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Formula One is mourning the loss of great motorist Stirling Moss, who died at the age of 90.
His wife, Lady Moss, told the Pennsylvania news agency that she died peacefully at her London home in the early hours of Sunday morning after a long illness.
“It was one more lap,” he said.
“He just closed his eyes.”
Six-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who struck up a close friendship with Moss, said on Instagram that Moss would always be “in our memories and will always be such an important part of British Motorsports Heritage.”
Three-time world champion Jackie Stewart, who picked up Moss’ autograph when he was young and later became godfather to his son Elliot, told BBC Five Live Moss “walked like a race car driver should walk, spoke like a race car driver, looked like a race car driver and set a standard that I think has not been equaled since he retired.”
And another former world champion, Damon Hill, said Moss “personified” what it was like to be a racing driver for a generation.
“The guy lifted a snook in the face of danger and took on an incredibly difficult challenge and prevailed,” he said.
“It was a winner.”
Although Moss never won the Formula One title, he was regarded as one of the greatest drivers of all time, surviving and thriving in the most dangerous era of the sport.
Enzo Ferrari once called Moss the best driver in the world, while five-time champion Juan Manuel Fangio, who defeated Moss for the title three times between 1955 and 1957, rated Moss the best of his era.
Moss finished second in the championship standings four times and finished third three times in a race in which he won 16 Grand Prixes.
At a time when race drivers competed in several different disciplines alongside Formula One, Moss won a total of 212 of the 529 races in which he participated in his career, competing in some 84 different car brands.
Born in London in 1929, Moss was the son of amateur racing driver Alfred and his wife Aileen.
He began his career in 1948 behind the wheel of his father’s car. In the early years of his Formula One career, he often struggled due to his machinery, preferring to drive British cars rather than his often superior foreign rivals.
But his breakthrough came in a Mercedes when he claimed his first Formula One victory in 1955 at the British Grand Prix in Aintree, becoming the event’s first British winner.
It was the start of the best period of his career when he challenged for the title year after year, ultimately without success.
His sportsmanship cost him the title in 1958 when he defended the actions of rival Mike Hawthorne after a turn at the Portuguese Grand Prix, avoiding Hawthorne with a six-point penalty. Hawthorne beat Moss for the title by a single point.
“I had no hesitation in doing it,” Moss recalled many years later.
“I can’t see how this is open to debate. The fact that he was my only rival in the championship did not enter my mind. Absolutely not.”
A major accident at Goodwood in 1962 left Moss in a coma for a month and partially paralyzed for six months.
Moss officially retired in the wake of that accident, though he would continue to participate in occasional events until the age of 81, when he competed in qualifying for the Le Mans Legends event.
Moss, who was knighted on the New Year’s Honors list in 2000 by motor racing services, fell ill with a chest infection during a cruise in Singapore just before Christmas 2016.
He was transferred to a London hospital and finally to his Mayfair home.
Following the news of his death on Sunday, the world of motorsport came together to remember Moss.
His former Mercedes team tweeted: “Today, the sports world lost not just a true icon and legend, but also a gentleman. The team and the Mercedes Motorsport family have lost a dear friend. Sir Stirling, we will miss him.”
FIA President Jean Todt tweeted: “A very sad day. Stirling Moss left us after a long fight. He was a true legend in motorsport and will remain so forever. My thoughts are with his wife Suzie. , his family, his friends. ” “
