#52 1956 Belgian Grand Prix

The Belgian Grand Prix, fourth round of the constructors' world championship which will be held on Sunday 3 June 1956 on the very fast circuit of Spa-Francorchamps, finds a very sensible balance of forces between the Maserati and the Ferrari, with the addition of the renewed  attack of the British cars Vanwall and B.R.M., whose best weapon seems to be the high power and speed, qualities that in Spa can have a big impact. The deployment presents the Ferrari with five cars entrusted to Fangio, Castellotti, Collins, Frére and Pilette, while the Maserati will count on Stirling Moss, Behra, Perdisa and Godia; one or two of the trident’s cars will be of the direct injection type, particularly suitable for the very quick tracks. The Vanwall will deploy Schell and Trintignant, while the B.R.M will deploy Hawthorn and Brooks. Is announced to be a wide open race, with an uncertain prediction. On Thursday May 31, 1956, at Spa, the reigning World Champion, Jean Manuel Fangio, sweeps away any doubt on which is the favourite to win, and race at over 200 km/h average on the circuit. The Argentinian makes 14.120 meters laps in 4’09"08, at an average of 203.490 km/h, beating the record that Eugenio Castellotti did the year before in Lancia, in 4’18"1 at an average of 196.746 km/h. By making a comparison, Castellotti drives at an average of 189.671 km/h, Jean Behra at a speed of 193.571 km/h and Cesare Perdisa at an average of 183.609 km/h. In this first day of practice only six of the fourteen registered for the Sunday Grand Prix try, because it will fail the participation of the B.R.M., whose cars, in the practice at the beginning of the week at Silverstone, again suffered with problems of sealing of the valves, which already turned out before at the beginning of the Monaco Grand Prix

Friday June 1st 1956, at Spa only the Vanwall remain to combat the race pace of Ferrari and Maserati. Anyway the race loses nothing of its interest either because it’s the Vanwall the most feared British Car, and also because it’s more alive and current then ever the reasons of rivalry between the two Italian teams and their respective drivers. To the main technical theme, formed by the fight Maserati-Ferrari (each one winner of one of the two races held so far, except for the Indy 500), is added the strictly competitive rivalry between Fangio and Moss, of which especially the English driver makes no mystery. Moss is young, he is in excellent shape, he has an indisputable class and he knows well to be the most likely successor to the World Champion Juan Manuel Fangio. Obviously the possibilities of a diver are related to the efficiency of mechanicals means, and these in turn can respond more or less well depending on the race tracks where they are used. There have not been until now European Formula 1 races on circuits as fast as the one of Spa, where averages over 190 km/h are archived on the lap. How will the eight-cylinder Ferrari and the six-cylinder Maserati behave on Sunday? Apart form the speed that can be developed by both, what influence does such a sustained race pace on the endurance of the engines? The Maserati seems to be able to run with one or two cars with injection engine. This model, discarded in Monte Carlo because of the less energetic recovery compared to carburetors one, during the tests carried out at the Monza ring had provided excellent results. By analogy should also fit at Spa: it will be seen during tests.

Also the Vanwall have an injection engine and it’s also particularly fearsome on the fast tracks. They demonstrated this at Silverstone, where, however, you don’t reach speed as high as at Spa. By the way, in the unexpected victory of the Vanwall in England, it was very important to have the driving of Stirling Moss, while Shell and Trintignant -the two Vanwall drivers- are more modest class, even if the first once in a while  has days where no one seems to frighten him. Regarding the Ferrari, you can be certain that the periods of relative calm after the Monaco Grand Prix it has allowed his technicians to properly prepare the cars. All in all, the Belgian Grand Prix will be a thrilling interest race. Saturday 2 June, at the end of the last day of official training for the Belgian Gran Prix, on the fast circuit of Spa, located in a wonderful fir forest at the edge of the spa, the drivers of the teams definitely test their strengths in view of the important comparison in the race. The balance of the time recorded in the three days of training close in favor of Ferrari, or more exactly in favor of Fangio, that, even without reaching the formidable speed of 203 km/h reached on Thursday, he realize every time better times than the others. Conclusion should therefore drawn in favour of the Maranello cars, especially because also Castellotti and the revelation Collins make great rides during this final round of training, and also because on the other hand the Maserati, even if they don’t disappoint, however appear less fast on the long stretches where mechanical means can develop all their power and speed. It also noted that there is a lot of uncertainty in the Maserati team on the opportunity to pout on track the car with direct injection engine, driven by Moss, whose driving for the Grand Prix had not yet been designated. However, the tests have always had a relative value, even if the technicians give it so much importance.

