Difference between revisions of "1951 Monaco Grand Prix"

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1951 Monaco Grand Prix

Race 1 of 8 in the 1951 Alternate Formula One season
Date	May 27, 1951
Official Name	XII Grand Prix Automobile de Monaco
Location	Circuit de Monaco
Course	Street circuit 3.181 km (1.977 mi)
Distance	100 laps, 318.1 km (197.7 mi)
Weather	Sunny
Pole Position
Driver	Dorino Serafini	Ferrari
Time	1:47.5
Fastest Lap
Driver	Robert Manzon	Gordini
Time	1:54.5
Podium
First	Robert Manzon	Gordini
Second	Consalvo Sanesi	Ferrari
Third	Dorino Serafini	Ferrari

The 1951 Monaco Grand Prix was the first race of the 1951 Formula One World Championship held in Monte Carlo on May 27th 1951. It was won by Robert Manzon, who his and Gordini's first victory ahead of teammate Consalvo Sanesi. Dorino Serafini finished third.

Background

The first team to enter the championship season was Scuderia Maremmana, soldiering on with their Ferrari-Jaguars. Clemente Biondetti was still there as first driver, having recovered from his broken legs in France last season, with Manfred von Brauchitsch's impressive drive in Belgium securing him a full-time drive at the Italian team. Phoenix were very disappointed with their 1950 campaign, and with good reason. With confirmed drivers on their line-up, the car was simply not up to the task, and the team, who did not want to blame their chassis, traded their Maserati engines for Ferrari powerplants, while keeping the same drivers. Time will tell if it was the right choice.

After the demise of the EXTRAS team last season, David Hampshire desperately wanted to continue racing, and therefore bought a couple of Altas to compete in the 1951 season. The problem was that the car was not known for its pace, and the driver himself was relatively inexperienced at an international level. Not much was expected from them.

Alfa Romeo would have won the constructors' championship the previous season had such a thing existed, and they thoroughly deserved it, by winning more than half of the season's races, two times more than their nearest rivals Ferrari and Maserati. Giuseppe Farina won the driver's title after Fangio had let it slip away in the final two races, and it didn't look like the team were on their way down. The only flaw in the team was the driver lineup, with Paul Pietsch being given the third car despite not impressing that much in his one-off race last season, and almost complete rookie Stirling Moss in the other car. In Moss' case, he won the previous year's Monaco GP in F3, so everyone had high hopes of this young driver.

Scuderia Platé-Varzi were a bit of a mistery right then. No one knew who was running it, as one of its namesakes was dead and the other was more-or-less missing. All we knew was that they inherited the works Maseratis when the team decided to cease operations after the previous season, when they were beaten by CRD, their customers. Hans Stuck was driving for the team, and their year could turn out in any possible way.

Ferrari were pretty much like Alfa Romeo. They should have won the driver's championship with Dorino Serafini, which would have been one of the biggest upsets in motor racing history. The team were poised for another year at the front battling with Alfa Romeo, but they had made what seemed to be a mistake by only entering three cars in Monaco. Time would tell if it was a mistake or just part of a bigger picture.

The previous season's two reject teams from Britain had combined to form what looked like a super-reject team from Britain. With Jaguar making the chassis and Aston Martin the engine, it looked like a match made in hell rather than in heaven, and even their choice of drivers was quite questionable, with only Etancelin and Gerard having extensive experience. It was going to be a long year for them.

Ferrari America was the new name of the Kurtis Kraft team, who were now running Ferraris. Sticking with Villoresi and signing Louis Chiron, who was unbelievably sacked by CRD last season, the team itself was inexperienced, but the drivers had a good reputation and the car had proven to be very quick indeed. It was hard to predict how they'd do.

