Formula 1 in recent years traditionally lives the month of January like the middle period between the season ended the previous year, and the one ready to finally start, generally in March. A moment characterized by the desire of enthusiasts to hear the engines rekindle, placated by the presentations of the single-seaters, the latest market news and the first seasonal tests, the starter of a world championship that is less and less far from the start. Yet, in a Formula 1 now far from today’s in many respects, all this collective patience simply did not exist. At the dawn of the new solar year, in fact, there was an appointment that brought teams and drivers back to the track immediately in the southern hemisphere, where the summer heat contrasts with the post-Christmas frost: the Argentine Grand Prix.
Joined the world championship for the first time in 1953, the twenty editions disputed were always held on Buenos Aires circuit, capital of the South American nation. On the occasion of the inaugural test, it ended with the all-Italian success of Alberto Ascari, who managed to establish himself behind the wheel of his Ferrari. Except for this tricolor triumph, the Argentine public experienced its best moments in the rest of the 1950s, characterized by the affirmations of the house idol Juan Manuel Fangio: the five-time world champion won four overall victories – in a row and with four different cars – from 1954 to 1957, becoming the driver with the most successes in Argentina.
Still on the subject of the representatives of Formula 1 albiceleste, the GP returned to the calendar only in 1972 after a long period of absence – only the editions of 1958 and 1960 were held – just in conjunction with the debut in the Circus of another Argentine: Carlos Reutemann. The latter, although unable to win, however, realized the dream of shooting from pole position the absolute debut in the category, moreover at home. The special relationship between the Sad Gaucho and his Argentina was able to consolidate even at the end of his career, so much so that he first became Governor of the Province of Santa-Fe and, subsequently, Senator. A link between F1 and Buenos Aires politics, which experienced decidedly more complex moments at the turn of the 70s and 80s.
The race, which returned to the program in 1972, underwent a second interruption in 1976: in that year, in fact, Juan Domingo Peron became the new President of the nation after a violent one military coup, which brought about the establishment of a dictatorship that remained in power until 1983. Despite this heavy authoritarian climate, one of the heaviest in the history of the twentieth century, the Circus resumed competing in GPs regularly from 1977 to 1981, with this latest edition marking the first race later than in January. In this long period, the stage in South America nevertheless highlighted some of the most curious and emblematic moments in the history of this sport: in addition to Reutemann’s first pole, there was no lack of an appointment with the first podium of Niki Lauda in 1974, followed by another first departure at the stake, in 1975, by Jean-Pierre Jarier. The first statement of the Wolf with Jody Scheckter, who immediately led the Canadian team to success on the occasion of the debut, without forgetting the first joy of the podium of three other drivers in two consecutive editions: between 1980 and 1981, this satisfaction was first experienced by Nelson Piquet and Keke Rosberg, and subsequently by Alain Prost. The third and definitive return of the Argentine Grand Prix finally took place in the mid-1990s, once again in a period distant from January. From 1995 to 1998, it was Damon Hill to seize two victories with Williams, becoming the only one, together with Fangio and ad Emerson Fittipaldi, to win more than one race in Buenos Aires. Curiously, the last time F1 set foot in Argentina, in 1998, the success of a Ferrari became concrete – that of Michael Schumacher – almost as if to want to close the circle of a story born in 1953, which began precisely with the statement of a Red.
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