Stirling Moss, the best Formula 1 driver who never became world champion

“Who do you think you are? Stirling Moss? It’s been a while, but for a long time the police approached speeding criminals in Britain with these words after the arrest. When that happened to the racing driver himself And he answered that question in the affirmative, the officer on duty thought he was being misled.The British racing legend passed away on Sunday in his hometown of London, at the age of 90.

There was no better full race driver, a man who won so many different races in so many different cars (always without a seat belt); 212 out of 529 where it started. But Stirling Craufurd Moss is especially remembered as the best Formula 1 driver who never became a world champion. In his eleven years in the royal class (1951-1961), he finished second twice in the World Cup final and third third. He started in 66 Grand Prix, winning sixteen.

One of the most beautiful considered his victory in Monaco, in 1961. That was the year that Ferrari reigned supreme, except in the principality and a few months later at the Nürburgring, where Moss was marked as the winner with his last Lotus Climax. . , before the crowd favorite Wolfgang von Trips. In Monaco, Moss left pole position and was chased by three Ferrari for one hundred laps. The way he kept Richie Ginther, Phil Hill and Von Trips behind is one of the best examples of dominance from start to finish in Formula 1.

Sportsmanship award

In 1958, Moss had the world title at stake when he took the lead from his compatriot Mike Hawthorn after his victory in the third F1 race of that season, in Porto during the Portuguese Grand Prix, against his compatriot Mike Hawthorn, who was in danger of being disqualified. Hawthorn had crossed the finish line second after turning on the last lap and driving a little against the track on the way to the finish. After a plea from Moss, the Ferrari driver was allowed to keep his second place. Two races later, in Casablanca, Hawthorn captured the title, with a World Cup point over Moss. Ultimately, his sportsmanship had cost him dearly, but Moss says he never regretted his collegiality in Portugal. He said it was comforting, thinking he was faster than some drivers who became world champions. Since the lost World Cup final in 1974, the Dutch have known how that feels; be the best but still lose

It was cruel to Moss that one after another the British captured the world title in Formula 1 after leaving: Graham Hill (1962), Jim Clark (1963), John Surtees (1964), Clark (1965), Hill (1968) and Jackie Stewart (1969). His appreciation for Moss was no less. One by one, even reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton put him on a pedestal, like the godfather of British auto racing.

The danger of racing attracted him

After having achieved success as a rider with his sister Pat as a teenager, he began with the support (mainly financial) of his father Alfred in motorsports. “Because it was dangerous,” he would later say of his main reason for exchanging real horses for horsepower. I wasn’t talking to a stranger. Alfred Moss, a Thames dentist, had experience as a driver. He even competed twice in the prestigious Indy500 in the 1920s. Mother Aileen once ran climbing races.

Stirling Moss achieved his first victory as a driver on March 2, 1947, at age 17 in a BMW 328, at the Harrow Car Club Trial. From that day on, she kept her attention on him for fifteen years, until the Glover Trophy at Goodwood on April 23, 1962. That race, in a Walker-Lotus, which ended in an accident. His career as a racing driver literally ended in one fell swoop. She looked so beautiful at first; in the front row with his compatriots Surtees, Hill and Clark, all four with racing glasses and open helmets. Other times

Trying to overtake Hill went wrong. Moss ended up in a ditch with his car and everyone who saw it happen on Easter Monday 58 years ago assumed he had not survived. He was unconscious of his remains. He was in a coma for a month and was paralyzed on the left side of his body for six months. Just a year after his accident, he returned to the wheel of a racing car to see if he could still do it. He was still fast, but he couldn’t concentrate properly. So he decided to resign as a racing driver, a decision he later regretted; It should have allowed more time for his recovery. As of now, Moss only got behind the wheel in the historic o “legend races “in old age.

Brescia-Rome-Brescia in record time

Had he chosen factory teams more often than loyalty to team boss Rob Walker, according to motorsport circles, Moss could have gone down in history as a world champion. In addition, he had a tough opponent in the eighteen years older, Juan Manuel Fangio, who won five world titles in the period 1951-1957. Moss finished second behind the Argentine three times in the world title battle, the last time as a teammate at Mercedes, in 1955. However, that was a memorable year for Moss; in the spring he kept Fangio behind in the legendary Mille Miglia, the 1,000 mile (1,600 km) endurance test for man and machine, on the public road from Brescia to Rome and back. With a boating journalist (“my guide dog”), Denis Jenkinson, and like Fangio in a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR, he completed the race in front of millions of people in just over ten hours; almost half an hour faster than Fangio and with an average speed of just under 160 kilometers per hour; Moss broke the old record.

Less than three months later, Moss became the first Briton to win the F1 race domestically, at Aintree, his only victory that year, with a 0.2-second gap over Fangio. Moss assumed that the Argentine had let him win.

After that season, Fangio would leave the German top team and Moss was expected to follow in Mercedes’ footsteps. But as a result of an accident at the 24 Hours of Le Mans that left a Mercedes in the public and killed the driver and 81 spectators, the German brand withdrew from motorsports for a long time after that year. Bad luck for Moss because the best team disappeared from Formula 1, so he saw his chances of obtaining the world title diminish.

Rear motor

In 1958, the year he was so close to him, Moss Fangio (in a Maserati) in Buenos Aires failed. That day he went down in history as the first Formula 1 driver to win in a car (Cooper-Climax) with the engine behind him. All the 1959 world champions drove in such a car.

After his active career, according to the British media, he was busy being “Stirling Moss”, not long ago as a voice on the animated series. Roary the racing car – The first introduction to motorsports for many British children. The full-time legend remained a welcome guest everywhere, until he retired from public life at eighty and in increasingly weak health in 2018. Fanmail received “Mister Motor Racing” to the end. He often still heads to “Stirling Moss, England”. That was enough.

Correction (April 13, 2020): In an earlier version of this article, Stirling Craufurd Moss’s middle name was incorrectly spelled “Crauford”. That has been previously adjusted.