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the athletic Hello and welcome back

3:42

to And Coloscely That's History, the

3:45

podcast that reappraises motor racing history.

3:47

I'm Richard Williams and as ever

3:49

I'm here with my friend and

3:52

co-host Matt Bishop. How are you

3:54

Matt? I'm very well thanks Richard

3:56

and as ever... I'm very much

3:59

looking forward to our latest step

4:01

back in time, because in this

4:04

episode we'll be talking about two

4:06

hugely charismatic and wonderfully gifted drivers

4:08

from the 1950s, Sterling Moss and

4:11

Mike Hawthorne. And more specifically we'll

4:13

be discussing and analyzing their dual

4:15

in 1958 to become Britain's first

4:18

Formula One World champion. I imagine

4:20

that many of our listeners, particularly

4:22

those with a deep interest in

4:25

motor racing, will be familiar with

4:27

the names of both of them.

4:29

And perhaps some of our older

4:32

listeners will even remember watching both

4:34

of them race. But for younger

4:36

listeners, yes, I think we can

4:39

safely say that both were brilliant

4:41

racing drivers and both, as it

4:43

happens, were British. But those commonalities

4:46

aside, they really were rather different,

4:48

weren't they, Richard? They were. And

4:51

that's one of the reasons I

4:53

was very keen to do this

4:55

subject. As you say, Matt, they

4:58

were two very different characters, and

5:00

in fact, I think their head-to-head

5:02

rivalry represented the beginning of fandom

5:05

in Formula One, in that people

5:07

tended to pledge their allegiance to

5:09

one driver or the other, Moss

5:12

or Hawthorne. A bit like choosing

5:14

between the Beatles and the Rolling

5:16

Stones and the Rolling Stones in

5:19

the Rolling Stones in the 60s

5:21

in the 60s in the 60s

5:23

in the 60s, or I. I

5:26

suppose blur and oasis in the

5:28

Britpop years. Well, I agree, but,

5:30

um, well, I agree other than,

5:33

I don't think anyone called it

5:35

fandom in the 1950s. Definitely not.

5:38

And it wasn't always there. If

5:40

we go back to the two

5:42

biggest stars of the pre-war Golden

5:45

Age of Grand Prix racing, as

5:47

many people think of it, I'm

5:49

pretty sure that German fans of

5:52

Rudolph Carachia... didn't find it necessary

5:54

to dislike Tatsio Novolari, an Italian,

5:56

or vice versa. And it was

5:59

the same for Fangeo and Ascari

6:01

in the early 50s, at the

6:03

very beginning of the Formula One

6:06

World Championship. You could like one

6:08

more than the other, maybe, but

6:10

you admired them both. Absolutely. But

6:13

eventually, and no doubt this was

6:15

encouraged by the annual contest for

6:17

the world title, rivalries became much

6:20

more of a thing. So in

6:22

the 70s you had a louder

6:24

versus hunt. Sena versus Prost in

6:27

the 80s and Schumacher versus Hale

6:29

in the 90s. These were increasingly

6:32

bitter personal battles, with fans really

6:34

taking sides. And more recently we've

6:36

had Hamilton versus Vestapam, where things

6:39

have sometimes got out of hand

6:41

in terms of abuse, thanks to

6:43

the social media platforms, I suppose.

