Season Summary
Fangio joined Ferrari after Mercedes-Benz, with whom he had won the 1954 title, withdrew from the sport. Ferrari acquired the folded Lancia team's D50 cars and put together a strong team containing Fangio, Eugenio Castellotti, Luigi Musso and Peter Collins. Fangio won the opening race after commandeering Musso's car after his own car had broken down. Collins and Fangio's team-mate at Mercedes, Stirling Moss – now driving for Maserati provided the biggest challenge to his title defence, each winning two races. In an open season the British Connaughts, Vanwalls and BRMs also showed some signs of promise.
Going into the final race of the season, Fangio had an eight-point lead over Collins and the consistent Jean Behra, driving for Maserati. The only way he could lose the title would be to score no points with Collins winning and setting fastest lap. (Because a driver could only count their best 5 scores, Behra could not win the title). Fangio retired, and with Musso unwilling to share his car with Fangio, Collins had a great chance of winning his first title. Collins, in a remarkable act of sportsmanship, instead chose to hand his car over to Fangio to allow the Argentine to finish second in the race and win his third title in a row.
Points were given to top 5 finishers (8, 6, 4, 3, 2). 1 point was given for fastest lap. Only the best five scores counted towards the world championship. Points for shared drives were divided equally between the drivers, regardless of who had driven more laps.
Read more about this topic: 1956 Formula One Season
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