1956 World Sportscar Championship

1956 World Sportscar Championship
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The 1956 World Sportscar Championship season was the fourth season of the FIA World Sportscar Championship. It was a series for sportscars that ran in many worldwide endurance events. It ran from 29 January 1956 to 12 August 1956, and comprised five races.

Following the major incident at the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans that killed 80 spectators, defending constructor's champion Mercedes-Benz officially pulled out of motorsports and thus did not return to the sport.

Due to the fallout of the accident at Le Mans, the race was not included as part of the schedule until safety had been brought up to a higher standard. The Targa Florio was also cancelled due to safety concerns.

This led to the shortest season in World Sportscar Championship history, as well as one of the fewest amount of factory-backed competitors for many years.

Season

Ferrari won the championship with a 860 Monza, similar to this, winning at Sebring

The 1956 World Sports Car Championship was contested just five races. While much of the hullabaloo surrounding the tragedy at Le Mans had subsided by January 1956, those in the international racing community were still contending with the fallout. The 24 Heures du Mans had been removed from the series, but would return in 1957 following track improvements. With legendary races such as the Targa Florio and the RAC Tourist Trophy also dropped from the calendar amid safety concerns. The Targa Florio like Le Mans, would run as a non-championship. As for the RAC Tourist Trophy, it would never return to Dundrod. Returning to the championship was the 1000 km Nürburgring and a new race, the Sveriges Grand Prix. [1][2]

The Championship was remained for manufacturers, and works teams such as Scuderia Ferrari, Officine Alfieri Maserati, Aston Martin and Jaguar Cars leading the way, but as the previous seasons, the majority of the fields were made up of amateur or gentlemen drivers, often up against professional racing drivers with experience in Formula One. Sometimes, even the Drivers World Champion joined in.

For Ferrari’s assault on the 1956 championship, they settled on using virtually identical four- and twelve-cylinder-engined machines. Both cars shared exactly the same chassis and similarly styled, Carrozzeria Scaglietti built aluminum bodies. The more successful of the two was the V12-engined 290 MM, which was driven to a debut victory in the Mille Miglia by Eugenio Castellotti. In the season finale, Phil Hill and Maurice Trintignant added a second win to the 290 MM's tally in only its third major race. The sister 860 Monza had an equally impressive first outing, with a one-two victory in the Florida International Grand Prix of Endurance. During the remainder of the season, the big fours supported Ferrari's chase for the championship with valuable podium finishes. With three very convincing wins in the five rounds, Ferrari was deservedly crowned World Champion at the end of the 1956 season. The third time in four seasons, the title went to Maranello.[3][4]

Ferrari’s chief rivals, Maserati hired Stirling Moss for the season, and prepared a works team for all the rounds of the World Sports Car Championship. At the opening round of this season, the 1000 km Buenos Aires, the factory efforts paid off, when all the large 4.0-litre Ferraris suffered mechanical problems, and the car driven by Moss and local hero, Carlos Menditéguy took overall victory, in a 300S. For the next rounds at Sebring and the Mille Miglia, Maserati prepared the 350S. The cars were on pace but succumbed to the competition. The Internationales ADAC 1000 Kilometer Rennen auf dem Nürburgring changed this when Moss and Jean Behra took over a second car, brilliantly drove it to victory. The finished at the Sveriges Grand Prix and Maserati had high hopes to gain enough points to win over Ferrari. Despite bringing five cars, all the Maseratis retired, leaving Ferrari to take all the top five places and the Manufacturer's Championship. [5][6]

Season results

Results

Date Round Event Circuit or Location Winning driver Winning team Winning car Results
29/01 Rd. 1 Argentina 1000km of Buenos Aires Autódromo Municipal-Avenida Paz United Kingdom Stirling Moss
Argentina Carlos Menditéguy
Italy Officine Alfieri Maserati Italy Maserati 300S Results
24/03 Rd. 2 United States Florida International Grand Prix of Endurance Sebring International Raceway Argentina Juan Manuel Fangio
Italy Eugenio Castellotti
Italy Scuderia Ferrari Italy Ferrari 860 Monza Results
29/04 Rd. 3 Italy Mille Miglia Brescia-Rome Italy Eugenio Castellotti Italy Scuderia Ferrari Italy Ferrari 290 MM Sachlietti Results
27/05 Rd.4 West Germany Internationales ADAV 1000 Kilometre Rennen auf dem Nürburgring Nürburgring Italy Piero Taruffi
United States Harry Schell
France Jean Behra
United Kingdom Stirling Moss
Italy Officine Alfieri Maserati Italy Maserati 300S Results
12/8 Rd.5 Sweden Sveriges Grand Prix Rabelövsbanan United States Phil Hill
France Maurice Trintignant
Italy Scuderia Ferrari Italy Ferrari 290 MM Results

Championship

Maserati placed second with the Maserati 300 S (pictured)
Jaguar placed third with the D-Type

Note:

Pos Manufacturer R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 Total
1 Italy Ferrari (6) 8 8 (6) 8 24 (36)
2 Italy Maserati 8 2 8 18
3 United Kingdom Jaguar 4 3 7
4 United Kingdom Aston Martin 3 2 5
5 Germany Porsche 1 3 4
6 Germany Mercedes-Benz 1 1 2

The cars

The following models contributed to the net championship point scores of their respective manufacturers.


References

  1. http://www.racingsportscars.com/championship/World%20Championship.html
  2. http://www.sportscardigest.com/1956-sebing-12-hours-grand-prix-race-profile/
  3. http://www.racingsportscars.com/championship/World%20Championship.html
  4. http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/forum/showthread.php?t=40431
  5. http://www.racingsportscars.com/championship/World%20Championship.html
  6. http://www.supercars.net/cars/1057.html

Further reading


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