1951

By the second season, Fangio had become the quickest Alfa Romeo driver. The type 158 had been developed into a faster type 159, but the fuel consumption, already high, increased so much that the car kept diving into the pits for refueling to make sure it would cross the finish line. The race calendar was expanded to include Germany and Spain. Much had been expected from the Ferrari team, but they proved to be slow starters in terms of results. The first victory came at Silverstone with Jose Froilan Gonzalez, better known as the Pampas Bull, getting Ferrari their first ever F1 victory. Ferrari won in Germany and Italy too, thus demolishing Alfa Romeo’s aura of invincibility – so much so that Alfa Romeo decided to stop racing in Formula 1 from the next year. Meanwhile, British hopes were raised as the superbly engineered BRM debuted at Silverstone – complete with a V16 engine. Sadly for the Brits, the BRM was a non-performer. Fangio, in his Type 159, won at Bremgarten, Reims and Pedralbes (Spain), and also came second at Silverstone and the Nuerburgring to clinch his first driver’s title – ahead of Ferrari’s Alberto Ascari.

1952

With Alfa Romeo gone, and the BRM project a failure, there was not enough F1 machinery around. So the promoters decided to run the third and fourth season with F2 cars (2000cc naturally aspirated and 500cc supercharged engines) as well, which played into the hands of Ferrari completely. 1952 was like a Ferrari benefit year. The first race was in Bremgarten, which Alberto Ascari missed as he wanted a crack at the Indy 500, since it was a part of F1. In his absence, Piero Taruffi took a Ferrari 500 to victory at Bremgarten. While Ascari was not successful in America against the various Offenhauser specials, once he returned to Europe he was just unbeatable – winning the next 9 GPs in succession (going into the 1953 season). Maserati signed Fangio to drive their new A6GCM, but Fangio had a severe crash in a non-championship race and broke his neck, thus ruling himself out for the year. The year threw up hope for the British in Mike Hawthorn, who showed a lot of promise competing well in his privately entered Cooper-Bristol, while the other Brit hopeful, Stirling Moss, tried his luck by switching teams from HWM to ERA to Connaught – albeit with little success.

1953

F1 expanded again, this time by including a round in Argentina. Alberto Ascari was still the man to beat as he ran away with the first three races of the new season. Fangio was back though and driving for Maserati. In the French GP, Ascari was finally beaten, relegated to a fourth place finish. The talking point though was the battle between Hawthorn and Fangio – the British driver stayed cool enough to execute a dramatic final corner overtaking maneuver past Fangio to take his first ever victory. Maserati was still looking to win their first race, and it came purely as a stroke of luck for Fangio at the last race in Monza. The race itself was very competitive with four drivers – Ascari, Farina, Fangio and Onofre Marimon in the fray, and constantly slipstreaming each other. Then Marimon had a long pit stop and got lapped as a result. With Farina putting his teammate, Ascari, under pressure, the reigning World Champion’s Ferrari went into a spin and hit Marimon’s Maserati, and, while Farina took avoiding action, Fangio slipped through to take the chequered flag – giving Maserati its first win on the record books. Ascari having won the British and Swiss GPs ended the year successfully, defending the title he won in 1952.

1956

With the departure of Mercedes, both Moss and Fangio signed up with new teams – Moss went to Maserati, and Fangio to Ferrari. BRM, now owned by the Owen Racing Organisation, got Mike Hawthorn as its lead driver. Fangio won the Argentinian GP after taking over Luigi Musso’s Lancia-Ferrari D50. He also won the British GP and the German GP. Moss won at Monte Carlo. At the French GP, the lineup of cars included Bugatti, making an unsuccessful attempt in a one-off appearance. Fangio’s teammate, Peter Collins, almost wrapped up the championship with a string of great performances. With wins in Belgium, France, and a second place at Silverstone, he had to give up his car to Fangio while chasing Moss for the lead with 13 laps to go because Fangio had retired his own car. As a result, Fangio won his third drivers’ title, and second place went to Moss. Of the British teams, both Vanwall and BRM showed promise but failed to deliver eventually. The best result by a British car for the year was that by Connaught, a third place in Italy.

1957

The 1957 season was Juan Manuel Fangio’s swansong. Moving to Maserati and the new 250F, the year also saw Hawthorn switching to Ferrari, while Stirling Moss moved to the British team, Vanwall. Fangio started off with a hat-trick of wins (disregarding the Indy 500), initially winning in Argentina, Monaco and France, before Vanwall won at the British GP, thanks to Moss taking over Tony Brook’s car after he had retired his own. It was the first victory ever for a British car at the British GP. At the next race, Fangio produced probably the greatest drive in the history of F1 at the Nuerburgring in Germany. It will be recorded for posterity. Having been delayed at the pits, he was a minute behind the Lancia-Ferraris. What followed is almost beyond words – over the next 10 laps, of 14 miles each, he repeatedly broke the lap record to overhaul Hawthorn and Collins to win the race. Only after the race did Fangio reveal that his seat had broken, and he had wedged his frame into the cockpit! What a way to end a career – more so because, with the cancellation of the Belgian, Dutch and Spanish GPs, and Moss winning the race at Pescara, which had been upgraded to a GP, he still finished ahead of his British rival for the third successive time to take the driver’s title.

1959

The final year of F1’s first decade of existence began with the withdrawal of the first constructors’ champion team, Vanwall. This was because of Ton Vandervell’s (the team owner) poor health. This made Cooper the prime British contender for the title – and there were some bright sparks to the year. Cooper came up with a breakthrough in car design by placing the engine at the rear of the car, instead of the front as had been the norm till then. The design obviously worked, for Cooper won five of the eight races of the season – Monaco, Silverstone, Monsanto in Portugal, Monza, and Sebring in the US – giving it the Constructors Cup, while Jack Brabham took the drivers title. The season began with the Monaco GP, as the Argentinian GP was cancelled because of financial issues. Zandvoort in Holland saw the first win for BRM and Jo Bonnier, nine years after BRM’s F1 debut. Moss had been leading the race, but a gearbox failure cost him the race, and let Bonnier’s BRM through to win. The German GP was held at Avus, and was won by Tony Brooks. It was a Ferrari 1-2-3 victory, but tragedy struck with the death of Jean Behra in the supporting sports car race. There was a new venue in the USA too, with Sebring, and this time the Europeans participated – with victory going to Bruce McLaren in a Cooper-Coventry Climax. Moss had set up a three-way finale for the title at Sebring, but sadly both he and the second contender, Tony Brooks, did not finish. As a result, the championship title went to Jack Braham – who pushed his out-of-fuel Cooper T51 across the finish line to finish fourth, instead of first, but it was enough to clinch the title ahead of Brooks and Moss.