1955 Scottish Grand Prix
The 1955 Scottish Grand Prix was the fifth race of the 1955 Formula One World Championship and was held on the Holyroodhouse Street Circuit in Edinburgh on July 31st 1955. B.C.M.A. driver Tony Brooks and Irish Racing Cars man Desmond Titterington were the two fastest in qualifying, but both retired in accidents as Gordini's Robert Manzon recorded his fourth career victory. Scuderia Anglo-Italia took the remaining two podium spots.
Contents
Background
After the British Grand Prix, the championship race is still wide open, despite there being only three rounds remaining. It has been so unpredictable that the late Alberto Ascari is still leading the championship two races after his untimely death in a sportscar test in Monza.
It is rather fitting that the main news from these past two weeks are relevant to the fight for the championship. Scuderia Ferrari have recovered from their financial woes and will be competing in the final three races, while title contender Dries van der Lof and defending champion B. Bira was attacked outside their hotel in Northampton shortly after the race and were hospitalised with broken legs, missing the rest of the season. 49 drivers have turned up for the inaugural Scottish Grand Prix at the Holyroodhouse Street Circuit.
- Fueling rumours that Renzo was behind the Ferrari takeover, Dorino Serafini left Renzo between both races to rejoin the Ferrari team as fourth driver. Ramos stays in the Sicilian team alongside de Graffenried, who is replacing the injured Cesare Perdisa.
- With de Graffenried leaving Voeckler to replace Perdisa, he has been replaced by 1950 Le Mans winner and son of Louis, Jean-Louis Rosier, making his return to Grand Prix racing after an almost 5- year absence.
- Ferrari finally return to the paddock, having landed a few drivers from the rumoured connection with Renzo. Early in the year, they'd signed Parnell and Nello Pagani, but their new line-up includes Parnell, Troy Ruttman, Paco Godia and Dorino Serafini. Seeing the standings, they might still stand a chance at taking a title or three.
- After Swaters' accident and injury in Silverstone, Anglo-Italia have decided not to repair the car or replace Swaters, shrinking the operation to three cars for Moss, Whitehead and Gonzalez.
- Following Joe Kelly's unsuccessful fill-in at IRA, Reg Armstrong steps back into the car in Scotland.
- Reatherson Racing Development return to a single car for Scotland after failing to switch their originally entered and damaged 555 for a healthy car. Ken Wharton will be driving the car.
- Jaguar-Aston Martin Racing had to find two replacements for the rest of the season. They landed Indy 500 winner Bob Sweikert for Scotland and Italy, and a deal was all but signed with Alan Brown for the second car, yet it wasn't finalised before the race weekend. JAMR are therefore reduced to 3 cars this weekend.
- Scuderia Adriatica are skipping ahead to Monza after making their début in Silverstone.
- David Murray's Ecurie Ecosse is making its début this week. Murray has previously had a tenth place finish in Italy 1950 in a private entry and a thirteenth place in Germany 1951 for BRM. He returns this weekend in a Cooper-Jaguar.
- After some administrative mistakes by the team, Phoenix didn't appear in Silverstone, but they're back for Edinburgh, Wolfgang von Trips still driving.
Race weekend
Prequalifying
On comeback, all three Ferraris make the main session, as do both JAMR cars who had to prequalify. This left just three other spots. Armstrong took one in the ridiculously fast Lancia, with Marzotto and Schell taking the other two.
With those two big teams stuck in prequalifying, there would always be some disappointments, and they came from de Graffenried, Wharton, Simon and both Ambrosianas, who would usually easily make the cut.
More positively, Wolfgang von Trips does much better than he did in Spa, Anne Hall doesn't too too badly for once, David Murray isn't last in the Cooper-Jaguar, and Edgar Barth puts the van Hoff in front of an unprecedented four different cars.
Qualifying
Just two weeks after taking their first win in Silverstone, B.C.M.A. continue their leap forward with their first pole position in Edinburgh! It's the young Tony Brooks who takes it. At 23 years, 5 months and 5 days, he's the third-youngest pole sitter in F1 to date, behind Jimmy Davies and Stirling Moss.
Maria Teresa de Filippis surprises by making the short grid, while the Vanwalls and Hawthorn disappoint, although not as much as Ferrari. Despite all the Italian team's promise in prequalifying, Ruttman and Serafini failed to make the cut, and Parnell will start the race in dead last. At least Paco Godia is in a decent position. Sweikert, Jones and Marzotto were the other drivers who failed to qualify.
