February 13: Today in Racing

Looking back on this day in race history, 13 February proved lucky for Nino Farina who drove his Ferrari 125 to victory in the 1949 Argentinean Temporada race in Rosario, Argentina.

Enzo Ferrari finally yielded to the obvious to introduce his first ‘rear-engined’ Formula 1 car. Actually mid-engined, the famous ‘sharknose’ Dino 156 was all-new as it also complied with a required F1 reduction of engine displacement from 2.5 to 1.5 litres. 

It was a bittersweet car for Enzo, who had always believed the 'horse should be in front of the cart’, as he described it a front-engined car and Phil Hill would go on to win the 1961 World Championship for Ferrari. But teammate Wolfgang von Trips died driving a 156 in a catastrophic Monza accident that also killed fifteen spectators.

This time of the year is notorious for what is today called click bait as Formula 1 teams jockey for a slice of the off-season media spotlight and today in 1997 saw Alain Prost acquire Ligier team to establish his own Prost team. 

In 2004 Williams boss Patrick Head speculated that driver Juan Pablo Montoya had  already signed a contract with McLaren for 2005 over a 2003 French Grand Prix disagreement after Montoya swore at the team over concerns it had changesd strategy to give teammate Ralf Schumacher an advantage.

Motorsport said goodbye to a legend when Maurice Trintignant passed away at 87 years old on 13 February 2005. Trintignant was France’s first grand prix winner at  Monaco in 1955 and also won the '54 Le Mans 24 Hour with Froilan Gonzalez, having raced grands prix in Bugatti, Vanwall, Ferrari, BRM, Aston Martin, Cooer and Lotus, among others... (Photo: Ferrari)