1956 French Grand Prix: Difference between revisions

1952 French Grand Prix
	Race 2 of 10 in the 1956 Alternate Formula One season
Date	June 3, 1956
Official Name	XLIII Grand Prix de l'ACF
Location	Rouen-Les-Essarts, Grand-Couronne, France
Course	Permanent racing facility; 6.542 km (4.065 mi)
Distance	54 laps, 353.268 km (219.51 mi)
Weather	Cloudy
Pole Position
Time	2:25.32
Fastest Lap
Time	2:29.53
Podium

Latest revision as of 16:55, 19 March 2023

The 1956 French Grand Prix was the second race of the 1956 Formula One World Championship and was held in Rouen-les-Essarts on June 3rd 1956. Defending champion Jack Brabham scored his and Gordini's first victory of the season on the way to securing both titles. His teammates Eugenio Castellott and Consalvo Sanesi completed the podium, marking the first occasion a single constructor occupied the entire podium.

The race was marked by an accident that claimed the life of Dries van der Lof and seven spectators. Coming less than a year after the death of Alberto Ascari and the 1955 Le Mans disaster, the accident prompted Team Lotus to sit out the following Belgian Grand Prix, the withdrawal of FIAT from the sport, and was a major catalyst for the open discussion of safety in Formula One. O.S.C.A. principal Piero Taruffi's then-controversial call for safer circuits ignited a movement for safety improvements that would intensify following the fatal accidents in the Scottish Grand Prix later that year.

Background

The Monaco Grand Prix was full of ups and downs, with Jack Brabham having the pace, but failing to finish, Peter Collins leading most of the way, and then finally Desmond Titterington coming through with some ten laps remaining to score his first Grand Prix victory.

Now, after a three-week break, the teams have made their way to Northern France, Normandy to be precise, for the French Grand Prix at Rouen-les-Essarts. 39 drivers have signed up to this event, where 26 of them will take the start.

-In a bid to give Stuart Lewis-Evans added experience, Irish Racing Cars have agreed to a deal with Coventry Climax to run the young Brit in a third Lancia for this race in order to give him a shot in competitive machinery. -Following Phil Hill's eventful race in Monaco, he was forced to miss this race, prompting Ferrari to sign Umberto Maglioli as reserve driver and therefore as fifth driver for this race. -Also on Ferrari's agenda, their deal with Reatherson allowed them to request the Irish team to give Giulio Cabianca his début in this event in place of regular driver Cesare Perdisa. -Theo Fitzau's M.S.G. Köthen team was originally only going to compete in the German rounds, but an eagerness to get started prompted Theo to transport his O.S.C.A. package to Rouen as a trial run of sorts. -After administrative issues prevented the team from competing in Monaco, the Catalan Castelldefels team will be making their début in Rouen with Luigi Musso and Alfonso de Portago. -The fact that he is now 50 years old will not prevent Louis Rosier from racing, and having managed to scrape together enough funds, he's back in Formula One proper with an old Gordini loaned straight from the factory. -Administrative errors also prevented Roy Salvadori from joining team boss David Hampshire in Monaco, but these issues have been resolved, and both Vanwalls will be appearing in France. -Another French privateer appearing is Ecurie Voeckler, whose liquidation last year didn't prevent the Voeckler family from setting up shop once more, hiring a brand new Gordini and employing André Simon for a drive.

Unfortunately, there must be a prequalifying session. With 39 entrants and 26 grid spots, 13 drivers will compete in prequalifying. As usual, the top eight will make it to the main session.

Race weekend

Prequalifying

No real surprises here. Hamilton and Fangio should be skipping prequalifying for the next few races at least, so the competition should be much fiercer from this point on.

Qualifying

Once again, the 20 works drivers take the top 20 spots on the grid, leaving the last six spots for some underdogs. As a result, Giulio Cabianca, Cliff Allison and Gerino Gerini make their first starts, and Onofre Marimón makes his first start since 1954.

Race

Peter Collins got the best start at the front and led the first lap ahead of Brabham, Manzon, Whitehead, Castellotti and Brooks. The first few places changed constantly at the start, though Peter Collins kept the lead. The first retirement happened on lap 4, as Umberto Maglioli span out trying to defend from Tony Bettenhausen. Desmond Titterington was almost caught up in the accident as well, but avoided the chaos. On lap 11, Robert Manzon was knocked out in a similar incident against Peter Whitehead for fourth place. This left 24 cars in the race, an unusually low rate of attrition.

At this point, Brabham was well established in second place, but he was having to defend really hard from his young teammate Eugenio Castellotti. On lap 16, Gerino Gerini span out at Six-Frères out of sheer lack of experience. On the very next lap, Duncan Hamilton clipped the back of Tony Brooks' car and span into the earth bank at the exit of the first corner, reducing the field to 22 drivers. On lap 19, Collins' lead finally fell when Jack Brabham pulled off a stunning move on the outside at Grésil. He attempted to take the lead back, but on lap 21, possibly trying too hard, he left the track at Paradis and hit the earth bank, ending his race. What happened a few seconds later is best described by witnesses.

I saw van der Lof making some unusual twitches with his steering. The speaker had just told us that he'd had an accident, so I thought he was checking his steering for damage.

As he reached the paddock area, I saw a piece of debris fly away, and van der Lof's car suddenly dropped away. He started coming towards us. I ran away as fast as I could.

There was a loud bang, then a blinding flash as the car caught fire.

The Lotus was just rolling along the earth bank right in front of us. We took cover, but debris was flying everywhere.

I thought "This is it!", you know, "My life is over!"

When the noise stopped, I looked around, and people were lying down on the ground everywhere. It was horrible.

There were injured people crying out, there were people looking for people who were dead. And the car was still burning on the track.

