Juan Manuel Fangio, driving an Alfa Romeo, won the first Monaco GP for F1 GP for the world championship on 21 May, 1950...
"I came onto the harbour front and I could detect agitation among the spectators. They were not looking at me leading the race, but were looking the other way. I braked very hard."
At the crash site, where miraculously no one had been been hurt, the route was still blocked by a confusion of sidelined cars that frantic track marshals and course workers were having difficulty
clearing aside. Juan took matters into his own hands and quickly sorted out the puzzle of intertwined wheels. Manouevreing his Alfetta alongside one of the trapped cars, he reached out and managed to push it aside far enough to create a gap through which he eased his Alfetta. Villoresi, after some to-ing and fro-ing, followed Fangio's cue, as did Ascari and the few others that remained in the Monaco Grand Prix.
None of them came close to catching Fangio, who finished a lap ahead of Ascari, whose Ferrari team mate Villoresi retired with a seized axle, leaving Chiron's Maserati to claim third, two laps
behind the leader, who finished three laps ahead of fourth-placed Sommer in the third Ferrari. Only three other cars survived the gruelling contest of stamina and skill, which Juan won - at an
average speed of 61mph - after three hours and 13 minutes of extreme effort. His fastest race lap of 64mph, which was only a fraction slower than his pole position time, gave him a total of
9 championship points, tying him with Farina.
***
Yet Juan's first world championship victory, his complete dominance of the notoriously difficult race, and his prestigious reward - receiving the winner's trophy from Monaco's Prince Rainier at the traditional post-race ceremony - were made less enjoyable by his concern for his injured friend Gonzalez, whose escape from the multiple crash at Tabac had been followed by a
fiery disaster.
When Gonzalez scraped between the two crashed Alfettas his Maserati's fuel filler cap, located just behind the driver's head, had become dislodged. A few moments later, as Gonzalez was braking for a corner, the sloshing fuel sprayed out into the cockpit and was ignited by the backfiring engine. Gonzalez, momentarily engulfed in flames, lept out of the car while it was still moving and rolled over and over on the tarmac. Spectators rushed to his aid, pulling him off the track and tearing off his smouldering shirt. Gonzalez, suffering from serious burns to his arms and back, was taken to the hospital, where his compatriot Pian was also being treated for his badly broken leg.
Juan, though he was due to race the next weekend at Monza, spent half the week attending to the welfare of his injured fellow Argentinians. Two days after his Monaco win he removed the seats from his Alfa Romeo road car to make room for a stretcher and drove Pian to a hospital in Bologna that specialized in treating orthopaedic injuries. Juan then returned to Monaco, where he loaded Gonzalez into his improvised ambulance and transported him back to Italy, to a burns clinic in Nova.
excerpt from FANGIO The Life Behind The Legend by Gerald Donaldson
"I came onto the harbour front and I could detect agitation among the spectators. They were not looking at me leading the race, but were looking the other way. I braked very hard."
- Juan Manuel Fangio
The 15 drivers entered in the 1950 Grand Prix were invited to a reception at the Monaco Automobile Club's headquarters, where Juan entertained himself by examining photograph alblums documenting highlights of past events, many of which featured accidents. For the 1936 race Juan found a photo showing a tangle of wrecked cars. Studying the shot in detail he came to the conclusion that the crash had likely occurred because one of the cars had spun across the track and stalled in the middle of a sharp corner. Because the closely following drivers were unable to see over the stone walls that lined the track they had ploughed into the stationary vehicle. Perhaps, Juan thought, they had been too preoccupied to take note of the flags that must have been waved in warning by track marshals. Anyway, he concluded, it would be important to be prepared for such emergencies, and he filed the information away in a memory bank in which he had already deposited many cautionary notes concerning Monaco's myriad hazards.
Though it was one of the shortest of all circuits, 1.976 miles in its 1950 configuration, it was filled with complications out of all proportion to its length. With no straight worthy of the name the entire lap was a continuous struggle against centrifugal force around a profusion of corners, many of them acute and several of them accompanied by an abrupt loss or gain of elevation as the circuit rose and fell around the heights above the palm-tree lined, yacht-filled harbour. Bounded by stone curbs and ballustrades, its undulating surface treacherously disfigured by painted traffic markings and manhole covers, the desperately narrow course was in some places barely wide enough to accommodate a single car, whose occupant must maintain concentration of the highest order to drive with the inch-perfect precision necessary to avoid making even the slightest mistake. While there was absolutely no margin for an error in judgement, there was also an extreme demand placed on manual dexterity, since the steering wheel, brakes, clutch, accelerator and gear lever were in constant use. With at least 20 gearchanges per lap there would be over 2,000 of them in the 100 laps of the race that would last for over three hours - for those who survived that long.
