Ferrari monoposto thread

Next to the "Ferrari Gran Turismo thread" and "Ferrari Sports Cars Thread" which are dedicated to GT and Sports Cars, this thread will be on monoposto cars only (F1, F2, FL, Tasman).

Moderators, is it possible to transfer or copy the relevant posts from the "More Old Photos" thread (starting with post 12984?) over to here???

1955 is a very interesting year with the last races of the 625 F1 and 555 Super Squalo F1, all kind of combinations of the 625 F1 with the 553 Squalo & 555 Super Squalo and and at the end of the year the arrival of the very competitive (Lancia) D50.

 

To kick off this thread, on January 31 1955 the Scuderia Ferrari had entered a series of 625 F1 cars in the 11° Gran Premio Ciudad de Buenos Aires:

#10 Giuseppe Farina & José Froilán González
#12 José Froilán González & Umberto Maglioli (other source: José Froilán González & Maurice Trintignant)
#14 Maurice Trintignant (other source: Maurice Trintignant & Umberto Maglioli)
#32 Clemar Bucci

Chassis listed are 625 /5 (#10), 625 /6 (#12) and 625 / 4 (#14), but I have no idea how solid this info is (please note that sources even disagree on the drivers per car!)

 

One day later, January 31 1955 on a different continent the 1° South Pacific Road Racing Championship race at the Gnoo Blas Circuit, Orange, New South Wales:

#2 0482 625F1 Peter Whitehead 1st
#4 0480 625F1 Tony Gaze, 3rd
#6 114 125F1 Dick Cobden 6th

Speculation has it that
0482 was renumbered from 625 / 2 which was renumbered from 500 / 003.
0480 was renumbered from 500 / 005
114 was renumbered from 125-C-01

 

First a minor correction: this race was on January 30th.

Autosport magazine of 02.25.1955 has a full account of this race. It seems that there were 2 heats; total times combined gave the final result.

The confusion about which driver drove which car is caused by a kind of musical chairs not unusual in those days: in heat 2 Farina (winner of heat 1) had a spin and he handed his car over to Gonzalez. Gonzalez had already given his car to Trintignant. Maglioli had tested a sports car (chassis 0484 LM) in heat 1 and drove Trintignants car in heat 2.

As this was a Formula Libre race, all 625 F1 cars were fitted with 3 litre engines instead of the 2.5 litre engines normally mandated by F1 rules.


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Juan Pablo Vignau has written the most authoritative description of this race https://www.jmfangio.org/gp1955baires.htm

#10 - Farina drove well enough to pass Fangio's Mercedes in the first heat, and went on to win but crashed into a Gordini in heat two and after several minutes finally managed to get the engine restarted and resumed racing but was now a lap down and the heat and Farina's age meant he eventually chose to allow Gonzalez to finish, in a lowly 10th. Farina/ Gonzalez were recorded as 10th overall.

#12 - Unclear why Gonzalez who finished fifth in heat one didn't restart heat two but maybe the back pains he was reportedly suffering since the '54 Tourist Trophy and his hard fought disqualification the week before meant he was "buggered"...... Vignau says Trintignant raced #12 in heat 2!. Gonzalez/ Trintignant were recorded as 3rd overall.

#14 - Trintignant finished 8th in the first heat and Maglioli finished 10th in the second heat, after taking over from Trintignant. Final results showed Trintignant/ Maglioli as 11th.

#32 - Bucci took 12th and 9th in his two heats, 9th overall

Also one must not forget that Umberto Maglioli drove the works 121LM #36 but retired early on in the first heat, making him available for the second.

Some sources originally said Bucci drove the #48 Maserati 250F but......
Motorsport Memorial which is usually very accurate says Bucci was hired by Ferrari after a Maserati drive at the Argentine GP and raced both the B.A. 1000km on January 24th in a 750 Monza with Maglioli, they failed to finish. Apparently he had a works 625F1 for the B.A. GP a week later.
AND the excellent Juan-Manuel Fangio site offers a photo of a #32 at the B.A. GP which is definitely a Ferrari 500 or 625....... so thats settled

 

The 1955 F1 season had started in Buenos Aires on January 16. The Scuderia had raced 3 625 F1 chassis (listed as 625/4, 625/5 and 625/6) there, fitted with 2.5 litre engines according to the F1 rules.

