The motor sport world is mourning the loss today of one of its icons after it was announced yesterday that Stirling Moss had passed away after a long illness. Everyone’s thoughts are of course with his family and friends at this difficult time but it is also a time for us as motor sport fans to pay our own respects to a driver who perhaps more than anyone epitomized the racing spirit that we all admire. And so today’s blog isn’t so much an obituary but an appreciation of Stirling’s career and the part he played in the great history of our sport.
Stirling was 90 at his death and it is fair to say that he led life to the fullest, indeed a good example of his passion for racing was the fact that he was still competing and demonstrating historic cars until the age of 81.
Stirling is without any shadow of a doubt one of the all time great drivers of Formula One and possibly the best all round driver in the history of motor racing, taking victories in single seaters, sportscars and GT cars. Indeed one of his most famous wins was in the 1955 Mille Miglia, an endurance road race held in Italy on public roads. I will discuss this race further later on.
Never a world champion, but a four time runner up and three time third place finisher in F1 is an achievement itself but Moss is often cited as the best driver never to have lifted the title and I could never disagree with that statement. Perhaps what is more incredible, and more telling about the character and sportsmanship of the man is that he could have been world champion, the first British driver to do so in 1958 had he not stuck up and defended Mike Hawthorn, the eventual title winner from getting a penalty in the Portuguese Grand Prix.
In a modern sporting world were such acts are hard to imagine Moss’s defense stopped Hawthorn losing his six points from that race and Moss deficit to Hawthorn at the end of the season was one point.
So no world championship but 16 grand prix wins went to Moss, this in a time where there were far fewer races in an F1 season, and he became the first British driver to take a Grand Prix victory in a British car when he took over the Vanwall of Tony Brooks and drove it to a win at the British Grand Prix no less, with the two drivers sharing the accolade in 1957.
Consistency is often cited as being one of the hall marks of greatness and between the years of 1955 and 61 he didn’t finish lower than third in the world championship. When you take into consideration the calibre of drivers that he was competing against during this period it is not hard to see why is should be placed in the pantheon of greats to have graced the world’s race tracks.
He formed a great partnership with Juan Mauel Fangio at Mercedes in 54-55 and it was during this period that he took his victory in the aforementioned Mile Miglia. The event was part of the world sportscar championship and involved a race on public roads, which were almost unbelievably still being used by normal traffic from Brescia to Rome and back again.
Moss was driving the iconic Mercedes 300SLR and co driven by Denis Jenkinson and together they finished the 992.3 mile course in 10 hours, 7 minutes and 48 seconds, an incredible 32 minutes ahead of second placed Fangio. Thier average speed for the race was 99 mph. Initially the Ferrari’s of Cstellotti and Taruffi provided tough competition but once out front the pair took control and never looked back, breaking records on their way to victory. For me this win and the pictures of Moss and Jenkinson in their gorgeous 300SLR are what I think of first when Stirling Moss comes to mind. I’ll leave it to others to decide if it was his greatest win but for me it stands above the rest.
Another stand out performance was at Monaco in 1961 were Moss had what he himself described as the best drive of his life. In Rob Walker’s private Lotus Moss beat the more powerful Sharknose Ferrari’s of Ginther and Hill by driving flat out the whole way. ” Thats why I think it was the best drive of my life” he has said and indeed it was an amazing drive. He was just 3.6 seconds ahead after three and a quarter hours of racing.
It was a year later that Moss had the accident of his life at Goodwood that left him in a coma for a month and partially paralyzed down his left side. Following a years recuperation he recovered and tested a Lotus in a private test session and realized that his reactions weren’t what they had been and his career was over.
He made a comeback by competing in one off events in the 70’s and then a full time return to racing on the British Saloon Car Championship in the early 80’s but he would never reach the heights that he had previously.
The Goodwood accident robbed Stirling of some of the best years of his career and it is a shame to think about what he missed out on. Who knows what he may have gone on to achieve in the 60’s, maybe that well deserved championship may have been added to his CV. It has been documented that his team owner of the time Rob Walker had agreed a deal to run a private Ferrari for Moss for the following season after his accident which may have given him the machinery he needed to clinch the title.
We will never know what might have been but we can marvel at and enjoy the feats that Moss did achieve and remember the brilliance he showed behind the wheel. Thank you Sir Stirling, you are a man deserving of the word Legend and may you rest in peace.
My F1 talk 