Fangio on Form In 50C:

When Mercedes Won an F1 Grand Prix in January

European teams and drivers had been visiting South America to race since the 1930s, but in 1947 a series of races started in Buenos Aires that would influence the course of Formula One history.

Amongst the visiting Europeans that year was the great Achille Varzi, who spotted the speed in a 35-year-old local who was doing great things at the wheel of a homebrew Ford & Chevy special.

The world soon discovered what Argentina had known for years – Juan Manuel Fangio was a unique talent.

It was at Buenos Aires in 1951 that Mercedes-Benz had tested the waters for a grand prix return, with Fangio at the wheel of the awesome W 154.

While that experiment had proven to be a dead-end, the connection between Fangio and Mercedes was solidly established.

Fangio was the cornerstone of the new Mercedes F1 challenge from 1954, and now the great champion and The Silver Arrows were returning to Buenos Aires to open a new World Championship season.

New season, new driver line-up.

Stirling Moss signed his contract to race for Mercedes in Stuttgart on the 4th of January, met the press, then immediately joined teammates Karl Kling & Hans Herrmann and the Mercedes-Benz racing team to fly to Argentina.

There to meet them at the airport was Fangio, mobbed by fans. The champion has spent the off-season at home and is comfortable in this southern summer.

Practice began wet, as everyone started to shake down their new machines. But once the weather cleared the temperature began to rise day-on-day as the race approached.

Teams did all they could to cool the cars and drivers, and the visiting Europeans took on as much fluid as they could. Still, no-one quite knew what to expect as the temperature rose beyond 50C on race day.

What a race was in prospect.

The 'III Gran Premio de la Republica Argentina', the Argentine Grand Prix, was to be held over 96 twisting laps of the 'Autódromo 17 de Octubre' in Buenos Aires.

It was reported that perhaps a quarter of a million people were squeezed in and around the circuit, eager to see battle rejoined between their two local heroes, Fangio and González – racing the best in the world for glory and championship points.

While the visiting drivers continued to drink and drink, Fangio had taken a quite different approach. For the previous month he had increasingly abstained from water – training his body to cope with dehydration.

Now, as he climbed aboard his new, silver Mercedes his partner Adrianna wished him well with a shout of, “Good luck, camel!”.

The field roared away from the start in a haze of smoke and rising heat. Fangio – González – Ascari – Farina – Moss. Ascari's wickedly-quick Lancia nails González's Ferrari into the first corner, and sets off after Fangio.

It settles down with Ascari – Fangio – González – Moss running within fractions at the front. Wily Fangio is playing the long game.

Twenty laps in and the field begins to thin, as blistering heat wrecks machines and ruins concentration.

Ascari, from the lead, drops the Lancia on oil and smashes into a fence. Just then González pits from third place, the big man near collapse with the heat and exertion – Magioli takes over the Ferrari.

Fangio now regains his place at the head of the race, but all is not well on-board the leading Mercedes.

“Once or twice, I felt as if my Mercedes-Benz had caught fire. I turned right round to look but there was nothing to be seen,” the home hero would remark later on.

The hot air rushing through the cockpit is burning Fangio's neck and shoulders, but worse still the exhaust is heating the chassis, now burning and scaring his leg.

Up and down the pitlane drivers are stopping and swapping, and doing all they can to mitigate the incredible heat.

Stirling's Mercedes baptism of fire apparently ends when his W 196 stops out on track. Climbing from the blistering machine he seeks shade, lies in the grass and closes his eyes. The track-side medics mistake him for a case of heatstroke and whisk the protesting Brit to hospital.

On lap 34 Fangio makes his pitstop. In three minutes “Camel” drinks two bottles of lemonade, wipes his face with a wet towel and, grimacing against the pain, rejoins the furnace in third place.

For now, another Argentinian, Roberto Mieres, leads – he will be one of only two men who complete the entire race solo. In quick order the other, Juan Fangio, is past and back in the lead of his home Grand Prix.

The only other remaining Mercedes in the race is driven by Hans Herrmann, until he is called in to hand over to Karl Kling.

Kling does what he can until hospital escapee Stirling Moss appears in the Mercedes pit box and is sent out to bring the car home in 4th.

But at the front it's undeniably Fangio.

He crosses the line a minute and a half ahead of the rest – the three cars chasing in his wake each having had three drivers over the last three hours. The formidable, great man has judged his preparation and race perfectly to win at home and launch the second season for Mercedes in Formula One.

Mercedes won’t be racing in F1 this month, but as in 1955 they will meet their rivals in January.

The first shakedown of the season in Barcelona probably won't hit the heights of 50 degrees, but it will be the first chance to see how Brackley & Brixworth have met the challenge of 2026.

As in Buenos Aires, the opposition will be formidable. But now as then, for Mercedes-Benz it is the best or nothing.