The 1956 Formula One World Drivers’ Championship all boiled down to the last race of the season, at Monza. The destiny of the title lay between two men with hitherto contrasting careers – Juan Manuel Fangio, the brilliant Argentinian who had been world champion in each of the past two seasons, and Peter Collins, the young British driver who was just beginning to make his mark in Formula One. Fangio had won that year in Argentina, Britain and Germany, while Collins had triumphed in Belgium and France. Under the complicated points scoring system of the time, which took into account a driver’s best five finishes, Fangio had 30 points from his best five. In order to add to his total, he had to finish first or second at the Italian Grand Prix. Going into that race, Collins had 22 points from four finishes. So if he were to win at Monza, set fastest lap (which earned an extra point) and Fangio were to finish outside the first two, Collins would snatch the title by 31 points to 30. There was everything to play for.
To complicate matters, Fangio and Collins were team-mates at Lancia-Ferrari. In the absence of Mercedes, who had withdrawn from Formula One in the wake of the 1955 Le Mans tragedy, Lancia-Ferrari had swept virtually all before them in 1956 and Monza looked like being no exception. Fangio took pole position from team-mates Eugenio Castellotti and Luigi Musso, but Collins could do no better than row three. Before the race Fangio had expressed concern about tyre wear, believing that it was the only thing which stood between his team and victory. He suggested to Castellotti and Musso that they carve up the race between them. Fangio offered to set the pace and then towards the finish, to allow the other two through to fight out victory. Fangio was perfectly content with third place so long as Collins wasn’t in with a chance of winning. Fangio hoped that the idea of tucking in behind him and thereby conserving their tyres for much of the race would appeal to the two Italians but they wanted no part of it, preferring to go their own way.
As the flag fell, Fangio moved smoothly into the lead but was passed almost immediately by Musso and Castellotti, who seemed to be treating the race as one of five laps rather than 50. Their pace was suicidal and after just five laps, exactly as Fangio had predicted, both dived into the pits with their tyres in shreds, leaving the front four as Fangio, Stirling Moss in a Maserati 250F, Collins, and Harry Schell in a Vanwall. Further down the field, Jo Bonnier, in his first championship race, had taken over Luigi Villoresi’s Maserati after four laps but had to retire himself just three laps later with valve trouble. And on lap six the Marquis de Portago’s Lancia-Ferrari slid dramatically down the banking after losing a tyre and quit the race with a bent suspension.
Back at the sharp end, Castellotti lost another tyre on lap nine and retired after spinning wildly into the barrier, and two laps later Collins had to stop for a new tyre when lying in fourth. Then on lap 19, sensation. Fangio pulled into the pits with a broken steering arm. The damage could be repaired but the delay would wreck any chance Fangio had of winning the race. The pit signalled for Musso, who had moved up to third, to come in and hand over his car to Fangio so that the championship quest could be resumed, but Musso ignored the instruction and drove on. Eventually, after four laps had been lost, Castellotti drove away in Fangio’s repaired car, there being no point in Fangio returning to the fray so far adrift. As each lap passed the Argentinian could see his title hopes disappearing a little further. A world champion without a car.
Moss was now in the lead and pulling away from Schell. By half-distance the Englishman’s advantage was 13 seconds. On lap 28 Schell stopped to refuel, promoting Musso to second, but two laps later Musso came in for a tyre check. Everyone expected that Fangio would take over, but Musso insisted on continuing. To Fangio’s credit, he bore no malice.
Collins managed to get past Schell (who then retired on lap 32 with transmission trouble) and was still in third place on lap 35 when he came in for a tyre check. With Fangio seemingly out of the running, Collins had a very real chance of taking the title but when asked by Fangio’s manager if he would consider handing his car over to the world champion, Collins did not hesitate. He jumped out of the cockpit, allowing Fangio to inherit third place. Fangio threw his arms around Collins in sheer exuberance and gratitude and sped off, hell-bent on making the most of his good fortune. Moss was still half a lap ahead of Musso until on lap 45 he ran out of fuel on the back straight. As the car slowed to around 120mph (193.1km/h), Moss spotted Luigi Piotti’s privately entered Maserati coming up behind in seventh place and gestured to the Italian to give him a shove. The compliant Piotti tucked in behind Moss and proceeded to nudge the works Maserati round the curve to the pits, where Moss was able to refuel!
Moss rejoined in second place behind Musso but with only a ten-second margin over Fangio. Three laps from the finish, however, the steering arm on Musso’s car broke as he was exiting the banking and he coasted to a halt in front of the pits. Despite a tyre that was almost bald, Moss held off Fangio’s challenge to win by 5.7 seconds.
Moss took the race, Fangio the title, both having received a helping hand in different ways. Afterwards, track officials tried to disqualify Moss because he had been given a push, but Moss protested that Piotti was his team-mate and was therefore permitted to give him a push. In fact, Piotti was a privateer, but the officials swallowed the argument and allowed Moss’s victory to stand. As for Collins, was his decision to throw away the chance of the championship an illustration of supreme sportsmanship or sheer stupidity? Collins tried to explain it away by saying that Fangio deserved the title and hinted that he (Collins) would never have been able to cope with the adulation anyway. Whether that would have been the case, we were never to know. For two years later, Collins was killed at the German Grand Prix before ever realising the chance to be world champion.