With echoes of the energy-sapping 1926 European Grand Prix, this race was run in unbearably hot conditions. At the start of the three-hour ordeal, the temperature in the shade at Buenos Aires stood at 100 degrees Fahrenheit while ground temperatures exceeded a staggering 125 degrees. Only the strong or the acclimatised could hope to survive and in the event only two drivers – Juan Manuel Fangio and Roberto Mieres – were able to last the distance. Not surprisingly, both were Argentinians. Everyone else either gave up altogether or had to stop at some point for a rest, enabling a fresher driver to take over, so that in the course of the 96-lap race there were 16 driver substitutions among the 21 starters and more than 50 pit stops.
Froilan Gonzales put his Ferrari on pole, and back on the third row was up-and-coming British driver Stirling Moss, new to Mercedes-Benz for 1955, having been with Maserati. There was a typically mad rush into the first bend and when things sorted themselves out at the end of the opening lap Fangio’s Mercedes had a slender advantage over Alberto Ascari (Lancia), Moss, Gonzales and Nino Farina (Ferrari). On the second lap a multiple crash involving Jean Behra and Karl Kling reduced the number of participants to 16, and on the following lap Ascari moved to the front, only to be overtaken soon after by Gonzales. The battle between Ascari and Gonzales raged until lap 22, when Ascari spun on a patch of oil and crashed into the fence.
As early as quarter-distance, drivers were coming into the pits in a state of extreme fatigue. After Ascari’s retirement, Gonzales stopped for a rest, his car being taken over by Farina who himself had been relieved a matter of a few laps earlier by the Ferrari spare driver, Umberto Maglioli. When Farina soon found the going too tough, he was replaced for a time by Maurice Trintignant who, in a distinction shared with Behra, would go on to drive three different cars in the race. Meanwhile Moss retired on lap 30, too exhausted to continue, and abandoned his Mercedes at the side of the track. Four laps later Fangio, the new leader, stopped for refreshment and the welcome opportunity to pour cold water over himself. The delay allowed Harry Schell’s Maserati to seize the initiative but soon the American, too, was affected by the heat and was substituted by Behra. Mieres had a stint in front until he was kept in the pits for ten minutes with fuel pump problems.
It was so hot in the stands that halfway through the race all of the soft drinks supplies had run out, forcing parched spectators to buy wine bottles filled with tap water which were brought in by an emergency fleet of lorries from the surrounding area. An indication of the debilitating nature of the heat was that one Ferrari actually had five different drivers, the car standing idle in the pits for an entire lap because none of the drivers was fit enough to take the wheel. Finally it was Gonzales who, after a prolonged rest and an injection to alleviate back pain, climbed into the cockpit, earning the nickname of ‘Cabezon’ (the stubborn one) from his home crowd.
Gonzales resumed the struggle a considerable distance behind Fangio but began closing at the rate of five seconds per lap. Fangio was now on the brink of collapse himself and on more than one occasion contemplated giving up. He later recalled: ‘Once or twice I felt as if my Mercedes-Benz had caught fire. I turned right round to look, but there was nothing to be seen. It must have been the wind carrying the hot air from below the car, and up round the cockpit to burn my shoulder and neck.’ A few laps from the finish Mercedes team boss Alfred Neubauer signalled to Fangio to come into the pits to hand over the car to Moss, who was now suitably refreshed by a shower, but Fangio pretended not to understand and pressed on. He kept going by imagining that he was lost in the snow. His predicament was helped by an accident to Gonzales who pressed so hard that he spun off, bending the Ferrari’s front suspension. He was more than happy to hand the car back to Farina, who drove on to the finish. With one supreme last effort, Fangio came home almost two minutes ahead of the Gonzales/Farina/Trintignant/Gonzales/Farina Ferrari with the Farina/Maglioli/Trintignant/Maglioli Ferrari in third. When it came to the prize-giving, Fangio was so tired he could hardly stand. It had been that sort of a race.