Formula 1

About the season

On May 22, at the Monaco Grand Prix, Ascari missed his braking point at the chicane while leading and plunged his Lancia into the harbor - he emerged from the Mediterranean with nothing worse than a broken nose and swam to safety. Just four days later, on May 26, Ascari was testing a Ferrari sports car at Monza when he was killed in a crash at the very corner that still bears his name today. On June 11, at the Le Mans 24 Hours, Pierre Levegh's Mercedes collided with an Austin-Healey and disintegrated into the crowd, killing at least 82 people - the deadliest accident in motorsport history, which led to several grands prix being cancelled that year. Mercedes, having already planned to leave the sport at the end of the season, wrapped up the championship as planned and then withdrew from racing for decades, not returning until the 1980s. Juan Fangio won the 1955 Drivers' Championship with 40 points (Mercedes), 17 points ahead of the runner-up. Across 7 completed races this season, there were 93 retirements. 4 different drivers won a race this season. Juan Fangio took the most race wins, 4 in total. Fangio won the season-opening race, the Argentine Grand Prix. The Argentine Grand Prix saw the most retirements of the season, with 19 drivers failing to finish. The season's biggest upset win came from Sweikert at the Indianapolis 500, starting from grid position 14. The most dominant win of the season came at the Indianapolis 500, with a margin of 163.6 seconds. Thomson made the biggest gain of the season at the Indianapolis 500, from grid position 33 to finishing 4 (up 29 places). The closest finish of the season came at the British Grand Prix, with a gap of just 0.200 seconds. Fangio won the Italian Grand Prix, the final race of the season.