In those days it was quite customary for European teams in the cold winter months to go over to the South-American temporada to race and sell off obsolete racing cars. As the 1954 season had shown, the 625 F1 was becoming obsolete with the arrival of the Mercedes W196 and Lancia D50. Formula Libre races were excellent opportunities to demonstrate the cars for sale... On January 30 the same chassis 625/4, 625/5 and 625/6 are listed as for the F1 race on January 16 but as the chassis used by Bucci was also a Scuderia Ferrari car, a fourth car must have been present - which one?

My files list only one chassis later used in the F1 season by Ferrari: 625/2 which is the same chassis number listed for the car raced by Whitehead in Australia (625/2 but renumbered into 0482)

Tracking chassis numbers becomes even more complicated when later several 625 F1 chassis were mixed with 553 Squalo components....

 

February 27th, 1949 - Mar del Plata Grand Prix

Scuderia Ferrari decided to enter team driver Nino Farina for the lucrative winter season series in South America and sent along 125F1 #04C, a basic swing axle type that was then relatively new. Mar del Plata hosted the San Martin GP (round 4 in the summer series) which saw an eclectic mix of three pre war Alfa Romeo, a mix of ten pre and post war 4 cylinder Maserati and the Ferrari. Among the drivers were Bira, Ascari, Villoresi and Parnell in Maserati and Fangio, then an unknown local driver, also in a Maserati, and of course Farina, then something of a Ferrari team leader. Villoresi took pole, Ascari and Fangio joining him on the first row, tragedy having struck on race day morning when Malusardi, having left his Maserati 4CL at home, overtured in his Alfa Romeo Tipo B, which promptly caught fire, and was killed.

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Farina should be the second car from left (C) Autosport/ Alessandro da Silva

Villoresi had a mare of a start, Fangio, Bira and Ascari racing away in the lead, Farina back in fourth. Galvez and Campos came through to run third and fourth, Ascari sitting second, Bira and Farina dropping back. Bira fought back to run fifth while Villoresi got back to sixth position on lap three. By lap five Farina had a burst of speed and was running third, Villoresi fourth. Farina had to start on a light fuel load due to a mistake with the set up and his fight back proved to be in vain when he had to stop due to a lack of oil. Fangio had already pulled out a lead from Ascari who promptly had his first stop, of many, Villoresi taking over in second before also stopping. Villoresi retired on lap 23, Ascari on lap 27. This left Fangio to take an easy win from Bira and Galvez. Farina would continue in Argentina, Fangio leaving soon after to try out as a pro driver in Europe.

1 Juan Manuel Fangio (RA) HERE Maserati 4CLT #1599 (1.5 s c) 1.16'31.3” 35 2
2 « B. Bira » (T) White Mouse Maserati 4CLT #1598 (1.5 s c) 1.18'02.8" 34 -
3 Oscar Galvez (RA) O. Galvez Alfa Romeo 308 #50017 (3.8 s c) 1.17'37" 33 -
4 Italo Bizio (RA) - Alfa Romeo 8C-2900A #412003 bis (3.0 sc) 1.16'45" 31 -
5 Andres Fernandez (RA) - Maserati 4CLT (1.5 s c) 1.16'51" 31 -
6 Ernesto Tornquist (RA) - Maserati (1.5 sc) - 30 -
7 Alberto Ascari (I) Scuderia Ambrosiana Maserati 4CLT #1593 (1.5 s c) - 27 DNF 3
8 Luigi Villoresi (I) Scuderia Ambrosiana Maserati 4CLT #1594 (1.5 s c) - 23 DNF 1

- Nino Farina (I) Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 125C F1 04C (2.0 sc) - 8 DNF (Oil) 4
- Benedict Campos (RA) HERE Maserati 4CLT (1.5 s c) - DNF -
- Eitel Cantoni (ROU) - Maserati 4CM (1.5 s c) - 7 DNF -
- Reg Parnell (GB) Scuderia Ambrosiana Maserati 4CLT #1596 (1.5 s c) - 2 DNF -
- Victorio Rosa (RA) - - - 11 DNF -

Info from https://www.jmfangio.org/gp1949mdelplata.htm

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Farina in third (C) R. Alfieri/ Ignacio Iriarte - is this '50?

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At least one site claims this as Farina at Mar del Plata in '49, I have my doubts

 

Cobden and Whitehead at Gnoo.