Too many imponderable factors may be present during the race, linked in part to the car with its innumerable unknowns and in part to the driver’s disposition and to the driver’s day. Five hundred kilometres at a predicted average of about 194-195 km/h suggest problems of tightness, that is resistance of the mechanical vehicle, absolutely decisive. On The Cars At Spa It was the Maserati team who produces the most mechanical interest at Spa and altogether they bring along six cars. One of these have the radiator extended farther forward inside a long tapering nose, and after the air have passed through the cooling element it is deflected upwards and out of the bonnet just in front of the engine, so that no hot air go into the engine compartment. On this car, which is one of the Monaco team, the header tank for the cooling water have been moved to a position on the bulkhead. Another earlier team car have been completely rebuilt and fitted with an entirely new body, this having a similar system of ducted radiator cooling, much more neatly carried out, but with the header tank still part of the radiator. The cockpit sides of this car were very high, at shoulder level, and the wrap-round screen is somewhat similar to the Vanwall. This car have a long tapering nose, well shaped and no doubt providing much better initial penetration than the normal 250/F1 Maserati. Into this rebuilt car is fitted a fuel-injection engine, but this unit is also modified. Instead of the injectors squirting fuel into the ports as previously try out, they are now screwed into the head just below the exhaust ports and inject directly into the cylinders, the same system of chain-driven fuel-injection pump and vertical sliding barrel throttles being retained. The other four cars are normal 250/F1 models, the one being driven by Behra having the new type of cylinder head with 10 mm sparking plugs as used by Moss at Monaco.

The sixth car are a brand new one, quite standard in all mechanical respects, having been completed for the Spanish driver, Francesco Godia, but having a new type of front wishbone which is made from 1-section steel instead of the more usual circular section material. Villoresi has on loan the car normally driven by Piotti. Of these six cars cared for by the factory, three have  the accelerator pedal on the right of the brake pedal and three have the normal Maserati arrangement of the throttle on the left of the brake pedal. The right-hand-throttle cars are for the team leader, Stirling Moss, who cannot drive with any other type of pedal arrangement, and while he has two cars to choose from, the third is  for Perdisa who does not mind where the pedals are. This arrangement is to allow Moss to take over Perdisa’s car should his own break down during the race. It is not possible for him to take Behra’s car, as the Frenchman prefers the accelerator on the left of the brake pedal, though he can drive with the other arrangement if pressed. In addition to these six cars being looked after by the factory there are the private ones of Rosier and Gould, and all except Villoresi is using the normal twin-pipe exhaust system, which is thought to give more power at the top end over the single large-diameter pipe. Ferrari, on the other hand, is quite satisfied with his V8 Lancia cars, as used at Monaco, and bring along five models, all with the full-width Syracuse type of bodywork and bunched megaphones on each side. Four of these are for the factory team and the fifth are painted yellow and are on loan to the Equipe National Belge for the occasion of this race, though it is looked after by the factory mechanics. Outwardly, there is no change in the mechanical details, all have the normal Ferrari-modified de Dion rear end and the engines are still using double-choke downdraught Solex carburetters, but are said to have an increase in power since their last appearance.

The only other team present is the Vanwall and they have their original two 1956 cars running as previously, while there is the lone Syracuse model Connaught of Scotti, now repainted green and entered by the Connaught factory. No Gordinis are running as Gordini still does not see eye-to-eye with the Belgians, and anyway is busy preparing sports cars for forthcoming events, knowing that his eight-cylinder models would be very outclassed on the high-speed Spa-Francorchamps circuit. This race is one of the more straightforward Grande Epreuves, unhampered by sideshows or other races, and each year three practice sessions are provided, the first two in the evenings of Thursday and Friday and the third on Saturday afternoon. The first session takes place on 31 May 1956 and see the Ferrari team out with two cars and Fangio, Castellotti and Collins as drivers, for Musso is absent following his accident the previous week at Nurburgring. Maserati has three cars out, one the prototype ducted-radiator model, and all with carburetter engines, the three works drivers, Moss, Behra and Perdisa, changing cars frequently. Since, last year the corner at Malmedy has been completely resurfaced and the edges cleaned up so that a fast entry into the Masta straight is possible, while each year the long curve at Stavelot settles a bit more and becomes smoother and smoother. With these two improvements it seemed likely that faster laps than last year would be recorded, but at first the Maseratis is circulating a lot below the 4'20"6 recorded during last year’s race by Fangio with the Mercedes-Benz. Although this counted as the lap record, Castellotti had done 4'18"1 in practice last year with the original D50 Lancia. The first intimation of the possibilities of this year’s cars is given when Fangio go out and within a few laps go below last year’s record and then surpasses the best ever with a lap in 4'17"4. Castellotti go out in the other Lancia/Ferrari but keeps having to stop for minor adjustments, and finally stopped altogether when a circlip came out of a half-shaft and let all the steel balls in the driving splines come out.

