1954 Formula One season
1954 Formula One season
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1954 Formula One season

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1954 Formula One season

The 1954 Formula One season was the eighth season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the fifth World Championship of Drivers, which was contested over nine races between 17 January and 24 October 1954. The season also included several non-championship races for Formula One cars.

Juan Manuel Fangio won his second Drivers' Championship, after previously winning it in 1951. After the first couple of races, he switched teams, going from Maserati to Mercedes-Benz, making him the only F1 driver in history to win a championship driving for more than one team in the same season.

After the championship had been run under Formula Two regulations for two seasons, the maximum engine displacement was increased to 2.5 litres for 1954. This increased average power outputs attracted several new constructors. At the same time, some F2 constructors withdrew, while others intended to compete but could not get an F1 chassis ready in time.

Argentinian Onofre Marimón suffered a fatal accident during practice for the German Grand Prix. Coming over one of the steep hills, he went straight through the corner at the bottom. His Maserati hit a ditch, somersaulted and landed on top of him. It was the first fatality during an F1 championship weekend.

In 1955, the movie The Racers came out, the story of which was based on the life of Rudolf Caracciola. Real-life racing footage from the 1954 F1 season was used, including in-race shots from a camera car that started behind the drivers in the Belgian Grand Prix. This approach would be recreated in the 1966 film Grand Prix.

The following teams and drivers competed in the 1954 FIA World Championship of Drivers. The list does not include those who only contested the Indianapolis 500.

The maximum allowed engine displacement was increased from 2.0 to 2.5 litres for naturally-aspirated engines. The limit for compressed engines was set at 750 cc, as it had been since 1952, but no constructor would build one before they were outright banned in 1961.

The championship started off with the Argentine Grand Prix. Multiple constructors intended to compete, but none of their cars were ready yet. The grid consisted of Ferraris, Maseratis and Gordinis, all of them adapting their 1953 chassis for the new regulations. 1950's champion Nino Farina qualified on pole position - he is the oldest F1 driver in history to start on pole - ahead of teammate José Froilán González and local hero Juan Manuel Fangio in the Maserati. At the start, González fell back to fourth, but after a remarkable recovery drive, he took the lead on lap 15. A third of the way in, a rainstorm arrived and the leader spun off. Farina pitted for a new helmet visor and third Ferrari driver Mike Hawthorn spun off as well. This left Fangio in a comfortable lead, until the track dried and he fell back to third behind González and Farina. A second period of rain caused the order to switch back around, putting Fangio ahead of the two Ferraris, but when the Maserati driver pitted for new tyres, he was back in third. Ferrari's team manager Nello Ugolini protested his rivals' pit stop, claiming they had too many mechanics working on the car. Confident that the protest would be granted, he signalled the leading pair to bring the cars home and not fight the charging Fangio. So they did, and they finished second and third behind the home hero. But then the FIA rejected Ferrari's protest and upheld the results, granting Fangio his first home win.

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