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  Juan Manuel agreed to a contract in pinciple,but refused to sign initially, as Neubauer could nottell him when the new Mercedes would be readyto race - June, possibly, but maybe July. He was prepared to pay Fangio for the races he might miss,but Fangio was more interested in Championshippoints. He had lost his title to Ascari in 1952 and‘53 and was determined to regain it in ‘54. To thisend he agreed to drive for Officine Maserati untilthe Mercedes was ready. It was a wise move.Driving the new 250F, he won the GrandsPrix of Argentina and Belgium, while his greatestrival, Ascari, was twiddling his thumbs, waitingfor the D50 Lancia to be made raceworthy. WhenMercedes-Benz made their debut in the FrenchGP at Reims, Ascari drove a 250F Maserati, whichbroke its transmission at the start.Ascari drove for Maserati again in the BritishGP, with no better luck, but Mercedes came a cropper, too. The streamliners were all at sea on thewide open spaces of Silverstone and Fangio couldonly finish fourth, behind the Ferraris of Gonzalezand Hawthorn and the Maserati of Marimon.After two failures with Maserati, Ascari decided to stay at home rather than risk another at his beloved Nurburgring. There was now a complete reversal of fortune, for just as Ascari had experienceda Fangio-free zone throughout 1952, now Fangiowas enjoying a virtually Ascari-free zone in 1954.

  Mercedes-Benz had stunned the racing worldwith their beautiful streamliners at Reims. Built forthe new 2.5-litre Formula 1, the Wl96 had a straighteight engine producing 257 bhp @ 8250 rpm. It haddesmodromic valves and Bosch fuel injection andby mounting it at 50 degrees from the vertical ina spaceframe chassis Mercedes engineers wereable to run the driveshaft beside the driver to therear-mounted five-speed gearbox, making for avery low car. Huge drum brakes were mountedinboard all round and the whole thing was covered in a gorgeous, aluminium streamlined body,requested by Alfred Neubauer for high-speed circuits such as Reims and Monza.The streamlining worked superbly at Reims,but not at Silverstone, where Fangio found he haddifficulty placing the car in corners. If this appliedto Silverstone it would apply in spades at the Nurburgring so, for the German GP, the cars that Fangio and Kling had raced at Reims were strippedof their steamlining and fitted with open-wheelbodywork. These were given to Kling and Hermann Lang (brought back into the team for hishome GP, at the circuit on which he had shone in1939) and a completely new car was built for Fangio. The third Reims streamliner was left aloneand given to Hans Herrmann.The new cars were not ready for the first day’spractice, so Fangio had to content himself withsome laps in the streamliner, recording a best timeof 10 mins 05.3 sees. Fastest of the day was StirlingMoss in his privately-entered 250F Maserati with10’ 05.1” and third was another Englishman, MikeHawthorn in the works Ferrari, with 10’ 19.4”.On the Saturday the new Mercedes arrived,and received a decidedly luke-warm reception, forwhereas the streamliner was undeniably gorgeous,the open-wheel Wl96 was anything but. MotorSport’s Denis Jenkinson described it as ‘a rathergormless single-seater of vast width, the only realimprovement over the Silverstone cars being thatthe driver could now see the wheels.’As Karl Kling could attest, for on his first lapin the W196 one of his front wheels took flight,bounding off into the scenery while he was at fullchat on the main straight. Shades of Alberto Ascarithe previous year! Like Ascari, Kling managed tobring the car to a halt without damage, although ashe had no outboard brake drum, he could not drivethe car back to the pits, as Ascari had done. As a result of this incident, he had to complete his practicein cars other than his own, which meant that hehad to start on the back row of the grid. This wasdominated by Fangio, who got his new car roundin 9 mins 50.1 sees, demolishing at last (and unofficially) Lang’s pre-war outright lap record.

