Maserati is about to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the F1 world title won by Juan Manuel Fangio in 1957 with a series of special events.
The Argentine star had won the 1954 title and raced in a Maserati for the first half of the season. Back in a Maserati in 1957, he dominated and claimed his fifth world crown at the age of 46.
Out of sixteen races where he appeared in Maserati colours in 1957, including Formula 1 events that did not count towards the championship and sportcar races, Fangio won ten.
‘The Maestro’, as he was nicknamed by the other drivers, won an epic victory at the Nuerburgring circuit (on the famous 22 km long Nordschleife) on 4 August 1957. Driving a Maserati 250F, the triumph all but made the title his and he secured it in the next race at the Grand Prix of Pescara where he finished second behind Moss.
The 1957 Grand Prix of Nuerburgring remains one of the all-time cult races in Formula 1. This is because of Fangio’s phenomenal comeback where he made up more than forty seconds in seven laps on Hawthorn and Collins’ Ferraris, who were leading at the time. During a pit stop to change tyres and refuel, the driver from Balcarce lost 45 seconds after a wheel nut ended up under his single seater.
Fangio launched himself into a comeback and closed out the race on a high, lowering the track record lap after lap. The two Ferraris could never have expected Fangio to catch and overtake them but he did. At the end of the race, the Argentine struggled to take in what he had achieved: “I have never driven that quickly before in my life and I don’t think I will ever be able to do it again”.
To celebrate the win, the Modenese company will present a special trophy to the highest placed 250F that competes in the OldTimer Grand Prix classic to be held at Nuerburgring on 12 August.
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