22nd May 1955: The Teddy Bear That Won at Monaco

On 22 May 1955, Maurice Trintignant — a Provençal winegrower's son who had once been declared clinically dead and carried a stuffed teddy bear in the pocket of every racing car he ever drove — became the first Frenchman to win a World Championship Grand Prix. He did it because the Mercedes-Benz juggernaut collapsed, and because Alberto Ascari — the two-time world champion who had been about to inherit the lead — drove into Monaco harbour on lap 81 and sank to the bottom. Ascari walked away. Four days later he was dead.This episode tells the story of that race in full — and three others on the same date: Jackie Stewart winning in 1966 as the new 3-litre formula produced just four finishers; Jody Scheckter and Walter Wolf's five-month-old team beating the world in 1977; Kimi Räikkönen winning wire-to-wire in 2005 while a championship leader burned his tyres to nothing and an Australian finally stood on a Formula One podium for the first time. Send us Fan MailMusic by #Mubert Music Rendering