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2 weeks earlier on January 8th the 3 same cars with the same race numbers were at the 2nd NZ GP at Ardmore. Whitehead 2nd, Gaze 3rd and Cobden 10th


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That photo is from 1950 15-1 III Gran Premio Internacional del General San Martín,Mar Del Plata FL

013F #16 Fangio DNF
C-01 #12 Ascari Winner

 

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5th March 1977 - South African GP


The third race in a crowded 1977 season followed races in Argentina where Jody Schekter had won in a Wolf and Reutemann won in a Ferrari at the Brazilian GP, it certainly looked like being a very competitive year. Two sessions of qualifying were wet and offered little, the third dry and for the third race saw Hunt take pole, Pace in a Brabham-Alfa Romeo started second, Lauda third. Reutemann was back in eighth. Hunt lead off the line, Lauda and Schekter in pursuit, Pace dropping back. Hunt began to drop back and Lauda took over in the lead, Schekter in second and Depailler in the six wheeled Tyrrel third.


Tragedy struck on lap 22 when Zorzi in a Shadow-Ford suffered a fuel metering unit failure which flooded his DFV with fuel and it caught fire, unfortunately the fire was exacerbated by Zorzi being unable to disconnect his oxygen pipe. The nearest marshals were on the opposite side of the track and both grabbed their 18kg fuel extinguishers and ran across the track. Stuck and Tony Pryce crested a hill directly behind the marshals and Stuck who was running first jinked right to miss the slower martial. This left Pryce unsighted and he hit the martial at 270km/h, both being instantly killed, Pryce when the fire extinguisher hit his helmet. Laudas Ferrari ran over debris from Pryces accident and began to lose water and later oil pressure although he remained in the lead for the rest of the race, Scheckter and Depailler taking the minor places. Reutemann had a “minor” accident with Andretti and took eighth.


Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 11 Niki Lauda Ferrari 312T2 #030 78 1:42:21.6 3 9
2 20 Jody Scheckter Wolf-Ford WR1 78 + 5.2 5 6
3 4 Patrick Depailler Tyrrell-Ford P34/2 78 + 5.7 4 4
4 1 James Hunt McLaren-Ford M23/11 78 + 9.5 1 3
5 2 Jochen Mass McLaren-Ford M23/8-2 78 + 19.9 13 2
6 7 John Watson Brabham-Alfa Romeo BT45/3 78 + 20.2 11 1
7 19 Vittorio Brambilla Surtees-Ford TS19/6 78 + 23.6 14
8 12 Carlos Reutemann Ferrari 312T2 #027 78 + 26.7 8
9 22 Clay Regazzoni Ensign-Ford N177/MN06 78 + 46.2 16
10 28 Emerson Fittipaldi Fittipaldi-Ford FD04/3 78 + 1:11.7 9
11 18 Hans Binder Surtees-Ford TS19/2 77 + 1 Lap 19
12 6 Gunnar Nilsson Lotus-Ford 78/1 77 + 1 Lap 10
13 8 Carlos Pace Brabham-Alfa Romeo BT45/1 76 + 2 Laps 2
14 30 Brett Lunger March-Ford 761/2 76 + 2 Laps 23
15 14 Larry Perkins BRM P201/4 73 + 5 Laps 22
Ret 9 Alex Ribeiro March-Ford 761B/2 66 Engine 17
Ret 10 Hans-Joachim Stuck March-Ford 761B/1 55 Engine 18
Ret 5 Mario Andretti Lotus-Ford 78/2 43 Accident 6
Ret 33 Boy Hayje March-Ford 761/3 33 Gearbox 21
Ret 26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Matra JS7/02 22 Accident 12
Ret 16 Tom Pryce Shadow-Ford DN8 Mark 2/2A 22 Fatal accident 15
Ret 17 Renzo Zorzi Shadow-Ford DN8 Mark 2-1A 21 Fuel Leak 20
Ret 3 Ronnie Peterson Tyrrell-Ford P34/5 5 Fuel System 7

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Lauda #11
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Reutemann #12

 

Spare was chassis #029, used by both Lauda and Reutemann in practise.

 

The driver that was killed was Tom Pryce, not Tony. You did name him correctly later in your post.

 

Thanks Tim and everyone for the fantastic contributions to this cool new thread. I am enjoying learning from it.
As this is Vintage, should we not cap the dates at 1974? If not, when? Thanks, Dave

 

It's marshall not martial. Pryce's car continued at full speed and took out Laffite's car at the end of the straight. Jacques jumped out of his Ligier and walked over furious to the Shadow that had come to a stop near his car to complain...then he saw Pryce's condition...