Ecurie Nationale Belge were one of the most mysterious teams there was in terms of performance. With cars entered for every race the previous season, they never scored points. However, a deal struck with Alfa Romeo allowed them to get two works-condition chassis to enter for every race in exchange for Stirling Moss. In addition, ENB obtained the services of Maurice Trintignant alongside André Pilette, Eugène Chaboud and Jacques Swaters, at least for Monaco, as many drivers were signed up for the team along the year. However, all the different chassis used by the outfit meant that they would be using different names: Scuderia Belgio for Alfas, Garage Francorchamps for Ferraris and Maseratis and Equipe de France for Bugattis.

Alexander Racing Team were one of the previous season's surprises. They finished in every points scoring position once last year, apart from first, and the permanent return of Tony Bettenhausen would be a certain boost to the team. They were expected to take their first victory in 1951, and nothing seemed to be standing in the way of them taking the fight to Alfa and Ferrari, especially with the four-car superteam.

Motorsport Bleu's end to the season was awfully disappointing, with Rosier failing to qualify in Italy and Bira crashing out after a miserable start to the race. It got worse, as the team failed to correctly send their entries for Monaco, with only their intended third driver Levegh arriving. Without more trouble, Rosier and Bira would have to do their damnded best to get more points, with the ever-slowing Talbot-Lago.

Claes Racing Developments had a very inconsistent 1950 season to say the least, but many a paddock personality was shocked when Johnny fired his star driver Louis Chiron, only to replace him with the virtually unknown André Simon. At least the confidence boost and the Maserati chassis and engines should mean a decent season, but the absence of a big name at the wheel could hamper their chances at big points.

Redman Racing Team were in the same boat as Platé-Varzi. Running customer Maseratis, mysteriously appearing at the end of last season. Franco Rol was a good, consistent driver, and should score a few top tens at least, but it was hard to predict anything about this team.

To end, I'll talk about all the new teams for 1951. Two of them, Metcalf and Commesso, had come from nowhere, with only Scuderia Ambrosiana having been present in a few previous non-championship races. They all had one thing in common: all were making their own chassis. Metcalf were even making their engine in-house, while Commesso and Ambrosiana would use Ferrari and Maserati powerplants respectively. Despite this disadvantage, Metcalf should have had the upper hand, as Piero Taruffi's sheer speed behind the wheel could be enough to get the car in places it shouldn't have been, while Bracco, Landi and Grignard are well relative unknowns.

Race weekend

Qualifying

As expected, Ferrari and Alfa Romeo led the qualifying session, with Serafini taking pole ahead of Fangio. The main surprise, however, came from Gordini, who placed all four cars in the top ten. Despite a lack of factory support for Scuderia Platé-Varzi, the ex-works machinery still allowed Stuck to reach eleventh place, just ahead of Claes. Piero Taruffi managed to take the Metcalf to a grid spot in 16th place, ahead of defending champion Giuseppe Farina. Both Claes Maseratis also made it through, with Claes 12th and Simon 15th. The Phoenix drivers were very spread out, with Gonzalez qualifiying tenth (the team's best result) and Ascari far away from the grid in 28th position.

Ecurie Nationale Belge saw their plan of using Alfa Romeos backfire, with Trintignant and Pilette ending up 21st and 22nd, just outside the qualifiers. Chaboud was even further back in the Bugatti, in 27th position. The Commessos also failed to make it, as did Hampshire, Pierre Levegh, the Ambrosiana and, embarrassingly, all four Jaguar-Aston Martins. Luigi Villoresi and Manfred von Brauchitsch also suffered Ascari's embarrassment of staying in the grandstands on Sunday while their teammates qualified.

Race

Fangio took the lead at the start and immediately pulled away, leaving Manzon, Serafini and Bettenhausen behind him. Manzon soon also left the others behind and caught Fangio by lap 25. After a tense battle, Manzon took the lead permanently on lap 33. Fangio was taken out of the race shortly afterwards with transmission failure. A few laps previously, Bettenhausen had crashed out of third position while lapping Louis Chiron. Swaters and Giraud-Cabantous had also retired by that point, both from the top ten, after spinning out and having an oil leak respectively.

