1957 German Grand Prix race report: Fangio brilliantly clinches title No5

Once again the Grand Prix teams of cars and drivers came together to pit their skill and endurance against the fabulous Nurburgring, for the German GP is seldom a split-second race of driver against driver, but more often the result of car/driver combination against the 22.810 kilometres of the Eifel mountain circuit. While there are many people who know every bump and curve, every ascent and descent, and every blind brow with absolute certainty, applying this knowledge to conducting a Grand Prix car round the circuit at the very limit of tyre adhesion is another story.

It is probably true to say that no one has driven a Grand Prix car round the length of the Nurburgring on the ultimate limit of roadholding and power for a given car. In 22 laps it is unlikely that even the greatest drivers ever do a single faultless lap, and though they may find the limit of their car at every point of the course at some time during a race, by the time the next German GP comes round design of GP cars will have advanced and they will have to learn all over again, and so on.

“It appeared that roadholding that was good for an English billiard-table course was quite useless on the mountainous going of the Nurburgring”

Last year Fangio left the race lap record at 9min 41.6 sec, driving a Lancia/Ferrari, and with the circuit resurfaced for a greater part of its length this year it was anticipated that this time would be beaten. By just how much it was eventually beaten was something even the most excitable onlooker would not have dared to suggest.

With practice on Friday and Saturday, the Vanwall team took the opportunity of arriving a day early and hiring the track for a preliminary outing. Never having run their cars on the Nurburgring before this was a wise move, but, as it turned out, it would have been wiser had they brought Colin Chapman with them a week earlier. Brooks and Lewis-Evans took two of the cars out and even though the former was within two seconds of the existing record, they both reported a terrible ride with the cars airborne for a greater part of the lap and roadholding that was unpredictable, the car leaping sideways over the bumps and hammering the drivers with high-frequency vibrations.

It appeared that roadholding that was good for an English billiard-table course was quite useless on the mountainous going of the Nurburgring and mirrors fell off, bodies split and pipes came undone, while shock-absorbers were nearly red hot with overwork. However, this initial outing was very useful and enabled the mechanics to get the cars in a happier state before the start of official practice.

This race was to be a manufacturers’ affair, private owners not being invited, and the numbers were to be made up to a reasonable starting grid with a collection of Formula II cars, these competing in the Grand Prix but for separate awards. The Scuderia Maserati entered Fangio, Behra and Schell in 1957 six-cylinder cars, Scarlatti in a 1956 works-car and Godia in his own 1956 car.

The Scuderia Ferrari had three entries of Musso, Collins and Hawthorn in 1957 Lancia/Ferraris; Vanwall had three entries with Moss, Brooks and Lewis-Evans; the Scuderia Centro-Sud entered their two Maseratis, to be driven by Masten Gregory and Hans Herrmann, and BRM were to have completed the list with two cars.

With Flockhart still out of action the Owen racing team decided to withdraw rather than take two second-class drivers to such an exacting circuit, especially as the cars’ abilities at Nurburgring were unknown. At the last moment these two places were taken by Gould and Halford with their Maseratis.

In Formula II Porsche entered three works Spyder 1500RS sports cars driven by Barth, Maglioli and de Beaufort; Cooper entered Salvadori, while Brabham drove Rob Walker’s 1,500 Cooper-Climax. Other privately-owned Formula II Coopers were driven by Marsh, England, Naylor and Gibson. It was intended by Ferrari to pit his V6 1½-litre against these cars but it did not arrive as Enzo considered he had no driver available who could do justice to the car at the Nurburgring. Having Trintignant, Gendebien and Phil Hill locked up under contract this seemed a strange statement.

Qualifying

On the first practice day all three Vanwalls were soon circulating but the drivers were finding the physical strain almost unbearable. That the cars were going well was shown by the fact that in spite of complaints all three drivers were lapping around 9min 45sec but this was causing bits to break on the chassis. Their task was not made any easier by the horrible flat-spot in the middle rev-range causing the cars to splutter on acceleration; if a lower gear was selected the poor suspension allowed violent wheelspin to set in, so that, taken all round, the Vanwall team were a sorry sight to watch around the circuit, especially on the uphill section after Adenau. Back at the pits they were appearing over the Tiergarten brow on to the finishing straight faster than anyone but the weaves and swoops they went into when they hit the change of surface before the timing-box was really frightening.

Maserati were a lot happier, though they were a bit worried about the lightweight chassis frames and had a de Dion tube break on one car, while the lightweight welded front wishbones used all this season on one of the cars were replaced by the heavier forged wishbones. Fangio was hurling his Maserati about, showing how well it handled in power-slides, even if it was bumpy, though watching him on the descent to Adenau one wondered if it wasn’t Fangio and not the Maserati that was handling well, for last year he was excelling with the Lancia/Ferrari and the year before that with the W196 Mercedes-Benz! Almost immediately he turned in some laps at 9min 34sec and then did 9min 25.6sec, which left everyone, except Fangio, breathing hard.

After a few opening laps the Lancia/Ferraris went back to the paddock and had their front coil-springs changed, and then Hawthorn appeared to be doing enough work for the whole team. He gritted his teeth and had a real go, turning his best lap in 9min 37.8 sec, which was second fastest.

Of the Formula II cars, Salvadori was enjoying himself and put in a lap at 10min 08.6sec, which would have been good for a Formula 1 car a few years ago, while Barth got round in 10min 13.4sec, these two being easily the fastest, though for some time there was a puzzled air amongst the 1½-litres for the timekeepers credited Naylor with 10min 06.5sec instead of 10 min 46.5 sec, a time which even Naylor was nice enough to dispute.