Motorsport News
As the world mourns the loss Sir Stirling Moss (17th September 1929-12th April 2020) we look back at all the things that made Mr Motor Racing the greatest Formula One drivers of all time!
THE WORLD mourned the loss of a timeless motorsport icon Sir Stirling Moss, at the age of 90 following a long drawn illness. Sir Stirling Moss was never crowned a Formula One Champion and yet is regarded as one of the sport’s greatest drivers, not just for his reputation for being a demon in the cockpit, winning when all the odds were stacked against him, but for his exemplary manner and sportsmanship outside of it. Mr Motor Racing as he will be fondly remembered as had a spectrum of involvement in motorsport that was just awe inspiring, and wherever he went stories of legends would follow. Moss was a man who shined as the underdog whether it was in an outdated Lotus Formula One car or challenging physics in a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR at the 1958 Millie Miglia.
His most heroic show of grit was the season of 1958, the closest that Moss would ever come to a Formula World Champion title, only to forgo it in the end by his own hand and all because it meant doing the right thing. Through the season the Vanwall piloted by Moss and the Ferrari Dino 246 were both racking up the wins. The Vanwall outpaced the Ferrari, but it was the Ferrari’s reliability that more often than not paid dividends. At the end of it leading up to the Portugal GP. Mike Hawthorne with 42 points, Stirling Moss with 41. On the track at Portugal, Hawthorne spun off the track into a service lane as Stirling Moss was about to lap him. Hawthorne bump started his car and got back into
the race, but charges of exclusion were being prepared against him for jump starting the car in an area that was not designated as part of the “race track”. Sir Moss though stood up for his country man ensuring that the DQ was dropped, a move that eventually cost him the title. At the end of it Sir Moss is famously quoted in saying “To me, Mike shouldn’t have been disqualified. I just felt that it was quite wrong that he should be disqualified. And I put forward the idea that he was still on the track, albeit the escape road, which they accepted. And it turned out that it lost me the title. But it’s a case of what winning means to you.” A lesson that holds invaluable through the test of time, winning is important but HOW YOU win is everything. In many ways this story tells you everything about the man, the legend that was Sir Stirling Moss.
In 1962 at the Goodwood festival of speed
Moss would have an accident that would see him retire from the peak of his career from the highest form of the sport, but that didn’t stop his association. He continued to be an integral part of the sport, until very recently retiring from public life. Sir Stirling Moss will be remembered as one of the greatest names the sport will ever know, and for each of us a reminder of the person we should all aspire to be! A fighter, an underdog and forever the people’s champion, Sir Stirling Moss you will be missed!