About Fangio 1956 title (for Gwen)

[Mekola]

Originally posted by gwen
Bononi.

I saw Collins give the car to Fangio on SpeedVision last month and I began to wonder how often this had happpened in Fangios career. Things like this coundn't happen today due to the speed of the pit stops and safety equipment. This has nuthing to do with TGF I saw Fangio drive at Sebring an he was a great driver but this makes me understand that there is no comparison between then and now due to technology.

Gwen

After Fangio abandon, Ferrari director called Musso to stop to give the car to Fangio, but Musso refused. After that, when Collins came to the pits, he saw Fangio stand up, get out of his car and gave Fangio the drive of his Ferrari. Quickly Fangio (not understanding very much what happens) thanks him and take the drive, drove for the rest of the race, finished second after Moss, and won the title.
You can think that as a Collins gift, but Fangio made the effort to finish second the race. About Moss, he finished the race with problems, and need the help of another car (slower Maserati before him) to "pull" him with the (what I can name this?) air turbulences to go to the finish line. Moss won the race and Fangio his fourth title. Also, it was a merit for Fangio because he had an embarge (he was on interdiction) because the Argentinian military goverment embarged his possessions after the coup of state against Peron (exiled at this time).

[Buonfornello]

I'll timidly go where few have gone before and agree that Fangio's 1956 WDC title holds little luster for me because of all the car-switching that went on amongst the Ferrari drivers for Fangio's benefit.The Lancia-Ferrari was a very fast car, between Maserati and Ferrari all of the Mercedes race lap records, except Monaco, fell easily in '56, but there were a lot of retirements and mechanical slowdowns amongst the Ferraris.A Ferrari-oriented article I read once disparaged Lancia's competence by saying, in effect, that, 'although Ferrari undoubtedly erred by discarding the Lancia's most advanced feature, i.e. the engine forming a structural unit with the chassis, at least Ferrari's technicians made the D-50 run reliably'...But it really wasn't very reliable and the Fangio/Ferrari team only won their championship by entering a relatively large number of cars and switching Fangio into his best-placed team mate's car whenever his own broke.

In most of Fangio's other seasons he did much less car switching. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think he swithed at all in '54, '55 or '57.More importantly, his main rival in 1956, Stirling Moss did not enjoy the priviledge of calling Behra or Scarlatti in every time his own car had a problem.I think that '56 should have been the underdogs' year.