  For some reason best known to themselves,the organisers abandoned the classic Nurburgring4-3-4 grid, reducing it to 3-2-3 (a pointless exerciseon so wide a starting area), so Fangio found himself on the front row alongside Mike Hawthorn’sFerrari (9’ 53.3”) and Moss’s Maserati (10’ 00.7”).Behind them were Hans Herrmann’s streamlinedMercedes (10’ 01.5”) and Froilan Gonzalez’ Ferrari(10’ 01.8”).In Gonzalez, perhaps, lay the key to the race,for on Saturday morning Onofre Marimon crashedhis works Maserati at Wehrseifen (see Ringmeister6, Stirling Moss). As soon as the news reached thepits, Gonzalez leapt into the Ferrari 750S sportscarthe team was using for training and drove to thecrash site, where he learned that his fellow countryman had died of his injuries. Gonzalez was distraught, as was Fangio, for Marimon was a protegeof theirs. He was also a hugely likeable young manand his death cast a pall over the whole weekend.Although Fangio was able to keep his grief incheck, Gonzalez was not and his distress seriouslyaffected his performance in the race.Initially, however, he swallowed his grief andmade a superb start, leading Fangio right roundthe first lap until they reached the 3-km straight,when the Mercedes went past the Ferrari. StirlingMoss’s challenge ended on lap two, when hisMaserati broke a big-end, but the big surprise wasHermann Lang who, driving with all his pre-warfire and skill, moved his Mercedes into third placeon lap four and into second a lap later. There hestayed until lap 11, when he made a mistake andspun, stalling his engine. Mike Hawthorn ran sixthinitially, behind Herrmann’s streamliner, only toretire on lap four with transmission failure.By now Gonzalez’ challenge was visibly wilting, so Mike asked Team Manager Nello Ugoliniif he could take over the slowing Ferrari, but forsome reason Ugolini refused, telling Hawthorn towait until Gonzalez made his re-fuelling stop. HadMike taken over at once, he might well have takenthe fight to Fangio, but the moment was lost.As the race progressed, Fangio came underthreat from his own team-mate, Karl Kling. Starting his home Grand Prix from the back row, with18 cars in front of him, was not Kling’s idea of funso he proceeded to carve his way through the field,setting fastest lap of the race in 9 mins 59.3 secsand moving into a remarkable fourth place at theend of lap five. Next he dispatched Gonzalez andthen Lang, before going after Fangio! This was notin Herr Neubauer’s script and Kling was givenfrantic signals to slow down, as Fangio was dueto win the race and consolidate his position in theWorld Championship. Kling ignored the signals.On lap 15 he passed Fangio as they went into theSouth Curve and set a new fastest lap of 9’ 55.1”,with Fangio right behind him. More than 300,000spectators had come to see the return of the Silver Arrows to the Nurburgring and this sent theminto ecstacies - a German driver in a German carwas leading the German Grand Prix! It was justlike old times!

  Was Fangio going to be denied his maidenvictory at the Nurburgring yet again? And by histeam-mate? No, the reason for Kling’s remarkable turn of speed was that since the fourth lap he1957 German GP, Nurburgringhad been sprayed with fuel. It was leaking fromthe tank behind him and onto the inboard drumbrakes, which threw it forward into the cockpit.Convinced that he would not be able to completethe race non-stop, he decided to make up as muchtime as he could before refuelling.Unaware of this, Fangio sat behind Kling,pointing angrily at him as they passed the pits tomake his feelings clear to Alfred Neubeuer, whowas powerless to do anything about it. His problem was resolved on lap 17, when Kling suddenlyslowed at Schwalbenschwanz and Fangio wentback into the lead. Kling passed the pits pointing at his left rear suspension. Then a care¬wornGonzalez finally came in for fuel and was happyto give his car to Mike Hawthorn, who shot backinto the race, hell-bent on salvaging something forthe Scuderia.Kling came in at the end of lap 19 and theMercedes was immediately enveloped in a swarmof humanity, most of whom were hangers-on whoshould not have been there. Neubauer raged atthem with his flag and some order was restoredwhile the car was refuelled and the rear suspension checked. It was discovered that a radius rodhad broken and by the time repairs had been effected Kling had lost 2 mins 20 sees and MikeHawthorn had gone by, to be followed by MauriceTrintignant in another Ferrari. Hawthorn strovemightily to catch Fangio, but it was too late andJuan Manuel, easing up, still finished some 35seconds ahead of the Ferrari. Karl Kling finishedfourth, at very reduced speed.So Fangio finally won at the Nurburgring athis fourth attempt but, tellingly, in the absenceof Alberto Ascari. However, you can only raceagainst those who turn up on the day
and drivingsuperbly, Fangio had seen off a strong challengefrom Gonzalez and would surely have been ableto deal with Kling had he had to, so his elevationto Ringmeister was assured.His next visit to the Ring was to drive thenew 300SLR in the 1955 Eifel races at the end ofMay, and he arrived to learn the shattering newsthat Alberto Ascari had been killed at Monza.The previous weekend in the Monaco Grand Prix,Alberto had taken a dive into the harbour in hisLancia, moments after taking the lead. He escaped with a bloody nose and a few bruises andfour days later, unexpectedly decided to do a fewlaps in the Ferrari Monza he had been scheduledto drive in the Supercortemaggiore 1000 kms racethat weekend. Unseen by anyone on the desertedtrack, he crashed fatally and all Italy was plungedinto mourning.

