Stirling Moss

Birthdate: September 17th 1929   Country: Great-Britain   Gender: M

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History:

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Sir Stirling Moss, even to this day aknowledged as the best driver not to win the WDC was born 77 years ago in London. For 7 straight years he finished in the podium (runner-up between 1955-1958 and 3rd between 1959-1961). His displays in Monaco 1961 and at the Ring in that very same year are legendary. He was also the first driver to provide a win to Cooper and to Lotus. He still owns the record of being the driver with most Grand Prix wins never to have won the WDC. He is also arguably the greatest all-round racing driver of all time.

Known during his career as ‘Mr Motor Racing’ he began hillclimbing a Cooper 500 in 1948 at the age of 18. His early career was meteoric and soon he was driving works cars for Jaguar and HWM. In 1955 he was signed up by Mercedes-Benz to partner World Champion Fangio. That year Stirling shadowed the great Argentine in most Grands Prix, beating him to win the British GP. Famously, that year he won the incredible Mille Miglia, the Targa Florio and the Tourist Trophy – all legendary sports car races.

For 4 years he would finish runner-up in the World Championship and, after M-B retired, led the Maserati and Vanwall teams. He also continued to drive saloon and sports cars and during his remarkable career drove more 80 different types of car.

In the late 50s and early 60s, he led the changeover to rear-engined F1 cars, achieving the first victory for such a car at the 1958 Argentine GP and was in a class of his own during this period. A huge shunt in Spa in 1960 almost ended his career. A near-fatal misterious accident ended it all in 1962 but he was to remain a superstar to this day. One of the original jet-setters, he still dashes round the world fulfilling engagements and competing in historic racing.

Statistics

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Statistic	#	Percentage	First	Last
Number of Grand Prix	74	100%	1951	1961
Number of starts	73	98.65%	1951	1961
Number of finishes	37	50.00%	1951	1961
Number of finishes on podium	24	32.43%	1954	1961
Number of finishes in points	30	40.54%	1954	1961
Number of retirements	36	48.65%	1952	1961
Number of wins	16	21.62%	1955	1961
Number of pole positions	16	21.62%	1955	1961
Number of fastest laps	19	25.68%	1954	1961
Number of doubles (pole position & win)	7	9.46%	1955	1961
Number of triples (pole position, win & fastest lap)	3	4.05%	1955	1961

Seasons:	11 (1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961)
Leading:	50 times during 1123 laps in 30 Grand Prix with a total of 5952.641 Km
Points:	182.5 (Average per start: 2.50)
	Points per season - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 0 0 0 4 22 27 25 40 24.5 19 21 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961
Team:	HW Motors (1951), Connaught Engineering (1952), HW Motors (1952), ERA Ltd (1952), Cooper Car Company (1953), Connaught Engineering (1953), Officine Alfieri Maserati (1954), Equipe Moss (1954), Alfred Moss (1954), Daimler Benz AG (1955), Officine Alfieri Maserati (1956), Officine Alfieri Maserati (1957), Vandervell Products Ltd (1957), Vandervell Products Ltd (1958), Rob Walker Racing Team (1958), Rob Walker Racing Team (1959), Cooper Car Company (1959), British Racing Partnership (1959), Rob Walker Racing Team (1960), Rob Walker Racing Team (1960), Cooper Car Company (1961), Rob Walker Racing Team (1961), Rob Walker Racing Team (1961)
Chassis:	HWM (1951), ERA G (1952), Connaught A (1952), HWM (1952), Cooper T24 (1953), Connaught A (1953), Cooper T23 (1953), Maserati 250F (1954), Mercedes W196 (1955), Maserati 250F (1956), Maserati 250F (1957), Vanwall (1957), Vanwall (1958), Cooper T43 (1958), Cooper T51 (1959), BRM P25 (1959), Lotus Mk18 (1960), Cooper T51 (1960), Ferguson P99 (1961), Lotus 21 (1961), Lotus Mk18 (1961), Cooper T53 (1961), Lotus Mk18/21 (1961)
Engine:	Alta (1951), ERA (1952), Lea Francis 2.0 L4 (1952), Alta 1.5 (1952), Bristol 2.0 L6 (1952), Alta 1.5 (1953), Lea Francis 2.0 L4 (1953), Maserati 2.5 L6 (1954), Mercedes 2.5 L8 (1955), Maserati 2.5 L6 (1956), Maserati 2.5 L6 (1957), Vanwall 2.5 L4 (1957), Climax 2.0 L4 (1958), Vanwall 2.5 L4 (1958), Climax 2.5 L4 (1959), BRM 2.5 L4 (1959), Climax 2.5 L4 (1960), Climax 1.5 L4 (1961)