José Froilán González

José Froilán González

Nation:	Argentina
Automobile world championship
First start:	Monaco Grand Prix 1950
Last start:	1960 Argentine Grand Prix
Constructors
1950  Scuderia Achille Varzi  · 1951  Ferrari  · 1952–1953  Maserati  · 1954–1955 Ferrari · 1956 Maserati · 1956  Vanwall  · 1957 Ferrari · 1960 Ferrari
statistics
World Cup balance:	Vice World Champion ( 1954 )
Starts Victories Poles SR 26th 2 3 6th
World Cup points :	77.64
Podiums :	15th
Leadership laps :	272 over 1525 km

José Froilán González (born October 5, 1922 in Arrecifes , † June 15, 2013 in Buenos Aires ) was an Argentine automobile racing driver, Formula 1 vice world champion in 1954 and Le Mans winner.

Youth and first ambitions

José Froilán González was already considered a talented athlete and enthusiastic swimmer as a teenager . He came to motorsport through his father, the owner of a large Chevrolet dealership, and his uncle Julio Pérez, a well-known former long-distance driver from the 1930s . In addition, his birthplace is home to a natural race track.

By virtue of his dictatorial powers, President Juan Domingo Perón made racing a national affair when, from 1947, deliberately during the European winter, in Buenos Aires and other cities in the country he organized the so-called Temporada , a racing series with a largely formula-free race advertised competitions that were enthusiastically received by European drivers such as Jean-Pierre Wimille .

The pre-war Italian motorsport star Achille Varzi also competed successfully there and was soon the most popular foreign athlete. Enthusiastic about the local racing scene, Varzi encouraged the local racing athletes, especially Juan Manuel Fangio , to try their luck in Europe.

When Varzi had a fatal accident while training for the Swiss Grand Prix in Bremgarten in 1948 , his father tried to honor his memory by founding a racing team: The Argentine automobile club acquired two Maserati 4CLT / 48s and wanted them in the summer of 1949 with the pilots Fangio and Let Benedicto Campos start in Europe. Varzi then offered them the “Palazzo Varzi” workshop in Galliate as a team location, which allowed the team to bear the name “Equipo Argentino Achille Varzi”.

Shortly before, González started his first attempts at racing, which quickly gave rise to his nickname due to his stature: His compatriots named him "El Cabezon" (head of water) due to his round head , in Europe he was called the Argentine puma , on the British Isles the "pampas animal" . On some monopostos with a Chevrolet or Ford engine, it was less noticeable for good results than for breakneck maneuvers and wild drifts, in which the cars regularly failed due to material fatigue. In order to secure his financial background, his father set up a freight forwarding business for him . When José got a real formula car with a Maserati, he achieved better placements with a sixth place at the Grand Prix Mar del Plata and a seventh place in Rosario .

The way to Formula 1

It was only when Fangio moved to the Alfa Romeo factory team in 1950 that González's rise was possible. He won his first victory in Le Cumbre , Argentina , and was then able to celebrate his debut in Europe with the blue and yellow racers. The team of the "Equipo Argentino Achille Varzi" had a good technical manager in the form of the former chief mechanic Varzis, Amedeo Bignami , but the fleet temporarily comprised up to ten racing cars. Maseratis started in Formula 1, Ferrari in Formula 2 , with Gordini or Talbot-Lago - sports cars were competed in sports car races . In addition, the dominance of the Alfetta was felt to be overwhelming.

González 'debut during the 1950 season at the Monaco Grand Prix came as a surprise: he finished third in qualifying, but was then one of the victims of a mass collision in the tobacco corner that decimated two-thirds of the field. At the Grand Prix of Albi , which is not part of the World Championship , he achieved second place, but at the World Championship races, failures due to defects predominated.

The move to Ferrari

González in a Ferrari 500 (2000)

When Mercedes-Benz started with the pre-war W 154 supercharger models at the Argentinian Temporada in 1951, González came into Enzo Ferrari's field of vision .

The route was previously entrusted to Fangio, who at the time assumed he would drive a light, agile Formula 2 Ferrari there himself. So he set a curvy course, but before the race he found work with Mercedes. Instead, González started with a Ferrari 166 with a 2-liter compressor, so that he could confidently win the Grand Prix "Juan Péron" in front of Hermann Lang and the "Donna Evita Péron" in front of Karl Kling , because the twin-compressor engines had problems with the Humidity and fell behind in the tight corners due to the longer wheelbase. The "Equipo Argentino Achille Varzi" had no competitive cars with the Talbot-Lago models for the 1951 World Cup , and Bignami, who was in poor health, left the team.