  After an impressive 1954 season driving aMaserati 250F, Stirling Moss had been signed toMercedes-Benz for 1955 and, along with Fangioand Karl Kling he went to the Nurburgring afterMonaco. The news of Ascari’s death cast a pallover the whole weekend and Fangio, who had established a great rapport with his greatest rival,must have been stunned. However, he didn’t lethis feelings show, as Sir Stirling recalls, “He was afairly emotional person, but he kept himself verymuch to himself, so I never really knew what hefelt about it. He and I couldn’t converse about anything other than food, cars and crumpet, really.”The 10-lap race was little more than a demonstration run by the three Mercedes. Fangio won bya car’s length from Moss but a Mercedes 1,2,3 wasspoiled when Kling’s car sprang an oil leak, whichdropped him to fourth place at the end.There was to be no happy return to the Ringfor Fangio in 1955, as the German Grand Prix wascancelled following the tragedy at Le Mans.For the first two and a half hours of that raceFangio in the 300SLR and Mike Hawthorn in theD-type Jaguar were locked in a titanic duel, seemingly reliving their great battle in the French GPat Reims in 1953.

  But when making his scheduledpit stop, Hawthorn moved in front of the AustinHealey of Lance Macklin and braked heavily. Thestandard disc brakes on the Austin-Healey wereno match for the racing discs on the Jaguar and, inorder to avoid running into the back of the D-type,Macklin instinctively swerved to the left, right intothe path of Fangio’s team-mate, Pierre Levegh. TheMercedes was launched into the air at high speedand crashed into the crowd, killing more than 80(including Levegh) and injuring many more. As aresult, Mercedes withdrew from the race when theFangio/Moss car was well in the lead and set togive both their first victory at Le Mans.The tragedy sent shock waves through themotor racing world and the German GP was justone of the many races that were cancelled as aconsequence. The Dutch, British and Italian GPswere held, however, and Fangio won his thirdWorld Championship, but at the end of the yearMercedes-Benz withdrew from racing.With Ascari now sadly departed Fangio hadno immediate challenger, but there was a seriousthreat on the horizon - Stirling Moss. In his book,My Racing Life, Fangio stated that Ascari andMoss were his greatest rivals and that he realisedjust how serious Moss was from the day he joinedMercedes.He recalled that before the European seasonstarted they did some testing at the Nurburgring.

