1951 BRITISH GRAND PRIX.
'Never has such driving been seen in this country. Juan Manuel Fangio drove the race of his life. His compatriot Jose Froilan Gonzalez was even more spectacular. Their neck-and-neck struggle provided the greatest race ever seen at Silverstone.' - Gregor Grant (Autosport)
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| The Wild Bull Of The Pampas and his friend Fangio (F1.com photo) |
The Gonzalez weekend in England got
off to a flying start, when he planted his Ferrari quite firmly on
pole,
setting a time that was a full second faster than his friend Fangio. Joining
them on the front row were their respective team mates, Farina and Ascari,
while the presence on the second row of Villoresi's Ferrari and the Alfetta's
of Sanesi and Bonetto promised another battle between the Italian cars. While
Fangio was favoured to lead the Alfa Romeo assault, few prognosticators
considered the polesitter, in only his second appearance for Ferrari, to be a
serious threat for overall honours - but that was to sell Jose Froilan Gonzalez
far too short.
Born in 1922, he was 11 years
younger than Juan and came from Arrecifes, about 75 miles outside Buenos Aires,
where his father operated a Chevrolet dealership. Like Juan, Gonzalez was short
and stocky, though much more so, and his tendency towards corpulence was at the
root of two of his several nicknames. Because of a somewhat oversized cranium
perched on a short neck Gonzalez was known in Argentina as 'El Cabezon' -
fathead. But unlike his bow-legged countryman El Chueco (Fangio), El Cabezon did not
drive as much with his head, but was noted instead for relying on a heavy right
foot, which was why 'Lead Foot' became another of the appelations applied to
him. In his homeland, where he distinguished himself as a dirt track daredevil,
with a propensity for starting explosively then lashing himself into a
car-flogging frenzy, he was also called 'The Whip.' In England, his bullish
physique and bull-headed, sometimes bull-in-a-china-shop approach to racing
caused him to be known as 'The Wild Bull of the Pampas.' From the way he seemed
to grab the car by the scruff of the neck and wrestle with it in a series of
strangleholds as if to throttle it into submission, the Europeans decided he
resembled the ferocious mountain lion of the Americas and nicknamed him 'The
Puma.'
Everyone agreed Gonzalez had
explosive talent, though he needed to manage it with his mind. His new boss
Enzo Ferrari, who fancied himself as a talent-spotter who could polish a
diamond-in-the-rough, noted that while the likes of Fangio or Ascari could be
relied upon to go round and round like clockwork, Gonzalez alternated between
marking time and unleashing furious bursts of speed. The latter motion was used
to attack adversaries from behind. Once he had accomplished an overtaking
manouevre, Ferrari felt, Gonzalez tended to slacken speed and allow himself to
be overtaken. Ferrari could never understand why he was so extraordinarly
inconsistent and sometimes wondered - given the amount of mental and physical
exhaustion he seemed to suffer - why Gonzalez raced at all.
***
Ferrari's new recruit was very
nervous and tense in the moments before the start at Silverstone, where he
walked to and fro around his car on the grid. Muttering to himself in Spanish,
and with his brow furrowed in deep concentration, it seemed as if Gonzalez was
in a trance. He ignored the attempts at conversation made by worried Ferrari
mechanics who tried in vain to calm him. With five minutes to go he ran off in
search of the Silversone toilets. Since he couldn't speak English he had no
idea what the track announcers were saying on the loudspeakers. At the last
minute he rushed back from relieving himself and heaved his hefty self into the
cramped cockpit.
In the 1951 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, the Wild Bull of the Pampas whipped the Prancing Horse into the forefront as never before. Demonstrating all the good and bad qualities attributed to him - though the former far more than the latter - El Cabezon lead-footed his way to a sensational victory over Fangio, in a private race that was considered to be the most thrilling ever seen at Silverstone. While Fangio raced with his usual style and grace, Gonzalez attacked the track with ferocious abandon, sometimes shortening his route by using his Ferrari as a battering ram to scatter aside straw bales, and once even an oil drum. Round and round he thundered, barelling down the straights, bellowing around the corners in spectacular, tyre-smoking 100mph powerslides, his rotund upper torso bulging out of the cockpit, his beefy arms flailing wildly and his Ferrari's engine note howling ever higher as if in anguished protest against such a merciless flogging.
Everyone was transfixed by the astonishing display, even his team mate Ascari, whose Ferrari had retired with a broken gearbox. When Gonzalez stopped for fuel on the 61st lap, he shouted an offer of his car to Ascari, who shook his head and gestured that the Argentine phenomenon should continue to pursue the triumph he so obviously deserved. Though Fangio was handicapped somewhat by his car's extra fuel requirements, and had to make two pit stops, he still managed to lead a third of the race's 90 laps, but Gonzalez was in front for all the others and after 2 hours, 42 minutes and 18.2 seconds of supreme effort he led Fangio across the finish line by half a minute. His friend did not begrudge being beaten.
On the podium, where they were
joined by the third-placed finisher Villoresi, Gonzalez became very emotional
when his Argentine amigo hugged and congratulated him. The last time this had
happened was when Juan acted as best man at his friend's wedding. Now, the race
winner wept.
"I was embraced warmly by
Fangio. That meant a lot to me. Then they played the Argentine national anthem.
I had never experienced anything like this before. When I saw my country's flag
being hoisted, it was just too much for me and I cried.'
The Gonzalez win was historic from
several points of view. It was Alfa Romeo's first defeat after 27 straight
Grand Prix victories since 1946. It was the first time an unsupercharged car
had won a world championship race. Most of all, it was the first world
championship win for Enzo Ferrari, whose earlier successes had come when he ran
the pre-war Alfa Romeo team. After the momentous milestone achieved by
Gonzalez, whom he congratulated for his combination of courage and tenacity,
Ferrari was moved to tears that he confessed were a mixture of joy - at winning
with one of his own cars, and sadness - at having beaten his former team.
- excerpt from FANGIO The Life Behind The Legend
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