Sir 'Stirling Craufurd Moss
OBE' (born
September 17,
1929 in
London) is a retired racing driver from
England. His success in a variety of categories placed him among the world's elite – he is often called "the greatest driver never to win the World Championship".
[1]
Moss, who raced from 1948 to 1962, won 194 of the 497 races he entered, including 16
Formula One Grands Prix. He once told an interviewer that he had participated in 525 races overall, as many as 62 in a single year, in 84 different cars. Like many drivers of the era, he competed in several formulae – sometimes on the same day.
Racing Career
Stirling Moss was a pioneer in the British
Formula One racing scene and placed second in the Drivers' Championship four times in a row from 1955 to 1958.
Moss's first
Formula One win was in 1955 at his home race, the
British Grand Prix at
Aintree, driving the superb
Mercedes-Benz W196 Monoposto for a convincing German 1-2-3-4 win, with
Karl Kling and
Piero Taruffi in the international driver line-up. It was the only race where he finished in front of
Juan Manuel Fangio, his teammate, friend, mentor and arch rival at
Mercedes. It is sometimes debated whether Fangio, one of the all-time great gentlemen of sport, yielded the lead at the last corner to let Moss win in front of his home crowd. Moss himself asked Fangio repeatedly, "Did you let me win?" and Fangio always replied, "No. You were just better than me that day".
Stirling Moss drives his Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR to win the May 1955 Mille Miglia race.
One of his most famous drives was in the 1955
Mille Miglia, the Italian 1597 km open-road endurance race, which he won in the record time of 10 hours and 8 minutes, finishing almost half an hour ahead of teammate
Fangio in second place. His navigator in the
Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR #722 (indicating the time of the start) was journalist
Denis Jenkinson. As navigator, he supported Moss with notes about details of the long road trip, then an innovative technique. This assistance helped Moss compete against drivers who had a lot of local knowledge of the route. Jenkinson later wrote extensively about the experience. Moss revealed in a 2006 interview that his performance in that race also benefited from the use of amphetamines, the use of which was legal then.
[2]
In 1957 Moss won on the longest circuit to ever hold a Grand Prix, the daunting 25 kilometre
Pescara Circuit, again demonstrating his skills at high speed, long distance driving. He beat Fangio, who started on pole, by a little over 3 minutes over the course of a gruelling 3 hour race.
Moss believed the manner in which the battle was fought was as important as the outcome. This sporting attitude cost him the 1958 World Championship. When rival
Mike Hawthorn was threatened with a penalty in a
Portugal race, Moss defended Hawthorn's actions. Hawthorn went on to beat Moss by one point, even though he had only won one race that year to Moss's four, making Hawthorn Britain's first World Champion.
Moss was as gifted at the wheel of a sports car as he was in a Grand Prix car. For three consecutive years (1958–1960) he won the grueling 1000 km race at Germany's
Nürburgring, the first two years in an
Aston Martin (where he won almost single-handedly) and the third in the memorable "birdcage"
Maserati.
For the 1961 F1 season, which was run under 1.5-litre rules,
Enzo Ferrari rolled out his state-of-the-art
Ferrari 156, also known as ''Sharknose''. Moss was stuck with an underpowered
Coventry-Climax-powered
Lotus, but managed to win the
1961 Monaco Grand Prix by 3.6 seconds, and later also the partially wet
1961 German Grand Prix.
In 1962, Moss was badly injured in a crash at
Goodwood while driving a
Lotus. The accident put him in a coma and partially paralyzed the left side of his body.
[1] He recovered but decided to retire from racing after a private test session the next year. He made a brief comeback in the
British Touring Car Championship in 1980 with
Audi, and in recent years has continued to race in historic cars.
During his career, Moss drove a private
Jaguar, and raced for
Maserati,
Vanwall,
Cooper, and
Lotus, as well as
Mercedes-Benz. He preferred to race British cars stating "Better to lose honorably in a British car than win in a foreign one"
[2]. The British cars were often uncompetitive and this was considered the reason he never won the drivers' championship. At Vanwall, he was instrumental in breaking the German/Italian stranglehold on F1 racing (as was
Jack Brabham at Cooper).
Complete Formula One World Championship Results
('') (Races in 'bold' indicate pole position; races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)
: ''
† Indicates shared drive with
Hans Herrmann and
Karl Kling.
: ''
★ Indicates shared drive with
Cesare Perdisa.
: ''
‡ Indicates shared drive with
Tony Brooks.
: ''
џ Indicates shared drive with
Maurice Trintignant, no points scored.
