,200	125.649	5
17th	John James	Maserati	2: 17,000	122.164	5
18th	Joe Kelly	Alta	2: 18,400	120.928	5
19th	Peter Walker	BRM	without time		6th
20th	Reg Parnell	BRM	without time		6th

Race result

Item	driver	constructor	Round	time	km / h	see Rd.	guide
1.	José Froilán González	Ferrari	90	2: 42: 18,200	154.68		59
2.	Juan Manuel Fangio	Alfa Romeo	90	2: 43: 09,200	153.87		30th
3.	Luigi Villoresi	Ferrari	88	2: 43: 18,600	150.31
4th	Felice Bonetto	Alfa Romeo	87	2: 43: 07,400	148.77		1
5.	Reg Parnell	BRM	85	2: 42: 46,600	145.66
6th	Consalvo Sanesi	Alfa Romeo	84	2: 42: 39.800	144.05
7th	Peter Walker	BRM	84	2: 43: 23,000	143.41
8th.	Brian Shawe-Taylor	ERA	84	2: 43: 55.800	142.93
9.	Peter Whitehead	Ferrari	83	2: 43: 02,000	142.01
10.	Louis Rosier	Talbot-Lago	83	2: 43: 08,600	141.91	1: 53.600
11.	Frederic Roberts-Gerard	ERA	82	2: 43: 30,400	139.89	1: 53.600
12th	Duncan Hamilton	Talbot-Lago	82	2: 42: 32,200	140.73	1: 54,000
13th	Johnny Claes	Talbot-Lago	80	2: 44: 05,000	136	1: 54.800
DNF	Giuseppe Farina	Alfa Romeo	75	coupling		1: 44,000
DNF	Joe Kelly	Alta	75	not classified
DNF	Alberto Ascari	Ferrari	56	transmission
DNF	Philip Fotheringham-Parker	Maserati	45	engine
DNF	David Murray	Maserati	44	engine
DNF	Louis Chiron	Talbot-Lago	41	Brakes		1: 58.600
DNF	John James	Maserati	23	cooling

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 *	6th				21
2.	Giuseppe Farina	Alfa Romeo	4th		8th	2	1*				15th
3.	Luigi Villoresi	Alfa Romeo			4th	4th	4th				12th
4th	José Froilán González	Ferrari				3	8th				12th
5.	Lee Wallard	Kurti's power		9 *							9
	Alberto Ascari	Ferrari			6th	3					9
7th	Piero Taruffi	Ferrari	6th								6th
	Mike Nazaruk	Kurti's power		6th							6th
9.	Reg Parnell	Ferrari				3					5
		BRM					2
10.	Luigi Fagioli	Alfa Romeo				4th					4th
9.	Consalvo Sanesi	Alfa Romeo	3								3
	Andy Linden	Sherman		3							3
	Louis Rosier	Talbot			3						3
	Felice Bonetto	Alfa Romeo					3				3
15th	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

Trivia

The 1951 British Grand Prix was the first automobile race that the then timber merchant Ken Tyrrell witnessed. In his own words, the race established his interest in motorsport and led Tyrrell to begin an amateur career as a racing driver and switch to motorsport management in 1960. This resulted in the later Formula 1 team Tyrrell Racing Organization .

literature

• Lang, Mike; Grand Prix 1950-1965; Haynes Publishing Group, Sparkford Sommerset 1981 p31f. ( ISBN 0-85429-276-4 )
• Christian Moity, "L'année 1951: championnat an II", dans L'Année Automobile 1999-2000, no 47, 1999, p. 122 ( ISBN 2-88324-055-8 ) (French)

Web links

• Results
• Gonzalez report on his first win

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Christopher Hilton: Ken Tyrrell. Portrait of a Motor Racing Giant , Haynes Publishing, Sparkford 2002 ISBN 1-85960885 X , p. 16.