1956 British Grand Prix

 1956 British Grand Prix

Racing data
6th of 8 races of the 1956 World Automobile Championship
Surname:	IX RAC British Grand Prix
Date:	July 14, 1956
Place:	Silverstone , UK
Course:	Silverstone Circuit
Length:	475.7605 km in 101 laps of 4.7105 km
Weather:	dry, cloudy
Pole position
Driver:	Stirling Moss	Maserati
Time:	1: 41.0 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Stirling Moss	Maserati
Time:	1: 43.2 min
Podium
First:	Juan Manuel Fangio	Ferrari
Second:	Alfonso de Portago Peter Collins	Ferrari
Third:	Jean Behra	Maserati

The 1956 Grand Prix of Great Britain took place on July 14, 1956 at the Silverstone Circuit near Silverstone and was the sixth race of the 1956 World Automobile Championship .

Reports

background

From the 1955 Automobile World Championship , the races at the Grand Prix of Great Britain took place alternately on the Aintree Circuit and the Silverstone Circuit . After a year break, Formula 1 returned to Silverstone, where Ferrari had won the last four races.

Ferrari fielded four cars for Juan Manuel Fangio , Alfonso de Portago , Eugenio Castellotti and Peter Collins , who had won the two previous races. Due to the large field of drivers, Maserati also started with only four cars for its regular drivers Stirling Moss , Jean Behra , Cesare Perdisa and Paco Godia .

Major changes in the driver pairing took place at Vanwall . After Bugatti withdrew from Formula 1, Maurice Trintignant drove again for the British team, alongside Harry Schell and José Froilán González . Mike Hawthorn changed teams again in the season and went back from Vanwall to BRM , who made another attempt to participate in a Formula 1 race after a break for several races, which this time also succeeded after being forced to take part in the 1956 Monaco Grand Prix withdraw the car from the race due to technical problems. In addition to Hawthorn, Tony Brooks and Ron Flockhart drove for BRM .

Team Connaught traditionally took part in the British Grand Prix , which this year competed with Archie Scott-Brown , Desmond Titterington and Jack Fairman . For both Brown and Titterington, this was the first and last Formula 1 race of their motorsport careers. The French team Gordini brought two cars to the start, one for Hernando da Silva Ramos and another for Robert Manzon .

As in previous years, many drivers started at the British Grand Prix with private cars, nine of these drivers were registered, including Jack Brabham who, like six other drivers, also drove a private Maserati 250F . Bob Gerard, on the other hand, drove an outdated Cooper T23 , Paul Emery used a specially designed car, the Emeryson 56 . For Emery and Bruce Halford , the 1956 British Grand Prix was their Formula 1 debut.

González was the only driver of the 28-man field who had previously won at Silverstone. In the drivers' standings, Collins was leading by five points over Behra and six points over third-placed Fangio.

The race was characterized by a very high failure rate, only eleven drivers made it to the finish line, 17 drivers dropped out.

training

After Ferrari had dominated every training session with the exception of the Indianapolis 500 and Fangio had achieved pole position in each of these four races , training for the 1956 British Grand Prix was more even between the top teams Ferrari and Maserati. Fangio and Moss fought for first place on the grid and in the end drove the same time of 1: 41.0. However, as in previous years, the time measurement in Silverstone was not on the level of other racetracks and therefore all times were only accurate to the second. Since Moss set his best time in training earlier than Fangio, he secured first place on the grid. This was the only pole position for Moss and Maserati in the 1956 Formula 1 season.

Mike Hawthorn achieved third place on the grid for Team BRM in the first full race weekend, two seconds behind Fangio. At the same time, Fangio's team-mate Collins qualified fourth in front of the two Vanwall von Schell and González.

Roy Salvadori , who drove for Gilby Engineering in a private Maserati, managed to place himself in seventh place, ahead of Castellotti and Brooks, Connaught driver Scott-Brown completed the top ten. Behra, who was second in the drivers' standings at the time, qualified in 13th place, Manzon in the Gordini came in 18th and Brabham was last in training, as on his Formula 1 debut.

run

Starting from third place, Hawthorn took the lead immediately after the start by overtaking Fangio and Moss. His BRM thus received leadership kilometers on his first race participation and proved that he was very competitive. Brooks in the second Vanwall overtook various drivers in the first laps of the race and fought his way to second position, giving BRM a one-two lead. A weak point in the car, but the low level of reliability remained, Flockhart in the third BRM retired on the second lap of the race due to an engine failure. Brabham also retired on lap four with engine failure. González, who took part in the 1956 British Grand Prix for Vanwall, only rolled a few meters at the start and was the first retirement of the race due to a lack of power transmission.

Fangio, who had started from second place, first overtook Moss and a few laps later also Brooks, but lost these two positions again after a spin. Thereupon Moss attacked Brooks and overtook him on the eleventh race lap. Moss then narrowed the gap to the leader Hawthorn, while Brooks lost several positions and fell behind Salvadori, who was thus in third place.

