The 1955 Formula One season was the ninth season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the sixth World Championship of Drivers, which was contested over seven races between 16 January and 11 September 1955. The season also included several non-championship races for Formula One cars.
Juan Manuel Fangio won his second consecutive World Championship title, his third in total. This was the last championship for a Mercedes driver until Lewis Hamilton in 2014.
The season was coloured by tragedy. Two drivers were killed during the 1955 Indianapolis 500: Manny Ayulo and Bill Vukovich, winner of the two previous editions. Italian Mario Alborghetti died at the non-championship Pau Grand Prix. Alberto Ascari, World Champion of and , was killed while testing a Ferrari 750 Monza at Monza. Four Grands Prix were cancelled after ex-Formula One driver Pierre Levegh was killed in the 1955 Le Mans disaster, along with 83 spectators. As of 2026, with just seven rounds completed during the season, the 1955 World Championship Grand Prix season jointly holds the record (along with the inaugural World Championship of Drivers season in 1950) for the fewest World Championship races held in a year for Grand Prix cars in the history of what is today referred to as the Formula One World Championship.
Teams and drivers The following teams and drivers competed in the 1955 FIA World Championship. The list does not include those who only contested the Indianapolis 500.
Entrant Constructor Chassis Engine Tyre Driver Rounds Daimler Benz AG Mercedes W196 Mercedes M196 2.5 L8 Juan Manuel Fangio 1–2, 4–7 Karl Kling 1, 4–7 Stirling Moss 1–2, 4–7 Hans Herrmann 1–2 André Simon 2 Piero Taruffi 6–7 Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 625555 Ferrari 555 2.5 L4 Umberto Maglioli 1, 7 José Froilán González 1 Maurice Trintignant 1–2, 4–7 Harry Schell 2, 4 Piero Taruffi 2, 4 Paul Frère 2, 4 Mike Hawthorn 5–7 Eugenio Castellotti 5–7 Giuseppe Farina 1–2, 4 Lancia D50 Lancia DS50 2.5 V8 7 Officine Alfieri Maserati Maserati 250F Maserati 250F1 2.5 L6 Jean Behra 1–2, 4–7 Roberto Mieres 1–2, 4–7 Sergio Mantovani 1 Luigi Musso 1–2, 4–7 Carlos Menditeguy 1, 7 Clemar Bucci 1 Harry Schell 1 Cesare Perdisa 2, 4 André Simon 6 Peter Collins 7 Horace Gould 7 Alberto Uría Maserati A6GCM Maserati 250F1 2.5 L6 Alberto Uría 1 Scuderia Lancia Lancia D50 Lancia DS50 2.5 V8 Alberto Ascari 1–2 Luigi Villoresi 1–2, 7 Eugenio Castellotti 1–2, 4 Louis Chiron 2 Equipe Gordini Gordini T16 Gordini 23 2.5 L6 Élie Bayol 1–2 Pablo Birger 1 Jesús Iglesias 1 Robert Manzon 2, 5–6 Jacques Pollet 2, 5, 7 Hermano da Silva Ramos 5–7 Mike Sparken 6 Jean Lucas 7 Ecurie Rosier Maserati 250F Maserati 250F1 2.5 L6 Louis Rosier 2, 4–5 Vandervell Products Vanwall VW 55 Vanwall 254 2.5 L4 Mike Hawthorn 2, 4 Ken Wharton 6–7 Harry Schell 6–7 Stirling Moss Ltd Maserati 250F Maserati 250F1 2.5 L6 Lance Macklin 2, 6 Johnny Claes 4 Peter Walker 5 John Fitch 7 E.N. Whiteaway HWM-Alta 53 Alta GP 2.5 L4 Ted Whiteaway 2 Equipe Nationale Belge Ferrari 625 Ferrari 625 2.5 L4 Johnny Claes 5 Gould's Garage (Bristol) Maserati 250F Maserati 250F1 2.5 L6 Horace Gould 5–6 Connaught Engineering Connaught-Alta B Alta GP 2.5 L4 Kenneth McAlpine 6 Jack Fairman 6 R.R.C. Walker Racing Team Connaught-Alta B Alta GP 2.5 L4 Tony Rolt 6 Peter Walker 6 Leslie Marr Connaught-Alta B Alta GP 2.5 L4 Leslie Marr 6 Cooper Car Company Cooper-Bristol T40 Bristol BS1 2.0 L6 Jack Brabham 6 Owen Racing Organisation Maserati 250F Maserati 250F1 2.5 L6 Peter Collins 6 Gilby Engineering Maserati 250F Maserati 250F1 2.5 L6 Roy Salvadori 6 Scuderia Volpini Arzani-Volpini-Maserati F1 Maserati 4CLT 2.5 L4 Luigi Piotti 7
Team and driver changes
Stirling Moss moved from Maserati to Mercedes, like Juan Manuel Fangio had done already during the 1954 season. Maserati hired Jean Behra from Gordini, after which the French team reunited with Robert Manzon, their driver from and the years before. Vanwall hired Mike Hawthorn from Ferrari, so Peter Collins moved to Owen Racing Organisation, which would later become British Racing Motors. Lancia had made their debut at the end of and entered the 1955 season with full-time ambitions. They were able to hire top-class drivers Alberto Ascari, Luigi Villoresi and Eugenio Castellotti.
