No, not the fiddly little annexe that they use today, but the real thing, the Daddy of all circuits; the fearsome Nordschleife. (Although, contrary to popular belief, it is not the longest circuit to have hosted a Grand Prix; That honour goes to Pescara, at a whopping 15.9 miles!) Even at its inception the concept of a 14 mile circuit with a simply un-countable number of corners in the Eifel mountains was, to say the least, sheer lunacy; that Grand Prix cars continued to race on this behemoth until the mind 1970's just plain madness. But what madness. What fantastic, unrepeatable madness!
'The 'Ring' was loved and loathed in equal measure; revered by those who conquered its myriad of twists and turns and ups and downs, despised by those who feared its unpredictablity. First used for a World Championship race in 1951, the great Alberto Ascari triumphed, his Ferrari leading home Fangio, Gonzales, Villoresi...legends all. But the real legend of the 'Ring, perhaps one of the greatest legends of all in Grand Prix racing, was written on August the 4th, 1957.
Juan Manuel Fangio, the incomparable Argentine, had conquered the 'Ring in '54 in the astonishing Mercedes-Benz, and again in '56 (there being no race in '55 following the terrible Le Mans disaster) for Ferrari, and in '57 was aboard yet another legend, the beautiful Maserati 250f. Before we go any further, here's something worth thinking about: at the time of this, some say his greatest (indeed some say the greatest) race, Fangio was forty-six years old. Forty-six! No mere whipper-snapper, then, but still a colossus in his world.
His rivals that day were comparably younger: Mike Hawthorn the dashing young blonde Englishman making his name at Ferrari, a mere 28 years old, and his great friend and team mate Peter Collins, a mere 25. Another of the 'English brigade' Stirling Moss, then at Vanwall, had won on home soil at Aintree.
The 'Ring echoed to the sound of Moss's machine as he set out on his first qualifying lap, returning a time of record pace. Then the Ferrari pair beat it, and the Maserati of Jean Behra went quicker still. Now Fangio emerged, wrestling the red machine around the forests with all his verve, and blitzing Hawthorn's time by a full three seconds. The race was on.
Lap after lap the Maestro destroyed the lap record, pulling out a lead of nearly half a minute over the two Ferraris by the half way mark. Then - surprise; Fangio brings his car into the pits and the mechanics begin filling her with fuel! Surely now, as the Scuderia cars roared past into the lead, the Argentine had been beaten?
There is an oft-quoted passage from the late Ayrton Senna regarding a time at Monaco when he transcended what he believed normal, and passed onto a different plane, lapping faster and faster until he became scared. The same seemed to happen with Fangio that day in 1957. With ten laps to go he was a minute behind. Five laps later the gap had been reduced to 25 seconds! Fangio was simply in a world of his own. Another five seconds the next lap, and another seven seconds then next! The spectators knew they were seeing the most inspired drive of all time, Juan Manuel manhandling the big machine around the bends, throwing stones and gravel into the air as the skinny tyres struggeld for grip.
Lap 20, two more to go, and the Maserati is a mere 100 yards behind the two Ferraris. Half way around the 21st lap Fangio blasted past his two rivals, snatching a victory that had seemed impossible just ten laps before.It was his last win, and with it he took his fifth World Championship. Truly a wonderful performance.
But let us not forget the other venues that have staged German Grands Prix. Hockenheim, of course, in its original state a high speed blast through the forests followed by the stadium section which makes up most of the sadly depleted circuit that we know today. And Avus. used only once, in 1959; this circuit consisted of two very long straights and a banked corner at each end. In that race Tony Brooks won at an average speed of over 143mph, a pace unheard of even at Indianapolis in those days and not exceeded in a Grand Prix until the Belgian race at Spa in 1966!
So, back to Germany's contribution to the Drivers Championship. You may be forgiven for believing it to be a one-family show, but the brothers Schumacher are far from the only contributors to the cause. Indeed, it may be argued that the German star on the rise is Nick Heidfeld, having finally secured a seat worthy of his talent this season. Prior to the current crop Heinz Harald Frentzen carried the flag to a number of victories, although his career echoed that of many of his countrymen who promised so much only to deliver so little. Jochen Mass, for instance, whose sole career win came at Spain in 1975, at the expense of countryman Rolf Stommelen who was leading when his terrible crash ended that race. Both Mass and Stommelen, again typically, went on to many race wins in Sports Car races.
As did the two young Germans who were tragically killed in the mid-1980's, both in Porsches, both on the cusp of successful careers. First, Stefan Bellof, reckoned by ken Tyrrel to be the most talented driver ever to race one of his cars. Bellof is best remembered for the famed 1984 Monaco race where, in the driving rain, one Ayrton Senna was catching Alain Prost's McLaren at an alarming rate, while in third place, Stefan was reeling in Senna at an even greater rate of knots! And Manfred Winklehock, a man who raced anything he could get his hands on, and whose qualifying performances in an underfinanced and overpowered ATS in the early '80's left many breathless and spellbound. Great talents cut down in their prime.
And lets spare a thought for a few forgotten names: Kurt Ahrens, who tried so hard at Brabham in the late 1960's;Karl Kling, Fangio's loyal and fast number two at Mercedes Benz in the Fifties; Herman Lang, another Mercedes stalwart, and Hans Stuck, both senior and junior, whose performances in the '50s and '70s respectively typified the German driver of the time. And there were many more, those who came and went, who left a mark on the record books and then moved on.
But a final word must go to Wolfgang 'Taffy' von Trips, the man who, by all accounts, would have become the first World Champion from German. However, while at the wheel of the beautiful 1961 Ferrari, a terrible accident at Monza sent his car barreling across the track and into a group of spectators, killing the driver and fourteen others, injuring dozens more. It was a tragic end to the fine career of this aristocratic gentlemen.
We returned to Hockenheim this weekend with a home victory unlikely. Michael, having swept all before him for season upon season, struggles with a curiously inferior Ferrari; brother Ralf has the quick-in-qualifying but not-so-quick in the race Toyota under him, and is a likely points scorer, and Heidfeld ploughs on with his Williams-BMW, a repeat of his previous pole on home ground looking nigh on impossible. In the middle of the 1980's it seemed that every other driver in Formula One was French. In the late 1990's until the present a German has utterly dominated. There are no French drivers left now, and the German domination appears to be waning. I wonder which nation will produce the new crop of 'next best things'?
Written by 3 on Mon, 25 Jul 2005 10:16:52
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