1957: Maserati's first Championship year

It is often mentioned in discussion of the Maserati MC12 that the last year the factory officially competed in a championship was 1957. It is well worth a retrospective on that season, almost fifty years ago; a year which saw the fabled 250F racing car enjoy its greatest success.

The 250F was introduced in 1954, like many Maseratis it was an immediate success, winning its first race with Juan Manuel Fangio at the wheel. Later in the season Fangio moved on to Mercedes and won the World Championship, retaining the title the following year. He made it three in a row in 1956, racing for Ferrari, and was reunited with Maserati for 1957.

From the start of the season the factory introduced a new variant of the 250F, with thinner tubing used in the chassis and restyled bodywork. For the first race, the Argentine Grand Prix, three of the new cars were driven by Fangio, Stirling Moss and Jean Behra, while older versions were raced by Harry Schell, Carlos Menditeguy and Jo Bonnier.

The Maserati proved almost unbeatable; first, second and third in qualifying led to a remarkable 1-2-3-4 finish. Moss claimed pole and set the fastest lap of the race but it was Fangio who took the win, ahead of Behra and Menditeguy.

The next round of the championship was the famous and prestigious Monaco Grand Prix. Fangio took pole position, just over half a second clear of Peter Collins' Ferrari; but a 4th lap accident put Collins out and Fangio went on to take his second win of the season, over 25 seconds ahead of the Vanwall of Tony Brooks. He also claimed the rare 'Triple Crown' of pole, race win and fastest lap. Masten Gregory took third in a 250F, so that five of the six podium positions so far had been occupied by Maserati drivers.

The third round of the series was the Indianapolis 500 - this was something of an oddity, as none of the 'regular' drivers or teams competed in the Indy race, and none of the Indy drivers raced in other Grands Prix.

So the next time the 250F saw action was at the French Grand Prix, at Rouen. Yet again it was a Maserati on pole, Fangio being quickest, with Behra second. The race ran for a little over three hours - and Fangio claimed still another victory, 50 seconds clear of the Ferrari of Luigi Musso. At this point, with four more races remaining, Fangio already looked to have an unassailable lead in the Championship with 25 points; no other driver even had double figures.

However, the fifth round of the Championship didn't go according to the script; Fangio could do no better than fourth fastest in practice, with Behra claiming the second spot on the grid, just 0.2s behind the Vanwall of Moss. In the race Fangio was eventually forced to retire with a rare engine problem, while Behra went out while leading with just 21 of the 90 laps remaining. It was the first race of the season where no Maserati driver was on the podium.

Just the name of the track used for the sixth race brings a shiver - of anticipation, appreciation, fear - to the aficionado: the Nürburgring may well be the most daunting and dangerous circuit ever used for a Grand Prix. As usual, the 1957 German Grand Prix was held on its 14 miles of twists and turns, kinks and blind crests, with almost no margin for error on the tree-lined circuit.

Fangio claimed pole, lapping in 9min 25.5s - a new record. Behra was third, with the two Maseratis sandwiching the Ferrari of Mike Hawthorn. But the race that followed has passed into motorsport legend, with a truly astonishing performance by Fangio, often hailed as the greatest drive in history.

Besides being long and daunting, the Nürburgring was also notoriously bumpy, a punishing test of both car and driver. In order to minimize stress on the car, Maserati decided to make a pit-stop at half-distance, reducing the weight of fuel being carried; during the stop, the rear tires were also changed. By contrast Ferrari ran the entire 300-mile race without stopping.

At first it appeared the Maserati tactics would work, with Fangio setting off at a furious pace, to establish a sufficient gap for his pit-stop. But the stop took longer than expected, and he dropped to third, a minute behind the Ferrari duo of Collins and Hawthorn. Surely the race was lost.

But the nimble 250F, plus the new rear tires, were the perfect match for the sublime skills of Fangio. Unleashing a truly astonishing sequence of laps, the maestro took up to 12 seconds a lap out of the lead. He smashed his own lap record by a remarkable 24 seconds, and with just two laps remaining, he was close behind his quarry. Hunting them down relentlessly, both were passed in a single lap, Fangio staying in the lead for the whole of the last lap and taking victory by just three seconds.

The victory secured Fangio's fifth and, as it transpired, final World Championship; the significance of the almost unbelievable performance has hardly diminished over the intervening years.

On to the Grand Prix of Pescara, on Italy's Adriatic coast - and a circuit which was even longer than the Nürburgring, at 15.9 miles. Pescara had two enormous 3-mile straights, together with a tortuous inland section. Fangio took pole with a lap more than 10 seconds faster than his nearest rival - but in the race, it was his friend and arch-rival Stirling Moss who took the win for Vanwall, ahead of a Maserati 2-3-4 of Fangio, Schell and Gregory.

The season finale was the Italian Grand Prix, held on the Monza road course. From the beginning of practice it was apparent that the British Vanwall team had the advantage, taking 1-2-3 in qualifying; Fangio was fourth, ahead of Behra and Schell. Once again Fangio ran a conservative, intelligent strategy in what proved to be a race of attrition; despite having been down in seventh at the end of the first lap he came home second behind Moss.

That second place was almost irrelevant; under the rules at the time, only the best five results counted, and so the points earned at Monza were discarded. With four wins and two second places from seven starts, it is clear that Fangio and the Maserati 250F were a match made in heaven; it is fitting that the final World Championship for the great Argentine maestro came in a Maserati of such renown, a car beloved by all its drivers. The next Maserati to run under the Trident banner was the MC12, destined to be equally beloved.