Mercedes F1 W196

The Mercedes-Benz W196 was the Formula 1 entry of Mercedes-Benz in the 1954 and 1955 Formula One season, winning 9 of 12 races at the hands of Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss.

Its delayed debut on the 1954 French Grand Prix brought the streamlined "Typ Monza" body for the high speed track at Reims-Gueux (and later Monza), and scored a 1-2 victory with Fangio and Karl Kling plus a fastest lap with youngster Hans Herrmann.

As the streamlined body was not situable for twistier tracks, causing a defeat at its second race at Silverstone, a proper open-wheel-version was introduced at the Nürburgring. Fangio, who had already won the first two GPs of 1954 with a Maserati, won this and the two following GPs, securing his 2nd World Championship.

In the 1955 Formula One season, the Mercedes managed to win all but one race, the 1955 Monaco Grand Prix, were Hans Herrmann crashed in practice, and the other 3 cars did not finish. For sportscar races of the 1955 World Sportscar Championship season, the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR was derived from it.

After winning all world championships it competed in, Alfred Neubauer retired the cars at the end of the 1955 season.

// Extracted from Wikipedia (see full text clicking here)//

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