The 1955 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Monaco on 22 May 1955. It was race 2 of 7 in the 1955 World Championship of Drivers and was given an honorary name, Grand Prix d'Europe.Kettlewell, Mike. "Monaco: Road Racing on the Riviera", in Northey, Tom, editor. World of Automobiles (London: Orbis, 1974), Volume 12, p.1383. The 100-lap race was won by Ferrari driver Maurice Trintignant after he started from ninth position. Eugenio Castellotti finished second for the Lancia team and Maserati drivers Jean Behra and Cesare Perdisa came in third.
Race report
The prestigious race was won from 1935 to 1937 by the Silver Arrows of Mercedes-Benz, but was not held from 1938 to 1954, except for 1948, 1950 and 1952.
The 1955 F1 season had opened in January with the 1955 Argentine Grand Prix that saw no less than four Mercedes-Benz W196 being entered, as the 1954 lineup of Fangio, Karl Kling and Hans Herrmann had been expanded by Stirling Moss who had been signed also to compete in the 1955 World Sportscar Championship for which usually two drivers per car were needed. Earlier in May, at the 1955 Mille Miglia, Mercedes entered a new Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR for each of the four F1 drivers. Moss won this Mille Miglia after driving for over 10 hours, possibly his greatest win, beating Fangio by half an hour. Kling crashed near Rome, broke some ribs, and was absent in Monaco. As Mercedes had hired extra drivers to man three cars at Le Mans, André Simon was at hand when Hans Herrmann crashed near the sea in practice and was out for the season.
Initially, the Silver Arrows of Fangio and Moss dominated, running 1–2 until half distance, trailed by Ascari and Castellotti. At the halfway mark, Fangio retired with transmission trouble,Kettlewell, p.1383. giving the lead to Moss. Almost a lap ahead, a seemingly sure win for Moss was ended on Lap 80 when his Benz's engine blew. The new leader, Ascari, miscalculated the chicane coming out of the tunnel, and his Lancia crashed through the barriers into the harbour. Ascari had to swim to safety. Maurice Trintignant, in a Ferrari 625 thought to be uncompetitive, inherited the lead and scored his first Formula One victory.
This race marked the Grand Prix debut for Cesare Perdisa. It was the only Grand Prix appearance for Ted Whiteaway. This was the last Grand Prix appearance for Alberto Ascari; he was killed four days later testing a Ferrari sports car at Monza.
It was the first win for Maurice Trintignant and Englebert tyres. It was also the first podium and points for Eugenio Castellotti and Cesare Perdisa, and the first win for a French Formula One driver.
Entries +TeamNoDriverCarEngineTyre Daimler Benz AG2 Juan Manuel FangioMercedes-Benz W196Mercedes M196 2.5 L84 André Simon Hans Herrmann6 Stirling Moss Equipe Gordini8 Robert ManzonGordini T16Gordini 23 2.5 L610 Jacques Pollet12 Élie Bayol Vandervell Products18 Mike HawthornVanwall VW 55Vanwall 254 2.5 L4 Stirling Moss Ltd22 Lance MacklinMaserati 250FMaserati 250F1 2.5 L6 E.N. Whiteaway24 Ted WhiteawayHWM 53Alta GP 2.5 L4 Scuderia Lancia26 Alberto AscariLancia D50Lancia DS50 2.5 V828 Luigi Villoresi30 Eugenio Castellotti32 Louis Chiron Officine Alfieri Maserati34 Jean BehraMaserati 250FMaserati 250F1 2.5 L636 Roberto Mieres38 Luigi Musso40 Cesare Perdisa Scuderia Ferrari42 Nino FarinaFerrari 625 F1Ferrari 555 2.5 L444 Maurice TrintignantFerrari 55546 Harry Schell48 Piero Taruffi Paul Frère
Classification Qualifying +PosNoDriverConstructorTimeGap 1 2 Juan Manuel Fangio Mercedes 1:41.1 2 26 Alberto Ascari Lancia 1:41.1 +0.0 3 6 Stirling Moss Mercedes 1:41.2 +0.1 4 30 Eugenio Castellotti Lancia 1:42.0 +0.9 5 34 Jean Behra Maserati 1:42.6 +1.5 6 36 Roberto Mieres Maserati 1:43.7 +2.6 7 28 Luigi Villoresi Lancia 1:43.7 +2.6 8 38 Luigi Musso Maserati 1:44.3 +3.29 44 Maurice Trintignant Ferrari 1:44.4 +3.3 10 4 André Simon Mercedes 1:45.5 +4.4 11 40 Cesare Perdisa Maserati 1:45.6 +4.5 12 18 Mike Hawthorn Vanwall 1:45.6 +4.5 13 8 Robert Manzon Gordini 1:46.0 +4.9 14 42 Nino Farina Ferrari 1:46.0 +4.9 15 48 Piero Taruffi Ferrari 1:46.0 +4.9 16 12 Élie Bayol Gordini 1:46.5 +5.4 17 14 Louis Rosier Maserati 1:46.7 +5.6 18 46 Harry Schell Ferrari 1:46.8 +5.7 19 32 Louis Chiron Lancia 1:47.3 +6.2 20 10 Jacques Pollet Gordini 1:49.4 +8.3 22 Lance Macklin Maserati 1:49.4 +8.3 24 Ted Whiteaway HWM-Alta 1:57.2 +16.1 Source:
Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 44 Maurice Trintignant Ferrari 100 2:58:09.8 9 8 2 30 Eugenio Castellotti Lancia 100 + 20.2 4 6 3 34 Jean Behra Cesare Perdisa Maserati 99 + 1 lap 5 22 4 42 Nino Farina Ferrari 99 + 1 lap 14 3 5 28 Luigi Villoresi Lancia 99 + 1 lap 7 2 6 32 Louis Chiron Lancia 95 + 5 laps 19 7 10 Jacques Pollet Gordini 91 + 9 laps 20 8 48 Piero Taruffi Paul Frère Ferrari 86 + 14 laps 15 9 6 Stirling Moss Mercedes 81 + 19 laps 3 40 Cesare Perdisa Jean Behra Maserati 86 Spun off 11 26 Alberto Ascari Lancia 80 Accident 2 46 Harry Schell Ferrari 68 Engine 18 36 Roberto Mieres Maserati 64 Transmission 6 12 Élie Bayol Gordini 63 Transmission 16 2 Juan Manuel Fangio Mercedes 49 Transmission 1 1 8 Robert Manzon Gordini 38 Gearbox 13 4 André Simon Mercedes 24 Engine 10 18 Mike Hawthorn Vanwall 22 Throttle 12 14 Louis Rosier Maserati 8 Fuel leak 17 38 Luigi Musso Maserati 7 Transmission 8 22 Lance Macklin Maserati 24 Ted Whiteaway HWM-Alta 4 Hans Herrmann Mercedes Driver injured Notes – 1 point for fastest lap
Shared drives Car #34: Jean Behra (42 laps) and Cesare Perdisa (57 laps). They shared the 4 points for third place. Car #48: Piero Taruffi (50 laps) and Paul Frère (36 laps). Car #40: Cesare Perdisa (40 laps) and Jean Behra (46 laps).
Summary Formula 1 debut for Cesare Perdisa, who shared third place drive with Jean Behra, and Ted Whiteaway, who failed to qualify Juan Manuel Fangio broke the track record that had stood since 1937, when Rudolf Caracciola turned a lap in 1:46.5 in a 5.6-litre Mercedes W125, running the circuit in 1:41.1 on the first day of practice in his Mercedes W196. Alberto Ascari matched Fangio's time in his Lancia D50 during the Saturday practice, though the order had been set on the first day of practice in a singular exception to the policy of the time of all practice laps counting towards grid position. In practice, Mercedes youngster Hans Herrmann crashed into a harbour wall and suffered injuries that took him out for the rest of the season. Ascari was driving the number 26 car, the same number that had been on the P2 Alfa Romeo his father, Antonio Ascari, had been driving when killed in the 26 July 1925 French Grand Prix. The superstitious Ascari was between Mercedes drivers Fangio and Stirling Moss in the numbers 2 and 6 respectively. Andre Simon's was the first Mercedes to leave the race, with engine failure. Of the other Mercedes, Fangio left the race with transmission problems on lap 50, leaving Stirling Moss in first and Ascari in second. Lap 80 saw Moss taken out by a minor problem in his car's sophisticated valve train, leaving Ascari in first. Ascari never made it past the pits to see that, however: his Lancia didn't make the chicane (possibly losing traction on oil from Moss's engine failure) and he flipped over the barrier and into the harbour. His Lancia was craned out of 25 feet of water while he spent the night in the hospital. Later events indicate that he probably should have kept his superstitions up and taken this as an omen, but his motivation wouldn't quit and four days later he was back in the cockpit at Monza, where he was killed in a bizarre accident testing a Ferrari on the 26th of the month. There are no definite explanations for either of Ascari's accidents, but the Monza incident was, apart from possible undetected brain injuries after the Monaco crash, probably caused by an improperly-sized tire – 7.00x16 rather than 6.50x16 – combined with an imperfect track surface. Mercedes also had not seen the last of their troubles – after all three cars left contention with mechanical problems at Monaco, the worst accident in racing history involved a Mercedes. Louis Chiron's start made him the oldest driver to start a Grand Prix (55 years, 292 days).
Championship standings after the race Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 1 Maurice Trintignant 11 1 2 Juan Manuel Fangio 10 1 3 Nino Farina 6 10 4 Eugenio Castellotti 6 1 5 José Froilán González 2Source:
References
External links Kettlewell, Mike. "Monaco: Road Racing on the Riviera", in Northey, Tom, editor. World of Automobiles, Volume 12, pp. 1381–4. London: Orbis, 1974.