By this point, Sanesi had caught up after a slow start and was fighting with Serafini for second place. While Manzon cruised to victory from then on, the battle between the two Italians raced until the very last lap, and Sanesi eventually got the better of Serafini. Paul Pietsch and Franco Rol climbed up the field from weak starting positions and eventually took the final two points positions. Toulo de Graffenried and Johnny Claes were also fighting for points, but de Graffenried's suspension failed with nine laps remaining.

Peter Whitehead finished seventh, having been fifth at one point, while André Simon finished eighth on début. Hans Stuck came ninth after also running in the points on one occasion. De Graffenried was classified tenth, while Piero Taruffi was the last finisher in the Metcalf, 13 laps down. In fact, many drivers would fail to climb higher than fifth place. Clemente Biondetti and Stirling Moss would reach this position only to retire soon after, Biondetti with a driveshaft failure and Moss with an engine failure. Defending champion Farina only ever reached eleventh position and eventually retired from thirteenth place with a spin. José Froilan Gonzalez was the last retirement, with a gearbox failure out of fifth place, having spent a significant portion of the race in the points.

Classification

Entry list

No	Driver	Entrant	Chassis	Engine
2	Clemente Biondetti	Scuderia Maremmana	Ferrari 166S	Jaguar XK 3.4 L6
4	Manfred von Brauchitsch	Scuderia Maremmana	Ferrari 166S	Jaguar XK 3.4 L6
6	Alberto Ascari	Phoenix Racing Organisation	Phoenix P-02	Ferrari 375 4.5 V12
8	José Froilan Gonzalez	Phoenix Racing Organisation	Phoenix P-02	Ferrari 375 4.5 V12
10	David Hampshire	Hampshire Racing Alliance	Alta GP	Alta 1.5 L4s
12	Giuseppe Farina	Alfa Romeo SpA	Alfa Romeo 158/50	Alfa Romeo 158 1.5 L8s
14	Juan Manuel Fangio	Alfa Romeo SpA	Alfa Romeo 158/50	Alfa Romeo 158 1.5 L8s
16	Stirling Moss	Alfa Romeo SpA	Alfa Romeo 158/50	Alfa Romeo 158 1.5 L8s
18	Paul Pietsch	Alfa Romeo SpA	Alfa Romeo 158/50	Alfa Romeo 158 1.5 L8s
20	Hans Stuck	Scuderia Platé-Varzi	Maserati 4CL	Maserati 4CL 1.5 L4s
22	Dorino Serafini	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 375	Ferrari 375 4.5 V12
24	Toulo de Graffenried]]	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 375	Ferrari 375 4.5 V12
26	Peter Whitehead]]	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 375	Ferrari 375 4.5 V12
28	Eugène Martin	Jaguar-Aston Martin Racing	Jaguar B-Type	Aston Martin 4.5 V6
30	Luigi Villoresi	Ferrari America	Ferrari 375	Ferrari 375 4.5 V12
32	Louis Chiron	Ferrari America	Ferrari 375	Ferrari 375 4.5 V12
34	Bob Gerard	Jaguar-Aston Martin Racing	Jaguar B-Type	Aston Martin 4.5 V6
36	Philippe Etancelin	Jaguar-Aston Martin Racing	Jaguar B-Type	Aston Martin 4.5 V6
38	Maurice Trintignant	Scuderia Belgio	Alfa Romeo 158/50	Alfa Romeo 158 1.5 L8s
40	André Pilette	Scuderia Belgio	Alfa Romeo 158/50	Alfa Romeo 158 1.5 L8s
42	Eugène Chaboud	Equipe de France	Bugatti Type 73C	Bugatti 15C 1.5 L4s
44	Tony Bettenhausen	/ Alexander Racing Team	Gordini T15	Gordini 1.5 L4s
46	Robert Manzon	/ Alexander Racing Team	Gordini T15	Gordini 1.5 L4s
48	Yves Giraud-Cabantous	/ Alexander Racing Team	Gordini T15	Gordini 1.5 L4s
50	Consalvo Sanesi	/ Alexander Racing Team	Gordini T15	Gordini 1.5 L4s
52	Paul Frère	Jaguar-Aston Martin Racing	Jaguar B-Type	Aston Martin 4.5 V6
54	Pierre Levegh	Motorsport Bleu	Talbot-Lago T26C	Talbot 23CV 4.5 L6
56	Piero Taruffi	Team Metcalf GP	Metcalf MET1	Metcalf
58	Georges Grignard	Scuderia Commesso	Commesso C01	Ferrari 375 4.5 V12
60*	Toni Branca*	Scuderia Commesso	Commesso C01	Ferrari 375 4.5 V12
60	Chico Landi	Scuderia Commesso	Commesso C01	Ferrari 375 4.5 V12
62	Johnny Claes	Claes Racing Developments	Maserati 4CLT/48	Maserati 4CLT 1.5 L4s
64	André Simon	Claes Racing Developments	Maserati 4CLT/48	Maserati 4CLT 1.5 L4s
66	Giovanni Bracco	Scuderia Ambrosiana	Ambrosiana A-001	Maserati 4CLT 1.5 L4s
68	Jacques Swaters	Garage Francorchamps	Maserati 4CLT/48	Maserati 4CLT 1.5 L4s
70	Franco Rol	Redman Racing Team	Maserati 4CLT/48	Maserati 4CLT 1.5 L4s
n/a*	Tony Gaze*	Tony Gaze	Alfa Romeo 158/50	Alfa Romeo 158 1.5 L8s
n/a*	Mike Hawthorn*	Mike Hawthorn	Alfa Romeo 158/50	Alfa Romeo 158 1.5 L8s