On lap 16, Moss took the lead after overtaking Hawthorn. Fangio also made up a position and overtook Hawthorn's team-mate Brooks. A short time later, the technical problems began to affect Hawthorn's BRM and he kept falling back until he was forced to retire on lap 24. At this point he was the eighth retirement of the Grand Prix. Thus Moss led in the factory Maserati before Salvadori in a private Maserati. In third place was Fangio, who was trying to catch up with the two leaders. Behind him, the gap to Brooks, who was also struggling with the unreliability of his BRM, grew. A repair pit stop helped him to continue the race, but on lap 41 he had a serious accident in which the car rolled over several times. Brooks was thrown out of the car and suffered minor injuries. The car went up in flames and it took a long time to put out the resulting fire, which completely destroyed the car. For BRM, the race ended with the retirement of all three cars, but with the realization that the car is fast enough to keep up with the other top teams.

In the second half of the race, Salvadori, who was in second place, also had technical problems that forced him to slow down. This allowed the two Ferrari drivers Fangio and Collins to overtake Salvadori. Then Moss went to the box to refill oil. He stayed in the lead, but this reduced his lead over Fangio significantly.

On lap 59, Salvadori was finally eliminated from the race, four laps later Collins met a similar fate. He then took over the car from his team-mate Portago on lap 70, who in turn took over Castellotti's car on lap 80. Moss came back into the pits because his engine had lost power. A repair followed and Fangio took the lead on lap 69. Moss needed a third repair pit stop and then dropped out a few laps before the end of the race due to a broken axle.

Fangio won for the first time in his career at Silverstone and continued the Ferrari winning streak on this track. This was the fifth of a total of six victories in a row at the Silverstone Circuit for Ferrari. Fangio lapped the entire field of drivers, his team-mate Collins crossed the finish line in second place and completed another Ferrari one-two. However, he shared the points with Portago, who achieved his only podium finish in Formula 1. He was the first Spaniard to achieve this and it wasn't until the 2003 Malaysian Grand Prix that Fernando Alonso was again on the podium. In addition, these were the first points in his career for him. By sharing the points, Collins lost a large part of his lead in the drivers' standings over Fangio. Fangio got up to a point on Collins and passed Behra, who finished third in the race.

Fourth place went to Fairman and Team Connaught, who scored points for the first time, as did Horace Gould in the private Maserati, who finished fifth. Despite the failure, Moss received one point for the fastest race lap, but lost important points in the drivers' championship and at this point was already nine points behind the leader Collins.

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
		Alfonso de Portago
	04th	Alfonso de Portago
		Peter Collins
Officine Alfieri Maserati	07th	Stirling Moss	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	P
	08th	Jean Behra
	09	Cesare Perdisa
	10	Paco Godia
Luigi Piotti	11	Luigi Villoresi	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	P
Scuderia Guastalla	12	Umberto Maglioli	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	P
Equipe Gordini	14th	Hernando da Silva Ramos	Gordini Type 32	Gordini 2.5 L8	E.
	15th	Robert Manzon
Vandervell Products Ltd	16	Harry Schell	Vanwall VW56	Vanwall 2.5 L4	P
	17th	Maurice Trintignant
	18th	José Froilán González
Connaught	19th	Archie Scott-Brown	Connaught Type B	Alta 2.5 L4	P
	20th	Desmond Titterington
	21st	Jack Fairman
Owen Racing Organization	23	Mike Hawthorn	BRM P25	BRM 2.5 L4	D.
	24	Tony Brooks
	25th	Ron Flockhart
FR Gerard	26th	Bob Gerard	Cooper T23	Bristol 2.0 L6	D.
Ecurie Rosier	27	Louis Rosier	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	P
Gilby Engineering	28	Roy Salvadori	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	D.
Bruce Halford	29	Bruce Halford	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	D.
YES Brabham	30th	Jack Brabham	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	P
Goulds' garage	31	Horace Gould	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	D.
Emeryson Cars	32	Paul Emery	Emeryson 56	Alta 2.5 L4	D.

Remarks

1. ↑ Eugenio Castellotti drove the car 80 laps, Alfonso de Portago 12 laps.
2. ↑ Alfonso de Portago drove the car 70 laps, Peter Collins 30 laps.

