HistoryData
sports1956

1956 Formula One season — sports season

January 1, 1956

Fangio's 1956 championship was his fourth title, a record unsurpassed until Michael Schumacher in 2002.

Quick Facts

Year
1956
Category
sports

Key Facts

Championship races
8 races, 22 Jan – 2 Sep 1956
Champion
Juan Manuel Fangio (Ferrari)
Fangio's total titles
4 (record until Schumacher 2002)
Non-championship races
9
Season number
10th FIA Formula One season

By the Numbers

8
Championship races
4
Fangio's total titles
9
Non-championship races
10
Season number

Cause → Event → Consequence

Cause

Following back-to-back championships in 1954 and 1955, Juan Manuel Fangio joined Ferrari for the 1956 season, where he faced competition from teammate Peter Collins and Maserati's Stirling Moss in a fiercely contested eight-race championship.

Event

The 1956 Formula One World Championship of Drivers ran across eight rounds between January and September. Fangio drove for Ferrari and secured his third consecutive and fourth overall Drivers' Championship, with Collins and Moss as his chief rivals. No British constructor won a championship race.

Consequence

Fangio's fourth title set a record that stood for 46 years until Michael Schumacher surpassed it in 2002. The season also saw the death of veteran racer Louis Rosier, who sustained fatal head injuries in a sports car race at Montlhéry on 29 October 1956.

Result

Juan Manuel Fangio (Ferrari)
Fangio's fourth Drivers' Championship title, a record until Michael Schumacher in 2002

Timeline Context

Timeline around 19561956195319541955195719581959Basketball at the 1956 Summer Olympics — 1956 Olympic Summer Games competitionFootball at the 1956 Summer Olympics — 1956 edition of the association football tournament during the Olympic Summer Games1956 Summer Olympics medal table1956 AFC Asian Cup — football tournamentHungarian Revolution of 1956 — 1956 revolution in HungaryAthletics at the 1956 Summer OlympicsHundred Flowers Campaign — period in Chinese history1956 Winter Olympics — 7th edition of Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy1956-formula-one-season-sports-season-1956