• Toni Branca was originally entered for Scuderia Commesso, but his licence was turned down. He was replaced by Chico Landi. Tony Gaze and Mike Hawthorn's entries were turned down due to a lack of experience.

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Time	Gap
1	22	Dorino Serafini	Ferrari	1:47.5	-
2	14	Juan Manuel Fangio	Alfa Romeo	1:48.1	+ 0.6
3	44	Tony Bettenhausen	Gordini	1:48.4	+ 0.9
4	46	Robert Manzon	Gordini	1:48.8	+ 1.3
5	48	Yves Giraud-Cabantous	Gordini	1:49.0	+ 1.5
6	68	Jacques Swaters	Maserati	1:49.1	+ 1.6
7	24	Toulo de Graffenried	Ferrari	1:49.3	+ 1.8
8	50	Consalvo Sanesi	Gordini	1:49.4	+ 1.9
9	16	Stirling Moss	Alfa Romeo	1:49.5	+ 2.0
10	8	José Froilán González	Phoenix-Ferrari	1:49.8	+ 2.3
11	20	Hans Stuck	Maserati	1:49.8	+ 2.3
12	62	Johnny Claes	Maserati	1:49.9	+ 2.4
13	2	Clemente Biondetti	Ferrari-Jaguar	1:50.1	+ 2.6
14	70	Franco Rol	Maserati	1:50.2	+ 2.7
15	64	André Simon	Maserati	1:50.3	+ 2.8
16	56	Piero Taruffi	Metcalf	1:50.5	+ 3.0
17	12	Giuseppe Farina	Alfa Romeo	1:50.6	+ 3.1
18	26	Peter Whitehead	Ferrari	1:50.6	+ 3.1
19	32	Louis Chiron	Ferrari	1:50.7	+ 3.2
20	18	Paul Pietsch	Alfa Romeo	1:50.8	+ 3.3
21	38	Maurice Trintignant	Alfa Romeo	1:50.9	+ 3.4
22	40	André Pilette	Alfa Romeo	1:51.0	+ 3.5
23	60	Chico Landi	Commesso-Ferrari	1:51.0	+ 3.5
24	36	Philippe Etancelin	Jaguar-Aston Martin	1:51.2	+ 3.7
25	4	Manfred von Brauchitsch	Ferrari-Jaguar	1:51.4	+ 3.9
26	30	Luigi Villoresi	Ferrari	1:51.4	+ 3.9
27	42	Eugène Chaboud	Bugatti	1:51.6	+ 4.1
28	6	Alberto Ascari	Phoenix-Ferrari	1:51.9	+ 4.4
29	10	David Hampshire	Alta	1:52.0	+ 4.5
30	28	Eugène Martin	Jaguar-Aston Martin	1:52.3	+ 4.8
31	52	Paul Frère	Jaguar-Aston Martin	1:52.6	+ 5.1
32	54	Pierre Levegh	Talbot-Lago-Talbot	1:52.6	+ 5.1
33	58	Georges Grignard	Commesso-Ferrari	1:52.6	+ 5.1
34	34	Bob Gerard	Jaguar-Aston Martin	1:52.8	+ 5.3
35	66	Giovanni Bracco	Ambrosiana-Maserati	1:53.6	+ 6.1