As Fangio is  monopolising the other car Collins does not get a drive. Apart from those two works teams the only other car out is Gould’s Maserati, though the Connaught is there but without a driver. As the evening wore on all traces of wind dropped, the road is  perfectly dry and the air become cold and very slightly damp, not enough to perceive but absolutely right for carburation on an unsupercharged engine. Moss has been going round in just over 4min 20sec and then he startes livening things up by recording 4'17"6 which makes Fangio look up from the pit counter where he is sitting, and then when the loudspeaker announces that Moss have done 4'14"7 everyone stands up and take notice. This is  a speed of 199.575 kph, and as the Continent count in hundreds the nearness to 200kph is electrifying. This figure of a lap speed of 200kph is something dreamed of by all Continentals and means very much the same as 100 mph in Great Britain, except that it is a lot faster. As is becoming a recognised thing during Grand Prix practice, the moment anyone beats his time Fangio goes out again and sets a new high, but, now that Moss have knocked nearly 3 sec off Fangio’s best, a murmur run round the pits that the old boy met his match. Moss comes into his pit and Fangio has come out, and as he disappeared up the hill towards the Burnenville Forest the tension around the starting area and pits could be felt. He had the whole circuit to himself, as has Moss, conditions are perfect and a short while later he can be heard approaching the hairpin prior to starting his first flying lap. Watches clicked everywhere, and as the blare of the eight megaphones on the Lancia engine die away into the woods once more everyone is tense, waiting to see if he could do it. In less than 4 minutes he can be heard coming up the return leg of the circuit towards the Club House bend before the La Source hairpin, round the hairpin came the squat Lancia/Ferrari, down the hill towards the pits, and wham he is past and down into the L’Eau Rouge corner.

Impossible, everyone cries, 4'10"4, he must have found a short cut. But it is true, the official announcement cames over the loudspeakers, and meanwhile the World Champion is on another even faster lap. Once more the blast from the side-mounted megaphones sweep the pit counters, blowing up the dust and nearly shattering eardrums, and in double-quick time announcer Jean Leroy demands the official lap time, for his watch, like many others, says 4 minutes and less than 10 seconds. The timekeepers gives the official time and it is the fantastic one of 4'09"8, a speed of 203.490 kph. This is 10.8 seconds faster than last year’s official record, and although the circuit was a bit faster no driver was prepared to allow more than 4 or 5 seconds benefit. There is no doubt that Fangio and the Lancia/Ferrari are right on top of their form, while Moss and the Maserati are not hanging about, especially bearing in mind that the car he has used is a hack one. Needless to say, practice for the day finish at that point, even though Moss go out again on another of the works cars, but it is not as fast as his first one. During the night the rest of the entries arrive and the Friday practice see everyone ready to start long before the official time of 6:00 p.m., but unlike the day before the weather is now terrible and rain fell incessantly. Moss is soon out on the new sleek fuel-injection Maserati, Behra and Perdisa are driving the normal works Maseratis, and Hawthorn is out in one of the spare Modena cars. As the B.R.M.s are making another non-appearance, he had contracted to drive for Maserati for this race, but unfortunately he had also offered his services to Ferrari and before one team had given a reply the other had accepted so that there were some harsh things being said by the Ferrari team-manager. Fangio, Castellotti and Collins were all out in the rain, and now that Hawthorn was not taking the fourth car Paul Frere accepted the offer.

On Sunday 3rd June 1956 the rain return and the cars are lined up on the grid in a very damp atmosphere. Maserati  decide not to use their fuel-injection engine as the consumption is too high and nowadays there is no time for a refuelling stop. Consequently, the sleek new Maserati is fitted with a normal carburetter engine for Moss to use, and in view of the bad feeling he have caused between the two Italian teams Hawthorn decide not to drive at all. All 15 starters get away as the flag fell, though Fangio is slow off the mark and by the L’Eau Rouge bridge Moss is leading, followed by Collins, while Castellotti and Behra carved-up Fangio as they take the left-hand bend. Away over the hill goes Moss, with the rest in hot pursuit and as the tail-enders take the left-hand bend at the top of the Burnenville Forest there is a slight shuffle during which Scotti goes sideways, and Godia in avoiding him press the wrong pedal and shot off the road. Having broken his own car in practice he is  using the spare factory car, the long-nose prototype, and it have the pedals the opposite way round to his car, hence the error. Scotti is in trouble with his brake mechanism and stopped at the end of the lap for adjustments, and meanwhile Moss is forging along with the three Lancia/Ferraris in hot pursuit. At the end of the second lap Moss is 4 seconds ahead of the Maranello trio who is in a tight bunch in the order Castellotti/Fangio/Collins. Already there is a long gap and then come Schell, Trintignant, Behra and Frere in close company, while at the back Gould led Perdisa, Pilette, Rosier and Villoresi; Scotti still being at the pits. On lap three, when Fangio got past Castellotti, Moss is 6.5 seconds ahead, but this don’t worry the number one Ferrari man and he carves this down to 3.5 seconds the next lap and on the fifth time round he is in the lead.