Mid-season changes Maserati driver Sergio Mantovani lost a leg in a crash during practice for the non-championship Valentino Grand Prix. The team hired Cesare Perdisa, who finished third on his debut. Peter Collins had been driving a Maserati 250F for Owen Racing Organisation when Maserati's team leader, impressed with his results, offered him a seat at the works team, starting at the Italian Grand Prix. However, Collins parted with the team after just one race, as Ferrari offered him a seat for . André Simon substituted for Mercedes driver Karl Kling in the Monaco Grand Prix. Double World Champion Alberto Ascari lost his life while testing a Ferrari 750 Monza at Monza. Along with serious financial troubles, this led to Lancia's team owner to halt operations and hand all assets to Enzo Ferrari. Ferrari brought back Mike Hawthorn to drive, after the Brit had spent half a year with Vanwall. The 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans did not only see tragedy during the race: in Friday practice, Élie Bayol (driving in F1 for Gordini) had to avoid two spectators crossing the road. This caused him to have a severe crash, suffering a fractured skull and broken vertebrae. He was out of racing for the rest of the year, so the Gordini team hired sports car and rally driver Hermano da Silva Ramos. Gordini's team manager Jean Lucas took the wheel in the Italian Grand Prix, because Robert Manzon was unavailable.
Calendar Round Grand Prix Circuit Date 1 Argentine Grand Prix Autódromo Oscar Alfredo Gálvez, Buenos Aires 16 January 2 Monaco Grand Prix Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo 22 May 3 Indianapolis 500 Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Speedway 30 May 4 Belgian Grand Prix Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot 5 June 5 Dutch Grand Prix Circuit Zandvoort, Zandvoort 19 June 6 British Grand Prix Aintree Motor Racing Circuit, Merseyside 16 July 7 Italian Grand Prix Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, Monza 11 September
Calendar changes The Monaco and Dutch Grand Prix returned to the calendar after they had been run for the last time in and , respectively. The British Grand Prix was moved from Silverstone to Aintree, in keeping with the event-sharing arrangement between the two circuits.
Cancelled rounds In the aftermath of the 11 June 1955 Le Mans disaster, the 19 June 1955 Dutch GP took place, but the French Grand Prix was postponed from 3 July to 25 September and later cancelled altogether, along with the German, Swiss and Spanish rounds.
Grand Prix Circuit Original date French Grand Prix Reims-Gueux, Gueux 3 July (25 September) German Grand Prix Nürburgring, Nürburg 31 July Swiss Grand Prix Circuit Bremgarten, Bern 21 August Spanish Grand Prix Pedralbes Circuit, Barcelona 23 October
The circuits at Pedralbes and Bremgarten were never used again for racing. Motor racing head to head on circuits was banned altogether in Switzerland until the 2018 Zürich ePrix.
