GP: French GP
Date: 1st July 1951
Winners: Luigi Fagioli and Juan Manuel Fangio – Alfa Romeo
Let's talk about the Grand Prix run over the longest distance ever, if one excludes the Indianapolis 500 Miles, which was part of the World Championship in its first decade. 77 laps of the Reims circuit, totalling 601.832 kilometres.
This was a time when the rules allowed two drivers to share one car and that's exactly what Fangio and Fagioli did.
Now Fagioli was a special case, as for him this was not only his first Formula 1 win, it was also his last, and it came at the age of 53. An unbeaten and most likely unbeatable record.
He was born in Osimo, in the province of Ancona in Italy on 9 June 1898. He started racing motorcycles before switching to four wheels in 1925.
His career seemed never ending, even spanning the second World War. He drove for Ferrari, Mercedes and Auto Union in the Thirties, racing against many legendary drivers, starting with his Mercedes team-mate Rudolph Caracciola.
Then, at the end of the Forties, he raced for Fiat and O.S.C.A., before spending the Fifties with Alfa Romeo, as part of the famous “3F” squad – Farina, Fangio, Fagioli.
His passion and grit were extraordinary, but his career ended following a bad crash in a Lancia Aurelia B20 during practice for the 1952 Monaco GP for GT cars.
He died three weeks later on 20 June, holding the unique records of having the longest career and winning the longest Grand Prix.
In 2025 Pirelli will hit the 500 F1® Grands Prix mark during the season.
Legacy of Speed series looks back at the fifty most significant Grands Prix from Pirelli's time on the F1 World Championship trail.
