In another life I was a mad Formula 1 fan. And the classic races of the 1950’s were my introduction. Above all of these great races, however, the one that stands out was the great Juan Manuel Fangio’s victory in the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring in 1957.
Fangio, in his Maserati 250F, started the race on half-full tanks, planning a fuel and tyre change at half-race distance. The pit stop went badly, and, by the time he rejoined the track, he was 30 seconds behind the Ferrari duo of Peter Collins and Mike Hawthorn. Urged on by his fanatical desire to win, Fangio reeled both of them in after smashing the lap record, lap afer lap, passing both of the Ferraris on the last lap and winning by over 3 seconds.
Bear in mind that the race ran for over 3 hours. Fangio’s fastest lap was 9:17.40, and that was 53 years ago.
Here’s a wonderful interview with the great man where he describes that victory
And here’s a short Youtube video of the race.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f51wEb3CuB8[/youtube]
And, as a comparison, here’s a couple of very good riders on 1000cc sportsbikes doing a lap in around 8:40. Interesting.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3cIWq-gu8Y&feature=related[/youtube]
sanoptic says
I was mesmerised by those two guys on the bikes,they must be road racers by the way they passed all the other bikes & cars so easily.
The F1 guys back in the 50’s lapping that track for 3 hours is just mind blowing.
It would be worth a trip to germany just to ride that place ,once they clean all the volcanic dust off it…lol
Cheers for that enjoyed both vids.
Phil Hall says
Yes, those two guys have done many, many laps to be able to ride that track that quickly. Most impressed.