1957 Formula One season
Especially in the latter half of the season, Stirling Moss was Fangio's main rival, but the Brit would finish runner-up for the third year in a row.
On 14 March, Ferrari driver Eugenio Castellotti suffered a fatal accident when he tested a new chassis for the team at Modena Autodrome.
[2] On 12 May, Ferrari lost another driver: Alfonso de Portago was competing in that year's Mille Miglia when his tire blew and his car spun into the crowd.
[3][4][5] Herbert MacKay-Fraser made his debut with BRM in the French Grand Prix but was killed a week later in a sports car race at Reims-Gueux.
The decision to switch proved to be a masterstroke, with Ferrari's line-up of Peter Collins, Eugenio Castellotti and the returning Mike Hawthorn failing to win a race.
Castellotti and Alfonso de Portago were killed during the season (neither in Formula One crashes), making this a truly disastrous year for Ferrari.
The man Fangio replaced at Maserati, Stirling Moss, moved to Vanwall, a team beginning to fulfill their promise.
Fangio's drive at the Nürburgring, where he overtook Collins and Hawthorn on the penultimate lap after a pit stop had put him nearly a minute behind, is regarded as a particularly notable one.
Briton Moss took pole ahead of Fangio, Behra, and Ferrari drivers Castellotti, Collins, Musso, and Hawthorn.
Menditeguy and Schell were promoted to third and fourth when Castellotti went out, so Maserati started the season by romping home with a 1-2-3-4 result, with Fangio winning his 4th Argentine Grand Prix in a row ahead of Behra.
The Pau Grand Prix, held on the city streets of the southwestern French town of Pau, was won by home favourite Behra in a Maserati, while on the same day, the Glover Trophy at the Goodwood circuit in southern England was won by Briton Stuart Lewis-Evans in a Connaught-Alta.
After several retirements, Australian Jack Brabham was up to third, but a fuel pump failure left him to push the car to the line.
The Belgian and Dutch Grands Prix, scheduled for 2 and 16 June, were both cancelled because of disputes over money affected by the Suez crisis in Egypt.
This resulted in a six-week break between Monaco and the French GP, which was to be held at the Rouen-Les-Essarts public road circuit in northern France, extended from its previous layout used in 1952.
At the start of the race, Behra took off into the lead with Moss in hot pursuit, and the Englishman emerged ahead at the end of the lap, to the delight of the partisan crowd.
Behra took the lead with Brooks behind him, but the second Vanwall driver was soon called into the pits to give his car to Moss, who re-joined in ninth position.
The field was bolstered for the first time by Formula 2 machinery, which included a trio of Porsches and various Cooper-Climaxes; the length of the circuit allowed for these cars to run alongside each other.
A slow mid-race pit stop lasting 1 minute and 18 seconds (originally supposed to be 30 seconds) dropped Fangio one minute behind the two Lancia-Ferraris, but he chased back hard, broke the lap record ten times, and passed first Collins and then Hawthorn on the penultimate lap.
It was held during the 1930s Grand Prix days of Mercedes, Auto Union, and Alfa Romeo and continued as a non-championship race throughout the 1950s.
The 25.6 kilometres (15.9 mi) public road circuit, the longest ever used for a Formula One race (even longer than the Nürburgring), was very dangerous.
Practice was limited, and Enzo Ferrari did not bother to send cars for Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins, partly because the World Championship had already been won by Juan Manuel Fangio and partly in protest against the Italian government's moves to ban road racing following Alfonso de Portago's accident earlier in the year in the Mille Miglia.
The British cars were strong, with pole position going to Stuart Lewis-Evans with Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks alongside him.
Juan Manuel Fangio put his Maserati on the outside of the 4-3-4 grid while his teammates Jean Behra and Harry Schell shared row two with Peter Collins's Lancia-Ferrari.
There were three more cars on row three with Wolfgang von Trips, Luigi Musso, and Mike Hawthorn alongside the Scuderia Centro Sud Maserati of Masten Gregory.
Fangio attached himself to the train of cars ahead of him, and the five began to pull away from the rest of the field while indulging in a traditional Monza slipstreaming battle which saw the lead constantly changing between Moss and Behra.
This promoted Hawthorn to third, but a split fuel pipe dropped him to sixth in the closing laps, leaving third place to Von Trips.
The BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone in England, Jean Behra won driving a BRM; the Modena Grand Prix at the Modena Aerodrome (where Eugenio Castellotti had been killed previously) and the Moroccan Grand Prix at the Ain-Diab public road circuit in Casablanca, both won in a Maserati.
All seven FIA-mandated championship races had been won by two drivers in 1957: Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio and Briton Stirling Moss.
Although Moss took over an ill Tony Brooks's car during the British Grand Prix, he won with it on the road at that event.
