1956 Formula One season

The 1956 Formula One season was the tenth season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the seventh World Championship of Drivers , which was contested over eight races between 22 January and 2 September 1956. The season also included nine non-championship races for Formula One cars.

Juan Manuel Fangio driving for Ferrari won his third consecutive championship. [ 1 ] It was his fourth in total, a record that would not be beaten until Michael Schumacher in 2002 . Fangio's main rivals were his teammate Peter Collins and Maserati driver Stirling Moss .

None of the championship races were won by a British constructor . This would not happen again until 2006 .

At 29 October, veteran racer Louis Rosier crashed in a sports car race at Montlhéry . He sustained head injuries and succumbed to them three weeks later. [ 2 ] [ 3 ]

Argentinian racing driver Juan Manuel Fangio had already won three Formula One World Championships , while driving for three different constructors . Now he was aiming to make it four in four: after his previous employer Mercedes had withdrawn, he moved to Scuderia Ferrari for 1956. The first race of the season was his home race, the Argentine Grand Prix , and he managed to take pole position in front of the adoring crowd. Teammates Eugenio Castellotti and Luigi Musso started alongside him on th...

The Indianapolis 500 was included in the Formula One championship, but no active drivers attended. Former champion Nino Farina did, but he failed to qualify. Pat Flaherty won the race.

In the Drivers' Championship, Jean Behra ( Maserati ) was leading with 10 points, ahead of Juan Manuel Fangio ( Scuderia Ferrari ) on 9 and Stirling Moss (Maserati) and Pat Flaherty (winner of the Indianapolis 500 ) on 8.

The Belgian Grand Prix began with a tense qualifying battle, in which the Maseratis and Ferraris seemed evenly matched, until Juan Manuel Fangio set a lap that was more than ten seconds under the lap record and almost five seconds faster than his closest competitor. However, as it had happened already two times this year, the reigning champion fell back at the race start. Stirling Moss (Maserati) and Peter Collins (Ferrari) had started next to Fangio on the front row and led away. Moss was leadi...

Fangio scored his fourth pole position in a row during the French Grand Prix , with teammates Castellotti and Collins making it an all-Ferrari front row. Two Vanwalls separated them from their main rivals, Maserati. Fangio again lost the lead at the start, but the trio of red cars did run away from the rest of the field. Moss and Schell retired and the Ferrari team even occupied five positions at the front. Schell, however, took over the car from one of his teammates, set a new lap record and ma...

The British Grand Prix saw three local drivers qualify on the front row, which the wide Silverstone circuit allowed to consist of four cars: Moss, Fangio, Hawthorn ( BRM ) and Collins. The BRM seemed the odd one out, even more so when he took the lead at the start and was closely followed by his teammate Brooks . Fangio got past into second place on lap six, but in an attempt to catch the leader, he spun off and fell back to fifth. Moss was the next to pass Brooks for second and managed to get H...

In the Drivers' Championship, Peter Collins ( Ferrari ) was leading with 22 points, ahead of Juan Manuel Fangio (Ferrari) with 21 and Jean Behra ( Maserati ) with 18.

After an exhilarating British Grand Prix with lots of local drivers, no British teams entered the German Grand Prix . So the grid consisted of the Italian Ferraris and Maseratis , and a few French Gordinis at the back. Juan Manuel Fangio qualified on pole position , three tenths ahead of rival and teammate Peter Collins . Once again, Fangio lost the lead at the start, but he retook it later in the opening lap. Stirling Moss started fourth in his Maserati but overtook Ferrari's Eugenio Castellott...

Collins was trailing Fangio by 8 points and the only way for him to win the championship, was to win the Italian Grand Prix and for Fangio to score three points or less, because then his result would not count towards the championship. This scenario would end in both men equalling on 30 points, but Collins winning on countback . The extra point for a fastest lap could make a big difference as well. Future race winner Wolfgang von Trips made his debut with the Ferrari team, but he crashed in prac...

Juan Manuel Fangio ( Ferrari ) had gathered 30 points and was awarded the 1956 Drivers' Championship . Stirling Moss ( Maserati ) finished second on 27 points, Peter Collins (Ferrari) third on 25.

Points were awarded to the top five classified finishers, with an additional point awarded for setting the fastest lap, regardless of finishing position or even classification. Only the best five results counted towards the championship. Shared drives result in shared points for each driver if they finished in a points-scoring position, however, if both cars driven in a shared drive finished in a points-scoring position, only the highest finishing position would count. If more than one driver se...