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	Stirling Moss	Maserati	1: 41.0	167.90 km / h	01
02	Juan Manuel Fangio	Ferrari	1: 41.0	167.90 km / h	02
03	Mike Hawthorn	BRM	1: 43.0	164.64 km / h	03
04th	Peter Collins	Ferrari	1: 43.0	164.64 km / h	04th
05	Harry Schell	Vanwall	1: 44.0	163.06 km / h	05
06th	José Froilán González	Vanwall	1: 44.0	163.06 km / h	06th
07th	Roy Salvadori	Maserati	1: 44.0	163.06 km / h	07th
08th	Eugenio Castellotti	Ferrari	1: 44.0	163.06 km / h	08th
09	Tony Brooks	BRM	1: 45.0	161.50 km / h	09
10	Archie Scott-Brown	Connaught-Alta	1: 45.0	161.50 km / h	10
11	Desmond Titterington	Connaught-Alta	1: 46.0	159.98 km / h	11
12	Alfonso de Portago	Ferrari	1: 47.0	158.48 km / h	12
13	Jean Behra	Maserati	1: 47.0	158.48 km / h	13
14th	Horace Gould	Maserati	1: 48.0	157.02 km / h	14th
15th	Cesare Perdisa	Maserati	1: 49.0	155.58 km / h	15th
16	Maurice Trintignant	Vanwall	1: 49.0	155.58 km / h	16
17th	Ron Flockhart	BRM	1: 49.0	155.58 km / h	17th
18th	Robert Manzon	Gordini	1: 49.0	155.58 km / h	18th
19th	Luigi Villoresi	Maserati	1: 50.0	154.16 km / h	19th
20th	Bruce Halford	Maserati	1: 51.0	152.77 km / h	20th
21st	Jack Fairman	Connaught-Alta	1: 51.0	152.77 km / h	21st
22nd	Bob Gerard	Cooper-Bristol	1: 53.0	150.07 km / h	22nd
23	Paul Emery	Emeryson Alta	1: 54.0	148.75 km / h	23
24	Umberto Maglioli	Maserati	1: 54.0	148.75 km / h	24
25th	Paco Godia	Maserati	1: 55.0	147.46 km / h	25th
26th	Hernando da Silva Ramos	Gordini	1: 56.0	146.19 km / h	26th
27	Louis Rosier	Maserati	1: 59.0	142.50 km / h	27
28	Jack Brabham	Maserati	2: 01.0	140.15 km / h	28

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Juan Manuel Fangio	Ferrari	101		2: 59: 47.0	02
02	Alfonso de Portago Peter Collins	Ferrari	100		+ 1 lap	12
03	Jean Behra	Maserati	99		+ 2 rounds	13
04th	Jack Fairman	Connaught-Alta	98		+ 3 rounds	21st
05	Horace Gould	Maserati	97		+ 4 rounds	14th
06th	Luigi Villoresi	Maserati	96		+ 5 rounds	19th
07th	Cesare Perdisa	Maserati	95		+ 6 rounds	15th
08th	Paco Godia	Maserati	94		+ 7 rounds	25th
09	Robert Manzon	Gordini	94		+ 7 rounds	18th
10	Eugenio Castellotti Alfonso de Portago	Ferrari	92		+ 9 rounds	08th
11	Bob Gerard	Cooper-Bristol	88		+ 13 rounds	22nd
-	Stirling Moss	Maserati	95		DNF	01		transmission
-	Harry Schell	Vanwall	87		DNF	05		Fuel system
-	Maurice Trintignant	Vanwall	37		DNF	16		Fuel system
-	Desmond Titterington	Connaught-Alta	75		DNF	11		Engine failure
-	Hernando da Silva Ramos	Gordini	72		DNF	26th		Axle damage
-	Peter Collins	Ferrari	63		DNF	04th		oil pressure
-	Roy Salvadori	Maserati	59		DNF	07th		Fuel system
-	Tony Brooks	BRM	41		DNF	09		accident
-	Louis Rosier	Maserati	24		DNF	27		electrical damage
-	Mike Hawthorn	BRM	24		DNF	03		Power transmission
-	Bruce Halford	Maserati	24		DNF	20th		Engine failure
-	Umberto Maglioli	Maserati	22nd		DNF	24		transmission
-	Archie Scott-Brown	Connaught-Alta	17th		DNF	10		Axle damage / wheel lost
-	Paul Emery	Emeryson Alta	13		DNF	23		ignition
-	Jack Brabham	Maserati	04th		DNF	28		Engine failure
-	Ron Flockhart	BRM	02		DNF	17th		Engine failure
-	José Froilán González	Vanwall	00		DNF	06th		Power transmission

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 22nd 02  Juan Manuel Fangio Ferrari 21st 03  Jean Behra Maserati 18th 04th  Stirling Moss Maserati 13 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

Item driver constructor Points 13  Harry Schell Vanwall 3 14th  Cesare Perdisa Maserati 3 15th  Alfonso de Portago Ferrari 3 16  Jack Fairman Connaught-Alta 3 17th  Olivier Gendebien Ferrari 2 18th  Hernando da Silva Ramos Gordini 2 19th  Dick Rathmann Kurti's power 2 20th  Luigi Villoresi Maserati 2 21st  Horace Gould Maserati 2 22nd  Chico Landi Maserati 1.5 23  Gerino Gerini Maserati 1.5 24  Paul Russo Kurti's power 1

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "GRAND PRIX RESULTS: BRITISH GP, 1956" (www.grandprix.com on September 11, 2013)

Web links

• Results at motorsportarchiv.de
• Photos at f1-facts.com
• "1956 06 GBR Silverstone - JMFangio wins" at youtube.com