STORY OF THE DAY: Musso’s Ferrari Carries Fangio to Victory
Luigi Musso and Juan Manuel Fangio shared the number 34 Lancia-Ferrari D50 to win the 1956 Argentine Grand Prix at Buenos Aires. The race opened the World Championship season and marked Fangio’s championship debut for Ferrari. After his original car developed trouble, the team called in Musso and transferred the D50 to Fangio, a legal practice at the time; the two drivers consequently shared the victory and its championship points.

The race began with the Maseratis prominent, while Fangio’s first Ferrari challenge was interrupted by mechanical difficulty. Taking over Musso’s car around one-third distance, he resumed from the midfield, recovered from a spin and pursued the leaders. As Carlos Menditeguy retired and Stirling Moss’s Maserati weakened, Fangio advanced to the front and completed a remarkable recovery made possible by Musso’s enforced sacrifice.

The D50 had been designed by Vittorio Jano for Lancia and passed to Ferrari after Lancia withdrew from Grand Prix racing in 1955. Its compact 2.5-litre V8 was mounted at an angle within the chassis, while the original design used distinctive side-mounted fuel tanks to improve weight distribution. Ferrari revised the cars during 1956, combining Jano’s advanced concept with the Scuderia’s development resources.

Luigi Musso was an Italian Grand Prix and sports-car driver who joined Ferrari after establishing himself with Maserati. Juan Manuel Fangio, the Argentine master already holding three world titles, had moved to the Scuderia for 1956. Their shared success joined two very different career trajectories
Musso surrendered a potential result for the team, while Fangio began the campaign that brought him his fourth World Championship.