Today it is part of postwar German folklore that, on July 4, 1954 at Berne in Switzerland, the underdog German soccer team had just beaten the favourites, Hungary, 3-2 to win the FIFA World Cup. Some claim that this memorably redemptive moment became the first time postwar that the German National anthem had been played at such a major sporting event...

Yet that very same day, at the Reims-Gueux circuit in France, Juan Manuel Fangio had just led home team-mate Karl Kling in a brand-new sister Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz W196, to finish first and second in the French Grand Prix.