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	46	Robert Manzon	Gordini	100	3:08:38.4	4	9
2	50	Consalvo Sanesi	Gordini	98	+ 2 laps	8	6
3	22	Dorino Serafini	Ferrari	98	+ 2 laps	1	4
4	18	Paul Pietsch	Alfa Romeo	97	+ 3 laps	20	3
5	70	Franco Rol	Maserati	96	+ 4 laps	14	2
6	62	Johnny Claes	Maserati	96	+ 4 laps	12
7	26	Peter Whitehead	Ferrari	95	+ 5 laps	18
8	64	André Simon	Maserati	93	+ 7 laps	15
9	20	Hans Stuck	Maserati	93	+ 7 laps	11
10	24	Toulo de Graffenried	Ferrari	91	Suspension	7
11	56	Piero Taruffi	Metcalf	87	+ 13 laps	16
Ret	2	Clemente Biondetti	Ferrari-Jaguar	86	Driveshaft	13
Ret	16	Stirling Moss	Alfa Romeo	81	Engine	9
Ret	12	Giuseppe Farina	Alfa Romeo	77	Spin	17
Ret	8	José Froilán González	Phoenix-Ferrari	67	Gearbox	10
Ret	14	Juan Manuel Fangio	Alfa Romeo	42	Transmission	2
Ret	44	Tony Bettenhausen	Gordini	29	Collision	3
Ret	32	Louis Chiron	Ferrari	28	Collision	19
Ret	68	Jacques Swaters	Maserati	12	Spin	6
Ret	48	Yves Giraud-Cabantous	Gordini	4	Oil leak	19
DNQ	38	Maurice Trintignant	Alfa Romeo
DNQ	40	André Pilette	Alfa Romeo
DNQ	60	Chico Landi	Commesso-Ferrari
DNQ	36	Philippe Etancelin	Jaguar-Aston Martin
DNQ	4	Manfred von Brauchitsch	Ferrari-Jaguar
DNQ	30	Luigi Villoresi	Ferrari
DNQ	42	Eugène Chaboud	Bugatti
DNQ	6	Alberto Ascari	Phoenix-Ferrari
DNQ	10	David Hampshire	Alta
DNQ	28	Eugène Martin	Jaguar-Aston Martin
DNQ	52	Paul Frère	Jaguar-Aston Martin
DNQ	54	Pierre Levegh	Talbot-Lago-Talbot
DNQ	58	Georges Grignard	Commesso-Ferrari
DNQ	34	Bob Gerard	Jaguar-Aston Martin
DNQ	66	Giovanni Bracco	Ambrosiana-Maserati
DNA	60	Toni Branca	Commesso-Ferrari		Refused entry
DNA		Tony Gaze	Alfa Romeo		Refused entry
DNA		Mike Hawthorn	Alfa Romeo		Refused entry