Fangio's Formula E link: Günther makes Maserati history in Jakarta

Nevertheless, the victory, on a street track in Jakarta, Indonesia, was considered significant on a number of levels. Talented 25-year-old German Maximilian Günther last won a Formula E race in 2021 when he was still racing for BMW. But following a disappointing season at Nissan a move to Monaco-based Maserati MSG (formerly known as the Venturi team) didn’t spring him back to the sharp end this season. In fact, with a powertrain developed by Maserati parent company Stellantis, early-season performances suggested he was in for a tough time – which is a shame, because as he showed at BMW, the kid’s a bit special.

But then his fortunes began to turn around. A podium in Berlin marked a significant upturn, then in Jakarta a pair of pole positions for the double-header confirmed the team had found the key. Günther then converted the second into a convincing victory.

Good for him. Good for the team. And good, it seems, for Maserati – because here’s the other slab of significance: the victory marked the first for the Trident as a ‘works’ entity in a world championship single-seater race since… the 1957 German Grand Prix (although while we’re on spurious historical links let’s doff our figurative cap at this point to Pedro Rodríguez and his victory in the 1967 South African Grand Prix in a Maserati V12-powered Cooper).

So here we have the link to Juan Manuel Fangio. Gulp. Sacrilegious? You might well say so! In the same sentence? Really? You could say there’s something of a chasm between Fangio’s six-cylinder 250F and one of motor racing’s most hallowed performances – at the Nürburgring, for Christ sake! – and the weird looking, whining Gen3 racer that Günther scrabbled around a short and not very memorable street track. And anyway, just how much Maserati is actually in this Maserati anyway?

The victory that will mean the world to Günther and his team. But how can it be compared in any way to… well, this.

Fangio, at 46, is facing an unequal struggle against the Ferraris of Peter Collins and Mike Hawthorn, the Mon Ami Mates looking certain to race through the 22 laps of the 14-mile circuit without stopping for tyres. The Maestro reasons his only hope is to fuel light, make a stop and back himself to make up the deficit. Who else, bar Stirling Moss, eh?

Scroll through Motor Sport’s archive and Denis Jenkinson is in thrall to the great man. “The fantastic Fangio was in his element with so many fast corners and descents and increased his lead by 7sec a lap from Hawthorn and Collins, who were in close formation,” he writes of the race’s early stages. “By lap eight he was 28sec in front and had set the lap record at 9min 30.8sec.” A year before, when driving for Ferrari, Fangio had set the lap record at 9min 41.6sec. That’s some gain – but Jenks hasn’t yet seen the half of it yet.

The 52-second botched pitstop has scuppered Fangio’s carefully laid plan. Three-quarters of a minute up the road, the two friends in their Ferraris appear out of reach. “For three laps, while his tyres were new and the tanks heavy with fuel, Fangio made no impression on the two Lancia/Ferraris,” writes Jenks, “but lap 16 saw the gap reduced to 33sec and the next time round it was 25.5sec. The Ferrari pit became frantic and urged the two Englishmen to greater things but there was nothing they could do, and Fangio was smiling happily to himself as he first of all lowered the lap record to 9min 28.5sec, then to 9min 25.3sec. On lap 19 he did 9min 23.4sec and the gap was only 13.5sec, and Hawthorn and Collins knew their race was run, for when ‘the old man’ gets in a record-breaking groove there is no one to stop him, especially on the Nürburgring.”

At the end of lap 20, it has dawned on the 200,000-strong crowd what they are witnessing. Collins falls to Fangio first at the left-handed Nordkerve, while Hawthorn loses his lead out in the forests – although to his credit refuses to lie down and be beaten. “Then came the most shattering announcement of the whole race,” writes our man. “’Fangio has just lapped in 9min 17.4sec!’ — an unbelievable record but obviously true.”

Years later, while talking to Nigel Roebuck, Fangio reflected: “The Nürburgring was always my favourite circuit – I loved it, all of it, and I think that day I conquered it, but on another day it might have conquered me, who knows? Afterwards I knew what I had done, the chances I had taken – I believe that day I took myself and my car to the limit, and perhaps a little bit more. I had never driven like that before, and I knew I never would again.”

Sends shivers, doesn’t it? Poor Maximilian Günther! It’s not really the same thing, is it?

Then again, while clearly it’s tricky territory, I’d argue it’s also not entirely wrong to reach out for a connection across the decades. Whatever we think about EVs and Formula E – and yes, yes, I know, so many of you loath it all – the series and concept is doing something right to attract these glorious old brands. And if they are to survive and thrive for new generations, it is the case they must find new relevancy in the modern world, and adapt. We might cringe, but I’d say Maserati deserves a racing future rather than being consigned as a relic.

OK, I must admit I’d rather see a Maserati racing at Le Mans this weekend… but I’m also one of an apparent minority who recognises the merits in Formula E. The racing is actually decent and getting better, you can’t argue with the talent on the grid – and whether we approve or not, this was officially a factory Maserati entry, the first for years, competing in what is indubitably a world championship-level single-seater race. So… yes, Günther did achieve a slice of history and he has every right to savour it. Maserati, it seems, is back.

Oh, stop gnashing your teeth! You don’t have to like it…