Shortly before the French Grand Prix in Reims-Gueux , Ferrari regular driver Piero Taruffi had to cancel due to illness, so that González moved up to the works team and was in a promising second place in the race. But according to the common practice at the time, after a pit stop, he had to give the car to Alberto Ascari, who had meanwhile failed , so that he could score important points for the World Cup. González later said: “I felt hurt. I assumed that I had somehow failed one of the mysterious tests at Ferrari (...), but nobody wanted to tell me what I had done wrong (...). "

At the British Grand Prix in Silverstone , González set the fastest time in practice - one second ahead of Fangio and two seconds ahead of Ascari. He won the race with a 50-second lead over Fangio and thus achieved the first victory of a Ferrari in a race of the Formula 1 World Championship.

With this win, two second places and one third place, González finished third behind Fangio and Ascari in the final score.

Intermezzo at Maserati

In the following races in Uruguay and Brazil in 1952 in a supercharged Ferrari, Fangio and González fought regularly for victories.

When the Formula 2 drivers' championship was held in 1952 (as in the following year), both Argentines drove for Maserati, but the car ( A6GCM ) was still immature and suffered from massive technical problems. Fangio's serious accident in Monza in June was also a major setback for the team.

Only González's second place in the Italian Grand Prix at the end of the season showed the potential of the car that Fangio and González wanted to live out with the significantly improved modification in the 1953 Automobile World Championship . Maserati contested the season with three Argentinian drivers, as Onofre Marimón was added to the team. That year, Fangio was runner-up, González was sixth.

Return to Ferrari - Vice World Championship

The Argentines then parted ways: Marimón stayed with Maserati, Fangio switched to Mercedes after two World Championship races on Maserati and González returned to Ferrari.

González proved to be Fangio's toughest competitor throughout the season. At the French Grand Prix in Reims - the first start of the new Mercedes streamlined cars - the break in an oil pipe led to a spin; a fire was quickly suffocated. But in the English Silverstone González was able to repeat his victory of 1951: He took 70 seconds from second-placed Mike Hawthorn and even a whole lap from fourth-placed Fangio. After the fatal training accident of his former teammate and friend Onofre Marimón at the German Grand Prix , he gave up the race and was relieved by Hawthorn in the race.

At the Swiss Grand Prix on the demanding Bremgarten track, he had achieved pole position two tenths of a second ahead of Fangio. After second place in this race and third place at the Italian Grand Prix , however, it was only enough for the runner-up in the world championship.

In addition, he was able to win three Formula 1 races not counting for the world championship , in Bordeaux , Bari and Silverstone . In June 1954 , he and Maurice Trintignant also achieved a hard-fought victory in a Ferrari 375 Plus at the Le Mans 24-hour race in the World Sports Car Championship .

Withdrawal from racing

During training for the RAC Tourist Trophy , a run for the 1954 World Sports Car Championship on the Dundrod Circuit in Northern Ireland , González had a serious accident on a wet road on September 11, 1954. When he hit an embankment, he was thrown out of the car and suffered a shoulder fracture and severe spinal sprains. More serious, however, were the psychological consequences: Until now, he had always been spared serious accidents, but Marimón's death had affected him so much that he now formally withdrew from racing in order to continue the car and haulage business at home with his wife Amalia.

Nevertheless, González competed as a pilot at the two major racing events in his homeland, the Grand Prix and the 1000 km race in Buenos Aires , until 1960 . In 1955 he took second place in a Ferrari at the Grand Prix and in 1956 he took third place in a sports car race in a Maserati sports car. The return to the site of his greatest triumphs within the Formula 1 World Championship was prevented in the same year by the shearing of the drive shaft on his Vanwall at the start.

Nevertheless, González remained connected to racing all his life. In the mid-1990s, when the specialist magazine sport auto wanted to classify the young Michael Schumacher in their statistics and in comparison to the greats of Formula 1 sport, González was so well known that he was in some respects as a Comparative example for which Kerpener was used. Because with “only” 26 starts within the first decade of the premier class, he scored 77.5 points, three pole positions , six fastest laps and two Grand Prix victories.

At the funeral of his former rival and long-time friend Juan Manuel Fangio, the now seriously diabetic Argentine stood at the grave.

In December 2003, his son Julio César González died while scuba diving in the Río de la Plata , and the 81-year-old González had to go to a sanatorium in the Palermo district of Buenos Aires because of severe heart problems . However, after close medical observation, he was able to leave the hospital the next morning.

