Pages

Monday, 4 July 2011

Unusual Formula 1 Results

Strangely the official results of Formula One show that there are three Grands Prix where two drivers shared the victory. This is unusual given that F1 cars are single seaters and there has never been a dead heat in the over 60 years of races.


 It occurred through a quirk of the rules in the 1950s that permitted drivers to swap cars during a race.Usually this happened if the car of a leading driver broke down and they could call in a team mate to take over their car and continue in the race. Both drivers would then be credited with the result and share any points.

 It was still something of an achievement to be able to actually win under those circumstances and so it is no surprise that the drivers to do this where a couple of racing greats, Stirling Moss and Juan Manuel Fangio.  Moss did it at the 1957 British Grand Prix when he took over Tony Brooks' Vanwall, making them jointly the first British drivers to win the British Grand Prix in a British car.


The remarkable Argentinean Fangio did it twice. The first time was when he took over Luigi Fagioli’s Alfa Romeo at the 1951 French Grand Prix and the second was at his home Grand Prix in 1956 when he took Luigi Musso’s car. For both Luigis this represented the pinnacle of their racing careers as these were the only F1 races they ever won. Of course they were actually watching the race from the side of the track when their cars took the chequered flag. Brooks however went on to win five more races in his own right, narrowly missing becoming World Champion.

The 1956 Argentine Grand Prix where Musso handed over his car to Fangio was the first of the season but the last race of that year in Italy would involve a dramatic shared result for second place. This included the same two drivers plus their other team mate Peter Collins.  Fangio and Collins in their Ferraris were both hoping to win the World Championship that day, against of course Stirling Moss.  Musso had no chance as his only points that year had come from the shared win with Fangio.

During the race Fangio suffered a broken steering arm and was forced to retire. The team called Musso in to hand his car over to Fangio so he could claim his third world championship in a row. However this time Musso refused to comply. In one of the great sporting gestures of all time, Collins gave up his chance at the Championship and handed his car over to Fangio at his pit stop. Fangio managed to bring home the car in second place behind Moss giving him enough points to secure the title. In a further twist, Musso retired during the race so his car would have been no good to Fangio.

While Collins was magnanimous towards Fangio, he and Musso shared a deep rivalry and probably wouldn’t have shared so much as a sandwich. Sadly they would share tragic deaths under near identical circumstances two years later during the 1958 season. A few races apart they were chasing down the race leader but went too wide at a corner, hit a ditch, somersaulted  and suffered head injuries that would claim their lives later that night.

On a lighter note, while two drivers above shared second place in the 1956 Italian Grand Prix, no one officially finished second at the 1983 Brazilian Grand Prix.  The Flying Finn and reigning World Champion, Keke Rosberg, finished second on the road but was subsequently disqualified for an illegal push start at his pit stop. He needed the push start due to a flash fire igniting while his car was being refueled. This understandably made him evacuate the cockpit at a very rapid rate, but he also stalled the car in the process.


He got back in the car and stormed to a fantastic second place only to fall foul of the officials. This saw him excluded from the results, which seems a harsh penalty under the circumstances. Normally the disqualification would have simply elevated the lower finishing drivers up a place.  Perhaps recognising a degree of injustice, second place was left vacant pending Rosberg's appeal. The appeal ultimately failed but third place Niki Lauda was never elevated, thus leaving us with the only Grand Prix in history where no one finished second.  A wonderful statistical anomaly for those who enjoy that sort of thing.

No comments:

Post a Comment