One of those who did not make the race was Juan's compatriot Alfredo Pian, who was driving one of the Achille Varzi team's Maseratis, a Formula 2 car that was among several of this type that were invited to compete because there wasn't yet enough Formula 1 machinery to fill the grid. In the final practice session Pian lost control and crashed heavily on the entry to the notoriously difficult Casino Square. Pian was pulled from his wrecked car suffering a painfully broken leg. But Argentina was still featured front and centre in the race, since pole position was claimed by Juan Manuel Fangio.
At the start, wary of his Alfetta team mate Farina's reputation for a recklessness which meant he was not to be trusted in close quarters, especially in the early laps, Juan fought strenously to preserve the advantage afforded by his pole position. Farina battled back, but was also occupied with defending his position against Villoresi, who had sensationally powered his Ferrari forward from the third row of the grid. By the time the wildly jostling pack rounded the Ste Devote corner, Juan's closest pursuer as they charged up the hill was Villoresi, who had managed to elbow aside Farina's Alfetta and was also in front of Fagioli in the third of the Alfa Romeo cars.
In a crescendo of noise reverberating off the walls of the buildings, the fiercely fighting field tore up the hill and roared through Casino Square, rocketed down the hill to Mirabeau, careened around the station hairpin, blasted through the darkness of the long tunnel and shot out into the bright sunlight along the harbourfront. As Fangio and Villoresi pounded past the Bureau de Tabac, chaos erupted behind them.
At the Tabac corner Farina's Alfetta came unstuck on the slick of water thrown up from the waves crashing against the harbour wall. Farina's frantic corrections fell far short of what was necessary to salvage the situation, and his wildly oscillating car struck the curb and rebounded sideways - directly in front of oncoming traffic. Confronted with this sudden emergency, his team mate Fagioli threw his car into an avoidance manouevre that failed. Just as the two Alfettas smashed together the closely following Maserati of Gonzalez speared into the wreckage with enough force to part the entwined Alfas and emerge on the other side. Also managaging to squeeze through the aperture created by the Gonzalez battering ram were Chiron, Sommer and Ascari. When Rosier arrived on the scene he braked suddenly, whereupon his Talbot was rear-ended by Manzon's Gordini, thus setting off a chain reaction of spins and crashes that within seconds left the track littered with nine crippled cars, several of them with ruptured fuel tanks that dripped their volatile contents across the debris-laden road.
While the melee was over the race wasn't and as Juan sped through the harbour chicane he caught a glimpse of yellow flags being waved in the distance. Also, in his peripheral vision, he noticed that the densely-packed crowd was paying no attention to the passage of his race-leading Alfetta. Instead, the spectators' faces were turned toward the forthcoming Tabac corner. In a flash Juan remembered the photo of the 1936 accident scene and immediately applied the brakes, while also raising his hand to warn his pursuers of likely danger ahead.
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The 15 drivers entered in the 1950 Grand Prix were invited to a reception at the Monaco Automobile Club's headquarters, where Juan entertained himself by examining photograph alblums documenting highlights of past events, many of which featured accidents. For the 1936 race Juan found a photo showing a tangle of wrecked cars. Studying the shot in detail he came to the conclusion that the crash had likely occurred because one of the cars had spun across the track and stalled in the middle of a sharp corner. Because the closely following drivers were unable to see over the stone walls that lined the track they had ploughed into the stationary vehicle. Perhaps, Juan thought, they had been too preoccupied to take note of the flags that must have been waved in warning by track marshals. Anyway, he concluded, it would be important to be prepared for such emergencies, and he filed the information away in a memory bank in which he had already deposited many cautionary notes concerning Monaco's myriad hazards.
Though it was one of the shortest of all circuits, 1.976 miles in its 1950 configuration, it was filled with complications out of all proportion to its length. With no straight worthy of the name the entire lap was a continuous struggle against centrifugal force around a profusion of corners, many of them acute and several of them accompanied by an abrupt loss or gain of elevation as the circuit rose and fell around the heights above the palm-tree lined, yacht-filled harbour. Bounded by stone curbs and ballustrades, its undulating surface treacherously disfigured by painted traffic markings and manhole covers, the desperately narrow course was in some places barely wide enough to accommodate a single car, whose occupant must maintain concentration of the highest order to drive with the inch-perfect precision necessary to avoid making even the slightest mistake. While there was absolutely no margin for an error in judgement, there was also an extreme demand placed on manual dexterity, since the steering wheel, brakes, clutch, accelerator and gear lever were in constant use. With at least 20 gearchanges per lap there would be over 2,000 of them in the 100 laps of the race that would last for over three hours - for those who survived that long.
One of those who did not make the race was Juan's compatriot Alfredo Pian, who was driving one of the Achille Varzi team's Maseratis, a Formula 2 car that was among several of this type that were invited to compete because there wasn't yet enough Formula 1 machinery to fill the grid. In the final practice session Pian lost control and crashed heavily on the entry to the notoriously difficult Casino Square. Pian was pulled from his wrecked car suffering a painfully broken leg. But Argentina was still featured front and centre in the race, since pole position was claimed by Juan Manuel Fangio.
