These weren’t little GoPros hanging off of the Maestro’s Lancia. Each of these cameras had to be loaded with film, started up, and run a few laps. Then they had to do it again and again so that you don’t see the giant camera in the other angles. It’s easy to dismiss the complexity of these earlier onboard films when we can easily toss a half-dozen or more digital video cameras on a car at every possible angle. It’s part of what makes early onboard footage so precious.
Looking through the slow motion montages in this clip, I have to believe it was part of the inspiration for Saul Bass’s racing sequences in Grand Prix.
via Retro Formula 1
0 replies on “Onboard with Fangio at Monaco”
An ashtray as an example steering wheel. Between that and the hand motions I’m sure that modern fighter pilots understand every gesture he made.
Of the modern F1 drivers I think the only one who could have ever driven those beasts of the ’50s anywhere close to Fangio would be Senna.
This footage was taken around 1971, so it post-dates the saul Bass Grand prix sequence. It’s from the movie “Fangio.” He basically drove the D50 on the streets durign the practice week for the GP, but you can see that the parked cars are still there! I watched this movie so much as a kid that the VHS tape simply wore out.
Thanks Bradley. I wanted to keep Bass’s sequences holy and now I can.
Best such film I’ve ever seen. The way he throws that car around with curbs and parked cars! And I’d never heard Fangio’s voice before. If 1971 is correct, Im surprised, as I did not know a D 50 survived that long. As best I know, all those now are re-creations.
An absolulte work of art. Wonderful editing and use of music.
Amazing piece of footage, I had the honour of watching him in action for real, I was four & half years old, but I remember it as though it was yesterday. Fangio wouldn’t delibrately drive into someone to win a race, Senna is/was nothing like him
The eras aren’t comparable. But it would have been interesting to see Senna drive a 50’s GP car at, say, Spa. My nominee for the guy with the least problem with backwards time-travel is Jenson Button–SOoooo smooth. At least Fangio had a sense of humor. Senna, not so much.
[…] […]