Race
At the start, Brooks and Titterington payed too much attention to each other, both of them losing time as Robert Manzon took the early lead. Brooks lost many positions on the second lap, with Brabham, Farina and Moss passing him. Moss kept gaining positions, taking third place on lap 3. On the following lap, he passed Titterington on the cobblestones and outbraked Manzon to take the lead in the final corner! Brooks clawed his way back up to fourth, while Manzon and Titterington fought over second place.
On lap 8, Brabham and Whitehead tangled over sixth position at Holyrood. Both were uninjured, but almost came to blows, in full view of the Queen! Two laps later, Manzon passed Titterington and Moss to take the lead once more. Titterington also fell behind Collins and Brooks, dropping to fifth place. At the back, Reg Parnell span his Ferrari out of second-last place while defending against Ramos. He promptly left his car and jumped into the North British Hotel to get a scotch. On the next lap, his teammate Godia tangled with Rubirosa, taking the Dominican out of the race. At this point, many battles were occurring up and down the field. A bit earlier, Stillwell's gearbox failed anonymously.
On lap 22, de Filippis' engine expired, and Ramos span on the resulting oil slick, leaving 15 drivers in the race. They were reduced to 14 two laps later when Sanesi overzealously defended his place from Gonzalez and took himself out of the race. At this point, only very fast cars were left, with a gigantic scrap going on between third place and last place. After a few laps, the fight had cleared up a bit, leaving Manzon with a sizeable lead over Moss and Gonzalez, with Titterington fourth, Bettenhausen fifth and Trintignant sixth.
At this point, contact was rife up and down the field, and it was only a matter of time before drivers started to take each other out again. On lap 44, Brooks and Trintignant were fighting for seventh place when the Frenchman pushed Brooks off the track. Gonzalez and Moss were trading second place at this point, slowly eating into Manzon's lead. Collins attempted to pass Gaze for seventh place on lap 63, which distracted the Australian enough to lead him into a mistake at Waterloo, leaving 12 cars in the race. Two thirds of the wat through, Manzon had a not unassailable lead on Gonzalez, Moss, Bettenhausen, Titterington, Maglioli, Collins, Armstrong, Trintignant, Schell, Godia and Farina.
By lap 70, Bettenhausen had caught Moss, but when making a move at Abbeyhill, he lost control of the Aston Martin and span into the stone wall by the side of the track. Maurice Trintignant soon followed his teammate into retirement with a clutch failure out of seventh place. Then, with eight laps remaining, Desmond Titterington span off into the straw bales when he was headed to a safe fourth position. This left Peter Collins in fourth place, ahead of Maglioli and Farina. This proved to be the last element of excitement in the race.
Robert Manzon won his fourth career Grand Prix, putting Gordini in the lead of both the entrants' and constructors' championships. Thanks to the entire field tripping over itself throughout the race, he was able to pull out extreme gaps to his pursuers. Gonzalez and Moss took an unprecedented 2-3 for Anglo-Italia, and were classified four and five laps behind respectively. Peter Collins finished fourth in the B.C.M.A., meaning that Alberto Ascari retained a posthumous lead in the drivers' championship with two rounds remaining. Maglioli scored his best F1 result with fifth place, with Farina scoring the final point after spending a significant portion of the race in last place. Schell was seventh, Armstrong eighth, Titterington classified ninth despite his retirement, and Paco Godia tenth and last on Ferrari's comeback, a full 14 laps down.
Classification
Championship standings
| Pos | Driver | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Alberto Ascari
|
13 |
| 2 |  Peter Collins
|
12 |
| 3 |  Robert Manzon
|
10 |
| 4 | Desmond Titterington
|
10 |
| 5 | Tony Brooks
|
10 |
| Pos | Constructor | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gordini
|
21 |
| 2 | B.C.M.A.
|
18 |
| 3 | Alfa Romeo
|
17 |
| 4 |  Phoenix-O.S.C.A.
|
13 |
| 5 | Lancia
|
10 |
| Pos | Driver | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | / Alexander Racing Team-Gordini
|
21 |
| 2 | British Commonwealth Motorsport Association
|
18 |
| 3 | Phoenix Racing Organisation
|
13 |
| 4 | Alfa Romeo SpA
|
10 |
| 5 | Irish Racing Cars
|
10 |
- Only the top five positions are listed.
| Previous race: 1955 British Grand Prix |
Alternate Formula 1 World Championship 1955 Season |
Next race: 1955 Soviet Grand Prix |
| Previous race: First iteration |
Scottish Grand Prix | Next race: 1956 Scottish Grand Prix |
