Talk:1951 French Grand Prix

Car switch

Why did Fangio and Fagioli practically "switch cars" mid-race? And which of the two drivers had the highest average speed (per lap, say) on their resp. two partial rides put together (and could thus be considered the "moral single winner" of the race)? --Roentgenium111 (talk) 21:17, 16 October 2011 (UTC)

Fangio's car suffered some kind of problem, so when Fagioli pitted for fuel, the team put Fangio (the faster driver - see their qualifying times) in the car, presumably both to maximise the car's result in the race, and to try to score some points for Fangio, who was second in the championship at the start of the race. The team eventually fixed Fangio's car and sent Fagioli back out, albeit 20 laps behind, perhaps in the hopes of delaying the Ferraris(?) or perhaps hoping to pick up some points if there were a lot of retirements. I don't have access to the individual lap times, but my guess is that Fangio would have had the higher average speed. As for the "moral single winner" of the race, I think that's a moot point: Fangio certainly wouldn't have won the race without Fagioli and I suspect Fagioli wouldn't have won it without Fangio. DH85868993 (talk) 01:57, 17 October 2011 (UTC)

It is not Wikipedia's role to make moral judgements, merely to report what is. --Falcadore (talk) 03:29, 17 October 2011 (UTC)

@DH85868993: I see. Thanks for the comprehensive answer! If you have a reference for your first two sentences handy, it would be good to add them to the article IMO. --Roentgenium111 (talk) 18:18, 18 October 2011 (UTC)