1951 British Grand Prix : 1951 British Grand Prix: Tapped for a Special Moment in History
By Jeremy McMullenThe lead and the victory were firmly within his grasp, but would the moment be taken away from him? He had been in a similar situation before and then there would be a tap on the shoulder and he was forced to give up what he had fought so hard to earn. Would this be another one of those moments? Thoughts raced through his head, and then, there was a tap on the shoulder once again.
Prior to the 1951 season, Jose Froilan Gonzalez had shown little of his true potential. After making his debut in Formula One the season before he would have little to bolster his career path. Suffering an accident in Monaco and then an engine failure in France meant he suffered retirements in the only two rounds of the World Championship he would contest over the course of the season.
Gonzalez would need a breakthrough and it would come back home in his native Argentina. During the offseason in Europe many drivers and teams would venture to South America or New Zealand and Australia to keep the racing going. It would be during some Formula Libre races in a prewar Mercedes that Gonzalez would capture the attention of Scuderia Ferrari.
Earning a drive with the team from Maranello, Gonzalez would look forward to his first race with his new team with great excitement. Ferrari was quickly evolving into the greatest challenge for the mighty Alfa Romeo team and that meant Gonzalez finally had a car that matched his abilities.
Gonzalez had shown his pace the season before. Unfortunately, he didn't have a car capable of keeping up with his pace over the course of a race. The Ferrari 375 offered a chance for Gonzalez to show what he could really do.
He would do just that. His first race for Ferrari would be the French Grand Prix and it would be held at Reims. Being somewhat unfamiliar with the car, he would still show well in practice earning a third row starting position. Starting in 6th place, he would have his work cut out for him during the race but he would quickly prove himself equal to the task earning a great start and climbing all the way up to 2nd place through the first half of the race.
All by himself, Gonzalez was en route to not only his first Formula One World Championship race finish, but his first podium as well. But, given his impressive performance throughout the first half of the race, the team manager with Ferrari figured there was a better result to be had. Therefore, when Gonzalez pulled into the pits for his normal stop he would receive a tap on the shoulder. There, standing beside him, would be Alberto Ascari. Ascari was the leading driver with Ferrari and he had already been forced to abandon his car. He was standing there waiting for Gonzalez to extract himself so that he could take over the car for the remainder of the race.
Being a good team player, Jose would get out of the car and would hand it over to Ascari for the remainder of the race. Going up against Fangio throughout the last half, Ascari would be unable to improve upon the position and would end up finishing the race in 2nd place. Ferrari's first victory had eluded them, as did Gonzalez's first race finish. Still, he would have the joy of sharing in the points having shared a 2nd place result with Ascari. But it just wasn't the same.
While the first race with Ferrari could have been a bit more memorable for Gonzalez he still had come away with his first World Championship points, and it was just first race with Ferrari. There was great reason for Jose to believe there was more success to come, but when? What's more, even if there were opportunities for success in the future would they all come with a gentle tap on the shoulder? All Gonzalez could do was carry on and find out for himself.
Formula One in the 1950s was a vastly different sport than what it has become. In those days there was a great camaraderie amongst the drivers and it was not at all unlikely one driver would give his competition the opportunity to check out, first-hand, his ride. This would happen a couple of days before the next round of the World Championship, the British Grand Prix.
Though competitors on the track, Juan Manuel Fangio and Jose Froilan Gonzalez were friends first and foremost joined by a common patriotism. This would lead to Fangio giving Gonzalez time behind the wheel of his Alfa Romeo 159. According to Gonzalez, Fangio approached him after some laps of the Silverstone circuit and told him 'I think this time you'll win.'
Certainly Gonzalez was a talented driver, but there was another advantage to be had by the Ferrari 375 he would pilot in the race. Measuring 2.9 miles in length and having a high average speed, Silverstone would expose Alfa's major Achilles heal—fuel consumption. Ferrari had chosen to employ a normally-aspirated 12-cylinder engine to provide its power. It didn't quite have the power of the supercharged Alfas but it wasn't nearly as thirsty either. This meant the Ferrari drivers could make it through the 90 lap race with just one pitstop. The Alfas would also likely only stop once but would need to take on more fuel, which meant the stop would take much longer. Heading into practice, however, Gonzalez would do his best so as not to have to rely upon such tactics.
