1951 British Grand Prix

The English Grand Prix was held mid-July in the year 1951. The drivers starting for Ferrari were Ascari, Villoresi and Gonzalez. The 1951 race almanac - in the chapter “First Training”, which is today’s free practice session on Friday, on 12th July 1951 - talks about the fastest lap time driven by Froilan Gonzalez in 1.43:4, followed by Fangio and Farina with Alfa Romeo.

In Saturday’s qualifying the Alfa Romeos gained the upper hand over the Ferraris and the fastest lap was driven by Juan Manuel Fangio. On the starting grid the first row went to Ascari (Ferrari), Farina (Alfa Romeo), Fangio (Alfa Romeo) and Gonzalez (Ferrari), the second row to Bonetto (Alfa Romeo), Sanesi (Alfa Romeo) and Villoresi (Ferrari).

The English GP was held on 14th July over 90 laps; the track was 4.649 km long, therefore the race distance was 418.421 km. At the start Bonetto took over the lead of the pack; by the end of the first lap he was still in the front, followed by Gonzalez, Farina, Ascari, Fangio and Villoresi. On the second lap Gonzalez overtook Bonetto and held the fist position in the field until lap number nine. On the 10th lap Fangio was leading ahead of Gonzalez. This order was held until the 20th lap. On the 40th lap Gonzalez lead the race, followed by Fangio, Farina, Ascari and Villoresi. On lap 50 Gonzalez was still leading the pack with a decent lead over Fangio of 1.14, followed by Ascari, Farina and Villoresi, who was fifth. Villoresi had to retire on lap 57, while on lap 60 Gonzalez came in to get petrol for his car (pit stop of 15 seconds); when he took up the race again he was leading in front of Fangio with 56 seconds ahead of his competitor. The gap on Fangio grew to around 1.20:000 and the cars crossed the line in the following order: Gonzalez, Fangio, Villoresi, Bonetto.

The victory for Ferrari in F1 was the symbolic step for the racing team from Maranello ahead of their great rival Alfa Romeo, where Enzo Ferrari had worked for 20 years. Enzo Ferrari received the news on the phone much later, while he was in his office; the next day the President of Alfa Romeo sent a telegram, which made Ferrari even more proud of the victory achieved at Silverstone.

José Froilan Gonzalez’s nickname on the other side of the English Channel was “The Pampas Bull”, due to his extremely determined driving style and his impressive physique. Born in Argentina Gonzalez was a friend and competitor of one of his fellow countrymen and one of the most famous racing drivers of all times: Juan Manuel Fangio, who back then was racing for Alfa Romeo. One day the Ferrari driver Gonzalez told the following anecdote: "A couple of days before the British GP Juan sent me out on the Silverstone track with an Alfa. "Pepe," he told me after he had studied the track, "I think this time you’ll win."

For this race, over a distance of 400 kilometres, the 375 F1 was fitted with a 12-cylinder engine, which allowed the team to have one pit stop less and applying a one-stop-strategy in contrast to their competitors. The one-stop-strategy was enabled by the 375 F1’s naturally aspirated engine, which consumed less petrol than the supercharged Alfa Romeo engines.

Froilan gained the pole position for the race. "The race’s organisers,” Gonzalez said, “were determined to guaranteeing the best possible race. [...]. Whoever would have had an early start would have been punished immediately with a five-minute penalty. We were so frightened by this threat that when the flag finally came down the three cars from the second row passed us immediately….although just for a moment.”

"I took the lead, but Juan was chasing me when his car became lighter with less fuel. At a certain point he closed the gap and overtook. I still have a photo showing us looking at each other while he’s passing me on the main straight. His advantage vanished at the first pit stop, when his car was heavy again after refuelling. From then on I had a very good edge.” Another exciting moment for the Argentine driver was when he had to stop for refuelling and he thought that Ascari could overtake him, but the Italian driver had already retired from the race. "When I stopped at the box to refuel Ascari put his hand on my shoulder and told me to go on. Like this I had the honour to win the first race of the Championships for Ferrari.’

At the moment of victory with Ferrari Gonzales, also called "el cabezon", because of his big head, was 29 years old. Later on in his career he won further races with Ferrari in 1954, when, together with Maurice Trintignant, he gained victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the Ferrari 375 Plus.

Ferrari 375 F1

The definitive model of the 275 F1’s development was the 375 F1 with the cylinder capacity of Ferrari's aspirated engine was brought to the limit of the regulations with 4493 cc in time for the Italian GP at Monza on 2 September 1950, where Ascari finished second, after his car stopped and he took Serafini’s, sharing the points. The first win finally came on 14 July 1951 in the English GP at Silverstone. The Argentinean José Froilàn Gonzalez managed to beat the Alfa Romeos, taking the 375 F1 to victory. Two weeks later, Ascari won the German Grand prix and, later, at Monza. But it wasn’t enough to overtake Fangio for the drivers’ title, due to the defeat at Barcelona when the tyres gave out.