Tribute to Sir Stirling Moss

Sir Stirling Moss in 2014

Sir Stirling Moss has passed away at the age of 90 after a long illness, with the dashing British motor racing legend passing away at his Mayfair home. 

The great motor-racing driver and one of the most lionised figures in the history of British sport, 'closed his eyes' in the early hours of Easter morning.

Lady Moss was at his bedside as he died, having nursed him through a long illness, at their central London house. She told the Daily Mail: 'He died as he lived, looking wonderful.

So, as my tribute to a racing legend, let's look back was his very successful career in Formula One

Brief Background

Sir Stirling Craufurd Moss, OBE (born 17 September 1929) is a British former Formula One racing driver. 

An inductee into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, he won 212 of the 529 races he entered across several categories of competition and has been described as "the greatest driver never to win the World Championship". 

In a seven-year span between 1955 and 1961 Moss finished as championship runner-up four times and in third place the other three times.

Moss shared this Vanwall VW5 with Tony Brooks to win the 1957 British Grand Prix.

Racing Career

Moss raced from 1948 to 1962, winning 212 of the 529 races he entered, including 16 Formula One Grands Prix. 

He would compete in as many as 62 races in a single year and drove 84 different makes of car over the course of his racing career, including Cooper 500, ERA, Lister Cars, Lotus, Maserati, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and Vanwall single-seaters, Aston Martin, Maserati, Ferrari, Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz sports cars, and Jaguar saloons. 

Like many drivers of the era, he competed in several formulae, often on the same day.


He preferred to race British cars, stating, "Better to lose honourably in a British car than win in a foreign one". 

At Vanwall, he was instrumental in breaking the German/Italian stranglehold on F1 racing (as was Jack Brabham at Cooper). 

He remained the English driver with the most Formula One victories until 1991 when Nigel Mansell overtook him after competing in more races.

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	WDC	Pts[1]
1951	HW Motors	HWM 51	Alta F2 2.0 L4	SUI 8	500	BEL	FRA	GBR	GER	ITA	ESP				NC	0
1952	HW Motors	HWM 52	Alta F2 2.0 L4	SUI Ret	500										NC	0
	English Racing Automobiles Ltd	ERA G	Bristol BS1 2.0 L6			BEL Ret	FRA	GBR Ret	GER	NED Ret
	Connaught Engineering	Connaught A	Lea Francis 2.0 L4								ITA Ret
1953	Connaught Engineering	Connaught A	Lea Francis 2.0 L4	ARG	500	NED 9	BEL								NC	0
	Cooper Car Company	Cooper Special	Alta GP 2.5 L4					FRA Ret	GBR DNA
		Cooper T24								GER 6	SUI	ITA 13
1954	Equipe Moss	Maserati 250F	Maserati 250F1 2.5 L6	ARG	500	BEL 3	FRA								13th	4 ​1⁄7
	AE Moss							GBR Ret	GER Ret
	Officine Alfieri Maserati									SUI Ret	ITA 10	ESP Ret
1955	Daimler Benz AG	Mercedes W196	Mercedes M196 2.5 L8	ARG 4†	MON 9	500	BEL 2	NED 2	GBR 1	ITA Ret					2nd	23
1956	Officine Alfieri Maserati	Maserati 250F	Maserati 250F1 2.5 L6	ARG Ret	MON 1	500	BEL 3*	FRA 5*	GBR Ret	GER 2	ITA 1				2nd	27 (28)
1957	Officine Alfieri Maserati	Maserati 250F	Maserati 250F1 2.5 L6	ARG 8											2nd	25
	Vandervell Products Ltd	Vanwall VW 5	Vanwall 254 2.5 L4		MON Ret	500	FRA	GBR 1‡	GER 5	PES 1	ITA 1
1958	R.R.C. Walker Racing Team	Cooper T43	Climax FPF 2.0 L4	ARG 1											2nd	41
	Vandervell Products Ltd	Vanwall VW 5	Vanwall 254 2.5 L4		MON Ret	NED 1	500	BEL Ret	FRA 2	GBR Ret	GER Ret	POR 1	ITA Ret	MOR 1
1959	R.R.C. Walker Racing Team	Cooper T51	Climax FPF 2.5 L4	MON Ret	500	NED Ret			GER Ret	POR 1	ITA 1	USA Ret			3rd	25 ​1⁄2
	British Racing Partnership	BRM P25	BRM P25 2.5 L4				FRA DSQ	GBR 2
1960	R.R.C. Walker Racing Team	Cooper T51	Climax FPF 2.5 L4	ARG 3[a]											3rd	19
		Lotus 18			MON 1	500	NED 4	BEL DNS	FRA	GBR	POR DSQ	ITA	USA 1
1961	R.R.C. Walker Racing Team	Lotus 18	Climax FPF 1.5 L4	MON 1	NED 4										3rd	21
		Lotus 18/21				BEL 8	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER 1		USA Ret
		Lotus 21								ITA Ret
		Ferguson P99						GBR DSQ