Practice around the circuit would be absolutely torrid with Gonzalez showing his fast pace in the Ferrari. The first to average greater than 100mph around the shorter 2.9 mile circuit, Gonzalez would capture the pole with a lap time of 1:43.4. This lap time would end up being a full second faster than Fangio and more than a second and a half faster than Giuseppe Farina. As John Bolster of Autosport would recall, 'The interesting thing is that he brakes later than anybody else, actually enters the corner faster and gets through in an immensely long drift. He has none of the ease in the cockpit that Farina exhibits and certainly does not follow the same path every time.' However, despite his propensity to be a bit wild instead of machine-like in precision, Gonzalez would be fastest of all, even Alberto Ascari would be 2 seconds slower around the circuit than he. This hard-charging style would earn Ferrari its first pole-position. This would be merely the beginning of the records for Ferrari.
In spite of showing superior pace in practice Gonzalez would be rather timid heading into the race. Yes, the weather was overcast but there was no rain to worry about. No, it was some remarks by the race officials that would have Gonzalez scared even before the start of the race. As Gonzalez would recall, 'Whoever would have had an early start would have been punished immediately with a five-minute penalty.' Thoroughly frightened by this news Gonzalez would be slow off the line at the start of the race. This would allow Felice Bonetto to fly into the lead of the race while Gonzalez would be forced to recover and regain what he had already lost.
At the end of the first lap of the race it would be Bonetto in the lead. Gonzalez would recover from the frightened start to finish the first lap in 2nd place ahead of Farina and Ascari. Fangio would be all the way down in 5th place.
By the 2nd lap, Gonzalez would be fully recovered from his poor start and would actually take over the lead of the race from Bonetto. Meanwhile, Fangio would recover from dropping down to 6th place and would be up to 2nd by the 4th lap. Jose would be still in the lead but would be working the car hard at every moment while Fangio and Farina would be smooth, sliding their cars through the corners nice and easy.
The smoothness would actually pay off as Gonzalez's brut-force driving would cause him to be a little untidy at times. This would allow Fangio to take over the lead from Gonzalez and he would remain in the lead for more than 20 laps. Gonzalez knew the Alfa would need to stop and take on much more fuel than what he would need, which meant more time in the pits than what he would need, so, it was important he did not do anything ill-advised in the early going to ruin his race later on. Although Fangio would be in the lead, Gonzalez would never allow his fellow countryman to get too far ahead on the road and this would keep him firmly in the race.
Continuing to push hard each and every lap, Gonzalez would clobber the hay bails around Becketts as he fought hard with his Ferrari. This incident would do little to slow his pace and, on the 40th lap of the race, he would retake the lead from Fangio. Taking the lead, Gonzalez would be greeted by a chorus of cheers from the British crowd as they approved of the battle going on before them. A handful of laps later Fangio would make his stop losing many precious seconds as the thirsty Alfa needed a full load of fuel to be able to make it to the finish. A lot of time would be lost, Gonzalez's lead would increase.
It would be important that Gonzalez was in the lead before Fangio made his first pitstop as this would only allow his advantage to grow. Being lighter on fuel, while Fangio needed to be refueled with a full load of fuel meant Jose would be faster as his fuel burned off, thereby increasing his margin even more after Fangio's first stop.
Gonzalez was drawing away. It was more than clear the Gonzalez had the race and the possible victory firmly within his grasp, but there would be a problem. Gonzalez would be well out in front. What he didn't realize, until he came into the pits, was that Ascari was out of the race. Suddenly it would hit him that he might have to give up his moment of glory and achievement. And then there was a tap on his shoulder.
Already preparing to get out of the car to hand it over to Ascari, the future double World Champion would be right there with his hand on Gonzalez's shoulder reassuring him to stay behind the wheel and go and get the victory. No doubt renewed by the confidence of Ascari and his maintaining the lead after the stop, Gonzalez would soldier on pushing his advantage over Fangio to an even wider margin over the remainder of the race.
Gonzalez had the confidence of the team and Ascari. Gonzalez had the confidence in the Ferrari 375. It would all come together beautifully on that 14th of July in 1951. Rounding the final corner with his cap and goggles in hand waving to the crowd, Gonzalez would go on to achieve his eternal place in Ferrari legend taking the win by 50 seconds over his fellow Argentinean Fangio. Such was Gonzalez's pace over the course of the 90 lap race that Luigi Villoresi would finish the race in 3rd place but would be more than 2 laps behind at the line.
It would be a remarkable moment for all Ferrari fans but it would also be a special moment for 'the Pampas bull'. Only the fourth different driver to win a Formula One World Championship race, the performance in the British Grand Prix would more than prove the Argentine driver to the European crowd. When he would achieve victory at Silverstone again in 1954 he would join that truly elite crowd of drivers to have ever won the British Grand Prix more than once and he would be just the second to achieve the feat after the late Alberto Ascari, the man that gave him the tap to go on and win his first.