Here is the Motorsport memorial written account of the accident.

http://www.motorsportmemorial.org/focus.php?db=ct&n=193

 

Was kind of thinking everything through late 1970s, maybe even 1980 since that was basically the end of the 3 litre formula begun in 1966. Renault began the turbo era at the 1977 British GP, Ferrari really bought Turbo F1 to the fore in 1981 but the 3 litre formula although the last Cosworth V8 race wasn't until 1985. Any of these dates are worthy. Feedback anyone?

 

In the "Ferrari Gran Turismo" and "Ferrari Sports Cars" threads we started in 1954 and since then follow the events in chronological order.
In 1955 there were only 7 official Grand Prix (and 3 cancelled Grand Prix after the Le Mans tragedy) but also a series of Formula Libre races in Europe, South America and Australia.

 

A single thread for all cars would be a mess.
There should be one thread for each decade (50s, 60s, 70s,). The 80s are less interesting.

 

If you split it, I think it is better by type

front engine
rear engine up to 312/69
312B - 312T

 

If you follow the 1955 in chronological order, the next races will be:

12.03.1955 Van Riebeeck Trophy (South Africa)
26.03.1955 3° International Queenshaven Motor Race Meeting (South Africa)
27.03.1955 2° Gran Premio del Valentino (Torino Grand Prix)

Next Grand Prix counting for the World Championship of Drivers will be
22.05.1955 13° Grand Prix de Monaco (15° Grand Prix of Europe)

 

I thought I would post several photos that might be of interest in relation to the history of Ascari's 1952 Indianapolis car. The first is Ascari's 375, either just before or after arriving in America for the 500. The second photo is of Oscar Gonzalez's 375(0566) at the El Pinar circuit in Uruguay in 1958. I think they are the same car. The rear headrest area has been lowered, the nose is new and the chassis has been shortened. The V12 has been replaced with a Corvette V8. However, the engine cover, cockpit scuttle and the lower chassis panel are the same. The louvres on the engine cover are the same number. There are slight variations in the position of individual louvres that is the same in both photos. The two screws fixing the cockpit scuttle to the chassis are in the same position in relation to the louvres below. Also, the small side air intake is the same is identical. The mirror has been moved.
The third photo shows this car at the 1953 Albi Grand Prix with Ascari at the wheel.

After the 1952 Indianapolis 500 the Ascari car was returned to Italy, modified, then raced twice in 1953 at the Buenos Aires GP on the 1st February and the Albi GP, 31 May. Both times driven by Ascari. It must have gathered dust at the factory until 1955 before it was sold, through a vendor, as 0566, to a Uruguayan businessman, Carlos Patron. It was not raced until 1958 when it was acquired by Oscar Gonzalez who raced it until 1967. Colin Crabbe eventually bought the car, minus engine, in 1974, selling it to Dries van der Lof who had it restored Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login as a 1950 340 Grand Prix car.
I'm not sure how much of the chassis frame remained but the frame in the restored car is made of round tube, and is very similar to the other 1952 Indy Ferraris in existence. A 1950 340 chassis frame should be made from square tube and is very different design. View attachment 3826802 View attachment 3826803 View attachment 3826804

 

Sorry about the haphazard layout, Allan

 

Fabulous stuff and thanks for that. Interestingly Ferrari claims the Landi/ Obrist/ Ecclestone/ Red Bull car as being chassis #5, and deja vu, #0566. I have also read some opinion that a 625F1 based car built for Juan Froilan Gonzales went to Argentina in '56/57 as #0566. I wonder which #0566 was first and if the others were exported as #0566 to save on import duties and taxes?!? Colin Crabbe in his fabulous book mentions all three 340/375F1 chassis having been stamped as #5 also so I assume again it was a Ferrari re-stamp?

 

.
As said before, this chassis business is very tricky for monopostos.

Un tributo al chueco... Buenos Aires, Argentina 1953 lists Ascari's car at the 1953 Buenos Aires GP as a Ferrari 500 (2.5) like the other Scuderia Ferrari team cars for Farina, Villoresi and Hawthorn.

In my files I found an entry for the Ascari Indianapolis car driven by Carroll Shelby in a historical support race for the 1976 United States Grand Prix West in Long Beach (entrant: Ernie Beutler).

I have the van der Lof car as 125-C-04 (0566).

 

Hello,
The Fangio website you refer to has Ascari driving the 375. I've attached a photo from the Orsini/Zagari book, Automobili Ferrari which shows Ascari's car was a 375.
I believe Ernie Beutler's car was the Grant Special car, chassis no2. I assume it was painted red to look like the Ascari car.
Cheers, Allan
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