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Sir Stirling Moss
OBE: DOB Sept 17, 1929
There is no doubt that Stirling
Crauford Moss was the greatest driver never to win the World
Championship. Where his friend,
mentor &
arch-rival Juan-Manuel Fangio excelled in GP racing, Moss
was a brilliantly versatile all-rounder who could perform as well in grueling sportscar events such as Le Mans, the Targa Florio or the
Tourist Trophy as he did in Formula One. His dramatic victory for
Mercedes-Benz in the 1955 Mille Miglia endurance race across Italy
owed much to detailed route planning, but his innate ability was the
predominant factor.
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Moss's father Alfred, a dentist, had
dabbled with racing, and his son began to follow suit in 1947. He
made his name in the tough Formula 500 (the forerunner of F3),
before winning the Tourist Trophy in 1950 in a private Jaguar XK120.
After that he was asked to handle a variety of cars, and his strong
sense of patriotism kept him largely in British machinery. It was
not until 1954 that he bit the bullet and purchased a Maserati 250F
to try to progress his F1 career. That led to an invitation to join
the Mercedes-Benz works team alongside Fangio, and thereafter to
leadership of Tony Vandervell's Vanwall team. In the latter, Moss
was instrumental in breaking the German/Italian stranglehold on F1.
Later would come further triumphs in Cooper and Lotus machinery, for
privateer Rob Walker.
For Moss the manner in which the
battle was fought was as important as the outcome, and this sporting
attitude cost him the 1958 World Championship when he stood up for
rival Mike Hawthorn, who faced a penalty in Portugal that would, in
retrospect, have denied him the points that he needed to beat Moss.
Stirling never for one moment entertained any thought of gaining an
advantage in such a way, and in any case his natural sense of
justice would not have allowed him to see Hawthorn unjustly
penalized. So he stepped forward to defend him. Hawthorn
subsequently went on to beat Moss by a mere point, even though he
had only won one race that year to Moss's four. It was sufficient to
make Mike Hawthorn Britain's first World Champion.
Moss's active career in top line
competition ended when his Lotus left the road at Goodwood at Easter
1962, and he received serious head injuries. That left a twofold
postscript to a fabulous career. What might he have achieved had he
not stuck so religiously to driving British cars, or if he had
accepted more offers of full factory drives instead of sticking so
resolutely with Walker?
And what might the future have held
had he not felt obliged to rush his recovery, and been discouraged
when his initial trials made him doubt that the old flair was
intact?
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