At the start, wary of his Alfetta team mate Farina's reputation for a recklessness which meant he was not to be trusted in close quarters, especially in the early laps, Juan fought strenously to preserve the advantage afforded by his pole position. Farina battled back, but was also occupied with defending his position against Villoresi, who had sensationally powered his Ferrari forward from the third row of the grid. By the time the wildly jostling pack rounded the Ste Devote corner, Juan's closest pursuer as they charged up the hill was Villoresi, who had managed to elbow aside Farina's Alfetta and was also in front of Fagioli in the third of the Alfa Romeo cars.
In a crescendo of noise reverberating off the walls of the buildings, the fiercely fighting field tore up the hill and roared through Casino Square, rocketed down the hill to Mirabeau, careened around the station hairpin, blasted through the darkness of the long tunnel and shot out into the bright sunlight along the harbourfront. As Fangio and Villoresi pounded past the Bureau de Tabac, chaos erupted behind them.
At the Tabac corner Farina's Alfetta came unstuck on the slick of water thrown up from the waves crashing against the harbour wall. Farina's frantic corrections fell far short of what was necessary to salvage the situation, and his wildly oscillating car struck the curb and rebounded sideways - directly in front of oncoming traffic. Confronted with this sudden emergency, his team mate Fagioli threw his car into an avoidance manouevre that failed. Just as the two Alfettas smashed together the closely following Maserati of Gonzalez speared into the wreckage with enough force to part the entwined Alfas and emerge on the other side. Also managaging to squeeze through the aperture created by the Gonzalez battering ram were Chiron, Sommer and Ascari. When Rosier arrived on the scene he braked suddenly, whereupon his Talbot was rear-ended by Manzon's Gordini, thus setting off a chain reaction of spins and crashes that within seconds left the track littered with nine crippled cars, several of them with ruptured fuel tanks that dripped their volatile contents across the debris-laden road.
While the melee was over the race wasn't and as Juan sped through the harbour chicane he caught a glimpse of yellow flags being waved in the distance. Also, in his peripheral vision, he noticed that the densely-packed crowd was paying no attention to the passage of his race-leading Alfetta. Instead, the spectators' faces were turned toward the forthcoming Tabac corner. In a flash Juan remembered the photo of the 1936 accident scene and immediately applied the brakes, while also raising his hand to warn his pursuers of likely danger ahead.
At the crash site, where miraculously no one had been been hurt, the route was still blocked by a confusion of sidelined cars that frantic track marshals and course workers were having difficulty
clearing aside. Juan took matters into his own hands and quickly sorted out the puzzle of intertwined wheels. Manouevreing his Alfetta alongside one of the trapped cars, he reached out and managed to push it aside far enough to create a gap through which he eased his Alfetta. Villoresi, after some to-ing and fro-ing, followed Fangio's cue, as did Ascari and the few others that remained in the Monaco Grand Prix.
None of them came close to catching Fangio, who finished a lap ahead of Ascari, whose Ferrari team mate Villoresi retired with a seized axle, leaving Chiron's Maserati to claim third, two laps
behind the leader, who finished three laps ahead of fourth-placed Sommer in the third Ferrari. Only three other cars survived the gruelling contest of stamina and skill, which Juan won - at an
average speed of 61mph - after three hours and 13 minutes of extreme effort. His fastest race lap of 64mph, which was only a fraction slower than his pole position time, gave him a total of
9 championship points, tying him with Farina.
***
Yet Juan's first world championship victory, his complete dominance of the notoriously difficult race, and his prestigious reward - receiving the winner's trophy from Monaco's Prince Rainier at the traditional post-race ceremony - were made less enjoyable by his concern for his injured friend Gonzalez, whose escape from the multiple crash at Tabac had been followed by a
fiery disaster.
When Gonzalez scraped between the two crashed Alfettas his Maserati's fuel filler cap, located just behind the driver's head, had become dislodged. A few moments later, as Gonzalez was braking for a corner, the sloshing fuel sprayed out into the cockpit and was ignited by the backfiring engine. Gonzalez, momentarily engulfed in flames, lept out of the car while it was still moving and rolled over and over on the tarmac. Spectators rushed to his aid, pulling him off the track and tearing off his smouldering shirt. Gonzalez, suffering from serious burns to his arms and back, was taken to the hospital, where his compatriot Pian was also being treated for his badly broken leg.
Juan, though he was due to race the next weekend at Monza, spent half the week attending to the welfare of his injured fellow Argentinians. Two days after his Monaco win he removed the seats from his Alfa Romeo road car to make room for a stretcher and drove Pian to a hospital in Bologna that specialized in treating orthopaedic injuries. Juan then returned to Monaco, where he loaded Gonzalez into his improvised ambulance and transported him back to Italy, to a burns clinic in Nova.
excerpt from FANGIO The Life Behind The Legend by Gerald Donaldson
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