Juan Manuel Fangio claimed his fifth and final Formula One world title in 1957, a record unsurpassed until Michael Schumacher in 2003.
Key Facts
- Championship races
- 8 rounds, 13 January – 8 September
- Champion driver
- Juan Manuel Fangio (Maserati)
- Fangio's total titles
- 5 (record until Schumacher in 2003)
- Runners-up streak
- Stirling Moss, runner-up for 3rd consecutive year
- Driver fatalities
- 3 (Castellotti, de Portago, MacKay-Fraser)
- Last Pirelli title year
- 1957 (as of 2025)
By the Numbers
Cause → Event → Consequence
The 1957 Formula One season was the 11th year of the FIA World Championship, held amid intense competition among constructors including Maserati, Ferrari, and Vanwall. Fangio had already won four consecutive championships, and Maserati fielded a competitive car capable of challenging across all eight championship rounds.
Juan Manuel Fangio drove for Maserati across eight World Championship races, securing his fifth drivers' title. Stirling Moss served as his closest rival but finished second for a third successive year. The season was also marked by the deaths of three drivers—Eugenio Castellotti, Alfonso de Portago, and Herbert MacKay-Fraser—in racing incidents outside the Formula One championship.
Fangio's fifth title set a record that stood for 46 years until Michael Schumacher surpassed it in 2003. The deaths of three drivers, particularly de Portago's accident at the Mille Miglia which killed eleven people including spectators, intensified scrutiny of motorsport safety and contributed to the eventual cancellation of that road race.