Championship report
Rounds 1 to 3
For the third year in a row, the championship opened early with the 16 January 1955 Argentine Grand Prix, followed a week later with the 1955 1000 km Buenos Aires opening the sports cars WC season. The Ferrari factory entries got disqualified, but a private Ferrari won anyway. The speed weeks ended with the 1955 Buenos Aires Grand Prix Formula Libre two-heat sprint race in which most drivers used their regular F1 cars. Mercedes took the opportunity to test the enlarged pump gas 3.0 version of the F1 engine intended for sports car racing in the upcoming 300 SLR, with Fangio winning a second race for Mercedes.
The Grand Prix was held in very hot weather of the Argentine summer. José Froilan González started on pole position. The Argentine had been a full-time Ferrari driver in , but it would be his only race this year. Next to him on the front row started two double World Champions: Alberto Ascari in the Lancia and Juan Manuel Fangio in the Mercedes. Fangio took the lead at the start, but lost it to Ascari on lap 3. Teammate Stirling Moss went from eighth to third, while behind them, drivers and cars were beginning to succumb to the heat of . On lap 21, Ascari crashed out by himself, leaving González in the lead. However, he was still recovering from his accident in the 1954 RAC Tourist Trophy and got exhausted. Fearing he could not hold Fangio behind, he pitted to hand the car to teammate and 1950 World Champion Nino Farina. Fangio pitted as well, for new tyres and to cool off, while Moss retired due to a vapor lock in the fuel pump. This left another local driver, Roberto Mieres in the Maserati, in the lead after starting sixteenth. Sadly, his fuel pump faltered as well and he spent 10 minutes in the pits, coming home in fifth. Besides Mieres, Fangio would be the only classified driver not to have switched cars during the race, and went on to win. Two Ferraris completed the podium, but each had seen three different drivers behind the wheel, so Fangio had an immediate lead in the championship.
With the F1 season having a four month break, teams and drivers focussed on testing or sportscar racing in Sebring or at the Mille Miglia.
The 22 May 1955 Monaco Grand Prix returned to the F1 calendar, after the 1950 pile-up race. The 1952 edition had been run with sportscars rather than F2. The 1955 GP was given the honorary title of European Grand Prix. A new rule to qualifying had been added: only the times recorded in the first practice session on Thursday afternoon would count for the front row of the grid and, thus, for pole position. The rest of the starting places would be decided by the remaining sessions on Friday and Saturday morning. This was done to entice spectators to come and watch every session, but it was an unpopular idea with the drivers. Fangio set the fastest time, ahead of Ascari and Moss, so they could relax and use the remaining sessions to try out car set-ups for the race. At the start of the race, Fangio held on to the lead, but Ascari fell back. Moss took second place after a few laps and was slowly closing up to his teammate in front. After the two drivers behind Moss pitted, Ascari was left in a lonely third place until, at half-distance, Fangio stopped on track with a broken transmission and, on lap 81, Moss's engine blew up. Ascari took the unexpected lead of the race, but mere seconds later, crashed coming out of the harbour chicane and plunged into the water. He was lucky to escape with just a cut on the nose. Maurice Trintignant took the win for Ferrari, the first of his career, ahead of Eugenio Castellotti for Lancia and Cesare Perdisa in Jean Behra's Maserati.
The Indianapolis 500 was included in the Formula One championship, but no F1 drivers attended. Bob Sweikert won the race.
In the Drivers' Championship, Maurice Trintignant (Ferrari) was leading with 11 points, ahead of Juan Manuel Fangio (Mercedes) with 10 and Bob Sweikert (Kurtis Kraft) with 8. Sweikert would not compete in any other rounds.
Rounds 4 to 6
Four days after the Monaco Grand Prix, double World Champion Alberto Ascari was tragically killed in a test session at Monza. Further burdened by financial troubles, the Lancia team was left with two cars and just one driver. Soon, all assets would be merged into the Ferrari team, but this did not stop Eugenio Castellotti from scoring his first career pole position in the Belgian Grand Prix. The Mercedes cars of Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss started beside him on the front row. Championship leader Maurice Trintignant started down in eleventh out of thirteen. At the start, Fangio and Moss quickly took the lead and never looked back. Castellotti retired on lap 16, allowing 1950 World Champion Nino Farina to finish third for Ferrari.