Now there is nothing Moss could do and lap after lap the gap widened, and the other two Ferrari team men dropp back and settle down to consistent running. Trintignant took the lead of his foursome, the two Vanwalls going well, but then he suffers a loss of power and calls at the pit, leaving Behra well ahead in fifth place, with Schell and Frere very close together for sixth place. This little dice between the Franco-American in the British car and the Belgian in the Italian car become quite heat and they goes past the pits side by side. Eventually, Frere gets the lead, and becoming more and more used to the car he began to pull away from the Vanwall. The rain stopped and the track began to dry, so that speeds increases and it was Collins who is the first to break the existing lap record, covering his ninth lap in 4'19"9, and the race seems to be settling down. Fangio still led, with Moss 6.5 seconds behind, then comes Collins at 15.5 seconds, having passed Castellotti, who is  now 10 seconds farther back. After these there is  a long gap before Behra, Frere and Schell arrives, the rest being lapp by now. As they go over the L’Eau Rouge bridge after the 10th lap Fangio is 8 sec in the lead, but then the whole race change its character in a flash. As Moss goes up the climbing sweep after the pits, his revs goes up and there is no drive to the rear wheels. At the time he is doing about 80 mph and he free-wheeled up the steep hill with what appears to be sheared transmission, but then the car starts to weave and as he goes over the hump at the top the left rear wheel, complete with hub and brake drum, come off and bound across the road. Fortunately he is coasting as it happens, for with the brake drum going the brakes vanish as well and he is  lucky to slide to a standstill on the right-hand grass verge. Almost at the same instant, Castellotti draw into the pits and retires with a broken transmission, so that all this panic left Collins in second place, with Behra third.

These three are alone on the same lap, and finally Collins crosses the line a safe and deserves winner in this race of surprises, followed by Frere, who naturally receives a warm ovation, and Moss for whom the crowd cheered loudly, being appreciative of one who tries hard. The remainder are flagged in and Behra crawled over the line with his engine making horrid clanking noises and about to fall into little pieces. The indomitable Moss continues his comeback vigorously and won on lap 30 the fastest lap of the day, as well as official circuit record, at 199.575 km/h on average, finishing third, but it’s the year’s revelation, Peter Collins, to win the Belgian Gran Prix, completing with his Ferrari the thirty-six laps expected with an average of 190.614 km/h. The 25-year-old British driver during tests had already demonstrated his extraordinary skills on this circuit where, if the car has its importance, it is above all the great drivers who menage to emerge. On the podium with him Paul Frère and Stirling Moss, while Harry Schell and Luigi Villoresi collect the last points available with the fourth and the fifth place. The race offered many emotions and twists, determined by the failure of almost all the most awaited drivers’ cars. Overall, the appreciable superiority of the Ferrari over the Maserati emerged, none of which had the new injection engine, on whose endurance the technicians of the Modena company still have some doubts. Quite good the race pace of the British Vanwall, who won the fourth place with Harry Schell In the standings of the world championship, the aspirants to the title were joined by Peter Collins who has eleven points, tied with Stirling Moss, while Juan Manuel Fangio remains at nine points, preceded by Jean Behra with ten. After the race, Peter Collins comes down form his Ferrari fresh and smiling as after a peaceful walk, and comments:

"How easy it was. Of course if Fangio and Moss had not had so much bad luck I would have come after them. But even a third place, behind champions like those, I would have been delighted".

At the same time Juan Manuel Fangio appears sorry for the inconvenience that deprived him of the victory and eight valuable points for the world championship ranking. But at the same time he does not hide his satisfaction at having shown how false were the statements that saw him in decline, tired, worried about the rise of the new star Stirling Moss. After the sharp 203 km/h during practice, Fangio, with his behavior in the race has actually convinced everyone to still be the number one in the world. Back in the box, Fangio tears form the Ferrari mechanics who examined the car that the withdrawal was caused by the excessive overheating of the differential, probably due to a loss of oil. So the Argentine driver goes along with Giambertone to explore the entire track - which at Spa is over fourteen kilometers long - in search of the oil spots that his car should have left. The patrol of the track betrays a lack of faith in his team, which becomes suspected of sabotage when Fangio and Giambertone find no trace of oil. Also because this is not the first strange inconvenience that occurred during the year on the car of the Argentine. Giambertone reminds Fangio of what happened at the Mille Miglia in April, when a hole drilled by a Ferrari mechanic to cool the brakes, due to the rain that fell on much of the route, almost flooded the cockpit of his 290MM...