One into Three

As Mercedes Benz team mates in 1955, Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss had demonstrated – if demonstration were needed – that they were head and shoulders above their rivals. The withdrawal of Mercedes at the end of that year led Moss to Maserati and Fangio – reluctantly – to Ferrari for 1956. Although it gave him the fourth of his five world titles, Fangio never appeared truly comfortable with the Lancia Ferrari. This discomfort was obvious at Monaco where he bounced his car off numerous kerbs until it broke and he was forced to retire it. During the course of this 100 lap race he took over the cars of team mates Peter Collins and Eugenio Castellotti to take a share of both 2nd and 4th places. Even using 3 cars, Fangio had no answer for his erstwhile teammate Moss who exploited the sublime qualities of the Maserati 250F, steering it on the throttle around the unforgiving streets of Moncao to take the first of 3 victories around the principality.