; Note
★ 1955; Champion:
Juan Manuel Fangio (40 points, Gap: 17 points)
★ 1956; Champion:
Juan Manuel Fangio (30 points, Gap: 3 points)
★ 1957; Champion:
Juan Manuel Fangio (40 points, Gap: 15 points)
★ 1958; Champion:
Mike Hawthorn (42 points, Gap: 1 point)
★ 1959; Champion:
Jack Brabham (31 points, Gap: 5.5 points)
★ 1960; Champion:
Jack Brabham (43 points, Gap: 24 points)
★ 1961; Champion:
Phil Hill (34 points, Gap: 13 points)
Legacy
For many years during and after his career, the rhetorical phrase "Who do you think you are? Stirling Moss?" was supposedly the standard question all British policemen asked speeding motorists. Moss relates he himself was once stopped for speeding and asked just that; he reports the traffic officer had some difficulty believing him. People in Britain continue to use 'Stirling Moss' as a nickname for family and friends who are known to be faster than usual behind the wheel.
In 1990, Moss was inducted into the
International Motorsports Hall of Fame.
In June 2005, while appearing at the
Goodwood Festival of Speed, Moss signed the bonnet of his 1955
Mille Miglia winning
Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR which was to be its last year of public appearances it made over numerous years, before retiring to the newly built
Mercedes-Benz museum in
Stuttgart.
He received the 2005
Segrave Trophy.
In 2006, Moss was awarded the FIA gold medal in recognition of his outstanding contribution to motorsport.
[3]
In recent years, Moss has been an outspoken critic of
Michael Schumacher, but in October 2006 Moss ranked
[3] Schumacher co-fourth (with
Tazio Nuvolari) in the pantheon of all-time great drivers, behind
Juan Manuel Fangio,
Ayrton Senna and
Jim Clark.
Family
★ Stirling Moss is the son of
Alfred E. Moss, who placed 14th at the 1924
Indianapolis 500 in a
"Fronty" Ford.
★ Moss's younger sister,
Pat Moss, also took part in
rallying, and married rally driver
Erik Carlsson.
Biography
In 1963, noted
motorsports author and commentator
Ken Purdy published the biographical book entitled All But My Life about Stirling Moss (first published by William Kimber & Co., Ltd.,
London). Curiously, although written by Purdy from material gathered through interviews with Moss, the book's
copyright was retained by Moss.
The book opens with Moss in the
hospital after his 1960 crash during practice for the
Belgian Grand Prix at
Spa Francorchamps. In a scene typical of Moss, Purdy describes him in good spirits, even
flirting with his nurses. While most of the book examines Moss's
racing career, and obliquely, the other drivers of his era, there are some true gems in the text that give a snapshot of Moss's personality:
"Another amusement is the standard photograph of two drivers in earnest conversation before a race. The caption, nine times in ten, will have them discussing 'strategy', whatever that is. I showed Stirling such a picture one day, asked him what he and the other fellow were really talking about. "Crumpet, what else?" he said".
The book contains many interesting photographs spanning the breadth of Moss's racing career, as well as a table at the end of the book with a complete listing of Moss's race results, including short comments by Moss explaining each result. These comments run the gamut from the hilarious (
10 February 1953, Chiltern Night Reliability Trial, driving a
Morris Minor: "Made a mess of map-reading") to the tragic (
18 June 1960, Belgian Grand Prix, driving a
Lotus-
Climax: "Crashed whilst practising for Belgian G.P., breaking both legs, nose and crushing 9th vertebra when wheel came off...").
An enduring testament to one of racing's greatest drivers and most engaging personalities, autographed first edition copies of All But My Life sell for hundreds of dollars.
Moss in Popular Culture
As related in the book ''The Life and Times of Private Eye'', Moss was the subject of a less than respectful cartoon biography in the magazine ''
Private Eye''. The cartoon, drawn by
Willie Rushton, showed him continually crashing, having his driving licence revoked and finally "hosting television programmes on subjects he knows nothing about". It also made reference to delusions and amnesia Moss supposedly suffered from as a result of his crash injuries. According to the book, Moss responded by offering to buy the original of the cartoon, an outcome the book describes as "depressingly common" for its satirical cartoons about famous people.
Moss was one of the celebrities who made a cameo appearance in the 1967 version of the
James Bond film ''
Casino Royale'' as Evelyn Tremble's (
Peter Sellers) chauffeur.
Moss is the narrator in the popular children's series ''
Roary the Racing Car'' which stars
Peter Kay.
See also
★
Mille Miglia
★
International Motorsports Hall of Fame
★
Juan Manuel Fangio
References
1. Sir Stirling Moss
2. I was high on drugs when I won the Mille Miglia, says Stirling Moss, ''Scotsman.com'', 28 March 2006. Retrieved 2006-11-27
3. Legend Moss receives FIA honour
External links
★
Sir Stirling Moss - The Authorised Web Site
★
Grand Prix History - Hall of Fame, Stirling Moss
★
Alfred Moss - his father racing at Brooklands, Sir Stirling Moss is now the president of the Brooklands Society.
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