González tried since 2003, the career of the Argentine motorsport hope Juan Cruz Álvarez promote it after winning the World Series Light (2003) in the year 2005 in the GP2 - Team of Adrián Campos managed, but there with 4.5 points, only the 18th place in the final ranking.

José Froilán González died in June 2013 at the age of 90 from a respiratory disease.

statistics

Statistics in the automobile world championship

Grand Prix victories

• 1951:  Great Britain  ( Silverstone )
• 1954:  Great Britain  (Silverstone)

general overview

season	team	chassis	engine	run	Victories	Second	Third	Poles	nice Race laps	Points	WM-Pos.
1950	Scuderia Achille Varzi	Maserati 4CLT / 48	Maserati 1.5 L4s	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
1951	José Froilán González	Talbot-Lago T26C-GS	Talbot 4.5 L6	1	-	-	-	-	-	24 (27)	3.
	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 375F1	Ferrari 4.5 V12	5	1	3	1	1	-
1952	Officine Alfieri Maserati	Maserati A6GCM	Maserati 2.0 L6	1	-	1	-	-	1	6.5	9.
1953	Officine Alfieri Maserati	Maserati A6GCM	Maserati 2.0 L6	5	-	-	3	-	2	13.5 (14.5)	6th
1954	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 625F1	Ferrari 2.5 L4	6th	1	2	2	1	3	25 1/7 (26 9/14)	2.
		Ferrari 553 Squalo		1	-	-	-	-	-
1955	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 625F1	Ferrari 2.5 L4	1	-	1	-	1	-	2	17th
1956	Officine Alfieri Maserati	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
	Vandervell Products Ltd.	Vanwall VW2	Vanwall 2.5 L4	1	-	-	-	-	-
1957	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari D50	Ferrari 2.5 V8	1	-	-	-	-	-	1	21.
1960	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari Dino 246F1	Ferrari 2.4 V6	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
total				26th	2	7th	6th	3	6th	77.64

Single results

season	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10
1950
		DNF				DNF
1951
	DNF			(2) / -	1	3	2	2
1952
								2
1953
	3		DNF / 3	(DNF)	3	4th	DNF
1954
	3		DNF / (4)	DNF	1	2 / -	2	DNF / 3
1955
	2 / -
1956
	DNF					DNF
1957
	5
1960
	10

Legend
colour	abbreviation	importance
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside of the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Deletion results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1950	Automobiles Gordini	Gordini T15S	Juan Manuel Fangio	failure	ignition
1951	Henri Louveau	Talbot-Lago T26GS	Onofre Marimón	failure	cooler
1953	Scuderia Lancia	Lancia D20	Clemente Biondetti	failure	Engine failure
1954	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 375 Plus	Maurice Trintignant	Overall victory

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th
1953	Lancia	Lancia D20	SEB	MIM	LEM	SPA	ONLY	RTT	CAP
					DNF
1954	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 375 Plus	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	CAP
						1
1955	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 118LM	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	TAR
			DNF
1956	Maserati	Maserati 300S	BUA	SEB	MIM	ONLY	KRI
			3
1960	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari Dino 246S	BUA	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM
			DNF

Quotes

• "Fangio is more popular with the public than the somewhat closed and gloomy Gonzáles" (Günter Molter, journalist, 1954)
• “At first he drove like an amateur - maximum attack the whole time (...) stuffed into the cockpit, pouting, grimacing or talking to himself, his muscular arms slammed into the steering wheel and his car threw hair-raising on the knife's edge between control and disaster . " (Douglas Nye, journalist)

literature

• Guillermo S. Iacona, Hernan Lopez Laiseca, JC. Perez Loizeau: José Froilán González: The Pampas Bull . ISBN 978-987-05-1244-8 (Spanish / English)

Web links

Commons : José Froilán González  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• http://8w.forix.com/intltr54.html#MARCOR (engl.)
• http://www.jmfangio.org/gonzalez.html (span.)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TPxfXARrrw

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Murió José Froilán González, gloria del automovilismo. ( El Día ), June 15, 2013, accessed June 16, 2013 (Spanish). 
2. ↑ http://www.fcaglp.unlp.edu.ar/~rodolfo/fangio/histo/histo10.html
3. ↑ http://forix.autosport.com/8w/intltr54.html
4. ↑ http://www.oldracingcars.com/driver/Jose_Froilan_Gonzalez