  He set a good time only for Moss to beat it, despitethe fact that he had not driven the Wl96 at the Ringbefore. After lunch Fangio restored the status quo,but Moss had laid down his marker.Fangio was to retain his superiority overMoss in Grand Prix racing for the rest of his career,but in sportscars it was a different matter. With theMercedes 300SLR, Moss had won the Mille Miglia,the Tourist Trophy and the Targa Florio in 1955,‘allowing’ Fangio to win only two minor races, atthe Nurburgring and in Sweden. For 1956, Fangiojoined Scuderia Ferrari and Moss went to OfficineMaserati and in May they returned to the Ring forthe second running of the 1000 Kms race.The Ferrari line-up was Juan Fangio/EugenioCastellotti and Fon de Portago/Olivier Gendebienin four-cylinder 3.5-litre 860 Monzas and LuigiMusso/Maurice Trintignant and Phil Hill/KenWharton in 12-cylinder, 3.5-litre 290 MMs. Maserati were represented by Stirling Moss/Jean Behra,Piero Taruffi/ Harry Schell and Cesare Perdisa/Robert Manzon in 3-litre, 300S models. There werealso works entries from Aston Martin, Jaguar andPorsche, but the battle was obviously going to bebetween the Italian teams.In practice all three Ferraris, headed by Fangio, were faster than the Maseratis, but at the endof the opening lap it was Moss who led, followedby Hawthorn, Fangio and Peter Collins in the Aston Martin. Fangio soon passed Hawthorn andOld Master set off in pursuit of his Young Pretender, to no avail. Moss pulled steadily away and after13 laps was 37 seconds in front, which inceased totwo-and-a-half minutes once Fangio had handedover to Castellotti on lap 14.A lap later Jean Behra took over from Moss,but at the end of lap 18 he pulled in to the pits toretire, a transverse leaf spring having broken onthe Maserati’s rear suspension. Moss and Behrawere immediately switched to the Schell/Tarufficar and Jean set off to chase the two Ferraris ofFangio/Castellotti and Gendebien/de Portago, thelatter pair having taken over the Hill/Whartoncar. Behra moved into second spot when Gendebien stopped to hand over to de Portago and by thetime Castellotti had given the leading Ferrari backto Fangio the Maserati was only some 10 secondsin arrears. Then Behra stopped for Moss to takeover at the end of lap 32 and Stirling was just 66seconds behind Fangio, and closing.At the end of lap 40 Castellotti put on his crashhelmet and gloves ready for the final stint but Fangio had other ideas. He stopped for fuel only andthen jumped back into the Ferrari, leaving Castellotti forlornly in the pits. Fangio set off 17 secondsbehind Moss, but Stirling steadily increased hislead, to win by 26 seconds. The Old Man had setfastest lap of the race with 10 mins 05.3 sees, butthe youngster had beaten him to the flag.However, a month later, The Old Man onceagain showed who was boss in the open-wheelgame. As Rodney Walkerley noted in The Motor:‘At two minutes past five pm, when the grey skieswhich had dragged across the panorama of theEifel Mountains were breaking up into blue anda warm sun flooded the Nurburgring for the firsttime in days, a tired Juan Fangio climbed out ofhis V8 Ferrari, winner of the 18th German GrandPrix. The “old master” had once again showed theyoungsters that he is still to be reckoned with.’The youngsters in question were Peter Collins, who had joined the Scuderia for 1956 andStirling Moss and, try as they might, they couldnot shake Fangio from the top of the tree. Following Lancia’s shock withdrawal from racing in 1955,the D50s had all been handed to Scuderia Ferrari.Over the winter the cars were considerably modified as the fuel was moved from the pannier tanksto the rear of the car and the V8 engine was no longer a structural part of the chassis. By the time ofthe German GP, the Lancia-Ferraris had won fourof the five Grandes Epreuves and Peter Collins hadwon two of them. As a result, he was leading Fangio in the World Championship by one point.

  Scuderia Ferrari entered five cars for theGrand Prix, to be driven by Fangio, Collins, Eugenio Castellotti, Fon de Portago and Luigi Musso.In practice Fangio immediately found his newmount easier to handle on the Nurburgring thanthe Mercedes had been, as he recalled in My Racing Life: ‘the Lancia-Ferrari was a very pleasant carto drive on that circuit. It was agile on corners andbraked well, qualities not shared by the MercedesBenz cars of 1954. These were much larger, andtheir inboard mounted brakes faded rapidly, whatwith all the heat under the bonnet between theengine and the radiator. What’s more, the inboardbrakes gave the car a tendency to understeer. Going into a fast curve in the 1954 model could bea breath-taking experience, with the front wheelssometimes not responding to the steering becauseof their lightness.’Just how pleasant the Lancia-Ferrari was todrive was shown in no uncertain fashion duringunofficial practice on the Wednesday, when Fangiowas credited with a staggering 9 mins 26.2 secs, nofewer than 26 seconds under Hermann Lang’s alltime record. Even with Fangio at the wheel, thathas to be suspect, but both Rodney Walkerley andDenis Jenkinson recorded it, although Fangio himself made no mention of it in My Racing Life.