Hell. It was hell.

Ambulances and emergency services were called for the spectators and Dries van der Lof. Tragically, by the time the fire was put out, Dries van der Lof had died from his burns.

But this is the fifties, and the race continued. Brabham now led from Whitehead, Castellotti, Bira, Sanesi and Godia. On lap 27, Maurice Trintignant span out defending from Marimón, though most suspected he deliberately stopped in the escape road, robbed of his motivation at the sight of his dead friend. André Simon did the same shortly thereafter, presumably also shaken by the accident. On lap 30, Eugenio Castellotti passed Peter Whitehead for second place. By this point, the fight was out of most drivers. On lap 35, Tony Brooks pulled into the pits with a look of disgust on his face and an "unidentified mechanical failure". He was followed by Giulio Cabianca soon thereafter, then one lap later by Paco Godia, who span off at Grésil, then one further lap later by Desmond Titterington, who pulled into the pits with a smoking engine.

With four laps to go, Sanesi caught and passed Peter Whitehead to complete a Gordini 1-2-3 behind Brabham and Castellotti. After that, positions remained stationary until the end of the race. Jack Brabham took a joyless race victory (coupled with fastest lap), followed by teammates Eugenio Castellotti and Consalvo Sanesi.

Classification

Entry list

No	Driver	Entrant	Chassis	Engine
2	Desmond Titterington	Irish Racing Cars	Lancia D50	Lancia DS50 2.5 V8
4	Duncan Hamilton	Irish Racing Cars	Lancia D50	Lancia DS50 2.5 V8
6	Juan Manuel Fangio	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari R560	Ferrari RS560 2.5 L4
8	Hernando da Silva Ramos		Ferrari R560	Ferrari RS560 2.5 L4
10	Paco Godia		Ferrari R560	Ferrari RS560 2.5 L4
12	Tony Bettenhausen		Ferrari R560	Ferrari RS560 2.5 L4
14	Umberto Maglioli		Ferrari R560	Ferrari RS560 2.5 L4
16	Giulio Cabianca	Reatherson Racing Developments	Ferrari R560	Ferrari RS560 2.5 L4
18	Robert Manzon	Officine Specializzate Costruzione Automobili	O.S.C.A. F156A	O.S.C.A. 1500S-56 1.5 L6s
20	Stirling Moss		O.S.C.A. F156A	O.S.C.A. 1500S-56 1.5 L6s
22	José Froilán González		O.S.C.A. F156A	O.S.C.A. 1500S-56 1.5 L6s
24	Peter Whitehead		O.S.C.A. F156A	O.S.C.A. 1500S-56 1.5 L6s
26	Stuart Lewis-Evans	Irish Racing Cars	Lancia D50	Climax FPF IV 2.0 L4
28	Maria Teresa de Filippis	Brits Under No European Legislation	O.S.C.A. F154	Porsche 755 1.5 L4
30	Louis Chiron	Écurie Maghreb	AAC 555	AAC 555 2.5 L4
32	Theo Fitzau	MSG Köthen	O.S.C.A. F156A	O.S.C.A. 1500S-56 1.5 L6s
34	Alfonso de Portago	Equipo Castelldefels	Guidobaldi FG01	Loonmotor SAMC-1A 1.5 L8
36	Luigi Musso	Equipo Castelldefels	Guidobaldi FG01	Loonmotor SAMC-1A 1.5 L8
38	Cliff Allison	Vanwall	Vanwall VW56	Vanwall 254 2.5 L4
40	Gerino Gerini	Scuderia Adriatica	Ferrari R560	Ferrari RS560 2.5 L4
42	Dorino Serafini	Scuderia Adriatica	Ferrari R560	Ferrari RS560 2.5 L4
44	Lucien Bianchi	Officine Alfieri Maserati	Cooper T41	Maserati 56A 2.5 V8
46	Consalvo Sanesi	Alexander Racing Team-Gordini	Gordini Type 56	Gordini G258/A 2.5 L8
48	Jack Brabham		Gordini Type 56	Gordini G258/A 2.5 L8
50	Eugenio Castellotti		Gordini Type 56	Gordini G258/A 2.5 L8
52	Louis Rosier	Écurie Rosier	Gordini G-953	Gordini ART-004 3.0 V6
54	B. Bira	Team Lotus	Lotus 10	B.C.M.A. A/AS Griffin 2.5 L6
56	Dries van der Lof		Lotus 10	B.C.M.A. A/AS Griffin 2.5 L6
58	Maurice Trintignant		Lotus 10	B.C.M.A. A/AS Griffin 2.5 L6
60	Onofre Marimón	Asso di Fiori	O.S.C.A. F156A	O.S.C.A. 1500S-56 1.5 L6s
62	Ron Flockhart	British Racing Motors	BRM P25	BRM P25 2.5 L4
64	Paul Frère		AAC 555	AAC 555 2.5 L4
66	Jean Behra		AAC 555	AAC 555 2.5 L4
68	David Hampshire	Hampshire Racing Alliance	Vanwall VW56	Vanwall 254 2.5 L4
70	Roy Salvadori	Hampshire Racing Alliance	Vanwall VW56	O.S.C.A. 1500S-56 1.5 L6s
72	André Simon	Alexander Racing Team-Gordini	Gordini Type 56	Gordini G258/A 2.5 L8
74	Peter Collins	British Commonwealth Motorsport Association	B.C.M.A. C-01	B.C.M.A. A/AS Griffin 2.5 L6
76	Tony Brooks		B.C.M.A. C-01	B.C.M.A. A/AS Griffin 2.5 L6
78	Mike Hawthorn		B.C.M.A. C-01	B.C.M.A. A/AS Griffin 2.5 L6