1954 Formula One Season: Fangio's Second Title and the Mercedes Switch

This was the eighth year of FIA Formula One, and the title went to Juan Manuel Fangio in a way no driver had managed before. He switched from Maserati to Mercedes-Benz in the middle of the year and still won the championship.

How did Fangio win his second title in 1954?

Juan Manuel Fangio won the 1954 Drivers' Championship for Maserati and Mercedes-Benz, his second title after 1951. He was the only Formula One driver to win a title while driving for more than one team in the same season, and he ended the year on 42 points.

Fangio switched after the first couple of races. Mercedes was unable to get its cars ready sooner, so it joined the championship from the French Grand Prix onwards, and Fangio left Maserati for the German outfit, where Karl Kling and Hans Herrmann were his teammates.

The move paid off. Mercedes' streamlined W196 cars took pole and the early wins, and Fangio's consistency across the rest of the year was enough to take the title before the final race.

Fangio switched from Maserati to Mercedes mid-season and still took the title, a first in the sport.

What changed in the rules and the entry list?

The championship had been run under Formula Two regulations for two seasons, and for 1954 the cap on engine size went up from 2.0 litres to 2.5 litres for naturally aspirated units. The higher power attracted several new constructors.

Some F2 constructors withdrew, while others planned to compete but could not get a Formula One chassis ready in time. Cooper and Connaught did not enter their works teams, HWM built a chassis that lacked pace, and Veritas, OSCA and AFM withdrew because of the new rules.

Compressed-air engines were still limited to 750 cc, as they had been since 1952. No constructor built one before the outright ban in 1961.

Owen Racing Organisation, later known as British Racing Motors, returned to the sport at the French Grand Prix, and Vanwall made its debut at the British Grand Prix with Peter Collins. Lancia joined too, but could only prepare its car for the last race of the season.

How did the early rounds unfold?

The championship opened in Argentina, where Nino Farina took pole, and Jose Froilan Gonzalez recovered from fourth to lead on lap 15. Fangio then won his first home race after Ferrari's protest over a rival pit stop was rejected by the FIA.

A rainstorm and the drying track kept changing the order. Fangio led, dropped to third, and then came back to the front. Ferrari's team manager had signalled his leading drivers to hold back, expecting the protest to be granted, but it was not, and Fangio finished first.

At the Indianapolis 500, which was included in the championship, no Formula One drivers attended, and Bill Vukovich won for a second year in a row. In Belgium, Fangio broke his 1951 lap record for pole, but he messed up the start and then took the lead on lap 3. He passed Farina again after his visor broke and won ahead of Maurice Trintignant and Stirling Moss.

After the first three rounds, Fangio led the Drivers' Championship with 17 points, ahead of Trintignant and Vukovich on 8 each. Vukovich did not compete in any other round.

Which races did Mercedes control?

Mercedes arrived for the French Grand Prix and was quickest from the start. Fangio and Kling set the fastest times and ran side by side for most of the race, before Fangio took the win by a couple of yards.

At Silverstone, Fangio was on pole again, but the Mercedes bodywork gave less advantage on the British circuit than it had at Reims. Gonzalez won the race ahead of Hawthorn and Onofre Marimon, after rain caused several accidents and Moss's back axle failed with ten laps to go.

The German race carried the honorary name Grand Prix of Europe, and four Mercedes entries turned up, and Fangio scored his third pole in a row. The race was overshadowed by the fatal accident of Marimon in practice, and the Maserati works team withdrew.

When did Fangio clinch the championship?

Fangio clinched the title at the Swiss Grand Prix, where he needed only to keep Gonzalez from winning. He led his rival home by almost a minute, with Herrmann a lap down, and the win was enough to make the title his.

After Switzerland, Fangio stood on 42 points. Gonzalez was second on 23 points plus a shared fastest-lap fraction, and Trintignant was third with 15. Several drivers had shared the fastest lap in Britain, so the points were split into fractions.

How did the season end?

Fangio won the Italian Grand Prix, and Lancia finally joined the grid for the Spanish race with its D50. Hawthorn won in Spain, with Musso second and Fangio third, giving three different constructors on the podium.

At Monza Fangio lost the lead to Kling at the start, and Kling dropped to fifth after a mistake. Ascari retired with engine failure, and Moss's oil pressure failed on lap 68. Fangio won, with Hawthorn second and Umberto Maglioli third in the car Gonzalez had handed over.

In Spain Ascari took his first pole of the year, but his clutch gave out on lap 9. Schell led briefly and retired with a broken gearbox, and Trintignant also retired from the lead with similar trouble.

What tragedies and changes shaped the grid?

The season was marked by the death of Onofre Marimon in practice for the German Grand Prix. His Maserati hit a ditch, somersaulted and landed on top of him, and it was the first fatality during a Formula One championship weekend.

Felice Bonetto had been killed in the 1953 Carrera Panamericana, and Prince Bira and then Sergio Mantovani took over his drive. Alberto Ascari left Ferrari over a salary dispute to join the newcomers at Lancia, and Luigi Villoresi made the same change.

Farina became Ferrari's team leader when Ascari left, but he crashed in a sports car race at Monza on 27 June. He spent 20 days in hospital and did not return to Formula One for the rest of the year.

What did the 1954 season leave behind?

The season has a place in film history. The 1955 movie The Racers used real footage from the 1954 Formula One season, including footage shot from a camera car that began the Belgian race behind the field.

The same approach was recreated in the 1966 film Grand Prix. For Fangio, the title was his second, and it came in a season that changed the rules and the entry list.