6:46

So now it's actually more like

6:48

football. We're instead of just loving

6:50

the sport, most people support one

6:53

team or driver and hate all

6:55

the other. In F1 it's a

6:57

constant exchange of insults between fanboys

7:00

and haters. Fun for some I

7:02

guess, and maybe the people who

7:04

run F1 and the broadcasters like

7:07

it that way because a bit

7:09

of controversy always attracts attention. Yeah,

7:11

I guess so. Well look, as

7:14

you say Richard, social media hasn't

7:16

helped. I'm far from being an

7:19

expert when it comes to social

7:21

media algorithms. But what I do

7:23

know... is that dissent and disagreement

7:26

are definitely profitable for the likes

7:28

of Twitter, or X as we're

7:30

supposed to call it, I think,

7:33

and perhaps even drive to survive,

7:35

which, let me make clear, has

7:37

been a great thing in many

7:40

ways and remains a great thing

7:42

in many ways, but whose storylines

7:44

tend to focus on conflict quite

7:47

a bit, and maybe it has

7:49

also stoked a... kind of fan

7:51

tribalism if I can use that

7:54

word, which is what you were

7:56

talking about I think. which perhaps

7:58

some people who've been featured prominently

8:01

on that show should have known

8:03

better than to get involved in

8:05

and thereby encourage. I'm thinking of

8:08

senior team principles who were filmed

8:10

too often furiously effing and blinding

8:13

a... one another. I mean that

8:15

really isn't a good example to

8:17

fans in my humble opinion, especially

8:20

young fans. And actually it's not

8:22

the swearing I mine most, to

8:24

be honest. It really isn't the

8:27

swearing at all, actually. It's the

8:29

out-and-out hostility and disrespect. And yes,

8:31

it then reappears in the social

8:34

media tribalism that you've talked about.

8:36

Anyway, we're probably getting into a

8:38

subject that's best dealt with by

8:41

another podcast. possibly not. But let's

8:43

go right back to the more

8:45

genteel 1950s, wearing one corner you

8:48

had the dashing but highly professional

8:50

and media-friendly sterling moss, Mr. Motor

8:52

Racing, who famously loved sticking it

8:55

to Ferrari, and in the other

8:57

corner you had the Debeneer Hawthorne,

9:00

who actually raced for Ferrari, becoming

9:02

incidentally the only man to win

9:04

a Grand Prix for the team

9:07

while wearing a bow tie, and

9:09

who liked to celebrate a race

9:11

with at Silverstone or Goodwood by

9:14

stopping off at a pub or

9:16

three on the way home. The

9:18

pair of them certainly respected each

9:21

other but as you say they

9:23

were very different characters. They looked

9:25

different too. Moss was compact and

9:28

dark-haired before he started losing it

9:30

while Hawthorne losing his hair that

9:32

is. Yes, glad you made that

9:35

clear mate. Thank you. Well Hawthorne

9:37

was tall and blonde. And their

9:39

rivalry was good news for the

9:42

newspapers who also loved the idea

9:44

of bold young Brits going off

9:47

to do battle on foreign fields.

9:49

They did, yes. And one other

9:51

thing I should have said that

9:54

they had in common was age.

9:56

They were both born in 1929

9:58

and both therefore... came of age

10:01

in post-war Britain. And another thing

10:03

they both had in common was

10:05

that motor racing was in their

10:08

blood, as I'll explain. Hawthorne, who

10:10

was slightly the elder of the

10:12

two, was born in the April,

10:15

April 1929, five months before Moss,

10:17

and Hawthorne was born in Mexico.

10:19

which is a town near Doncaster

10:22

in South Yorkshire, which for non-UK

10:24

listeners is in the north of

10:26

England. Strangely enough, Matt, I discovered

10:29

that the name Mexico probably has

10:31

its origins in the Old English

10:33

language, Old English. It seems to

10:36

have meant Mike's town. What a

10:38

great anorak fact that is. Thank

10:41

you. But Hawthorne didn't stay there

10:43

long in Mexico, I mean. He

10:45

was educated at Ardingli College. in

10:48

Sussex in the south-east of England,

10:50

before attending Chelsea Technical College and

10:52

securing an apprenticeship with a commercial

10:55

vehicle manufacturer. And that was quite

10:57

apt really because his father owned

10:59

the Tourist Trophy Garage in Farnham

11:02

in Surrey, also in the south-east

11:04

of England, selling and servicing tasty

11:06

cars such as Jaguar's and Ferraris.

11:09

And if you think the garage's

11:11

name was a homage to motorcycle,

11:13

you'd be right, because Mike's father

11:16

did indeed race motorcycles. And, sorry,

11:18

you're going to have to allow

11:20

me a rather personal anoract fact

11:23

here, Richard, are you ready? Oh

11:25

no. Here it comes. Well, because

11:28

a mechanic who worked at that

11:30

garage and who actually traveled with

11:32

Hawthorne to Grand Prix on the

11:35

continent in the early 1950s, Spar

11:37

and Roan in 1952, I think,

11:39

working on Mike's cars in his

11:42

Cooper Bristol days, was Hugh or

11:44

Huey. Sewell, who married my grandmother's

11:46

first cousin. I give up. You've

11:49

win. There's no topping that one.

11:51

There you go. That's a bit

11:53

of a Nanaract fact, yes. Anyway,

11:56

as I say... Moss also had

11:58

motor racing in his blood. He

12:00

was born in London to Alfred

12:03

and Aileen Moss, who both raced

12:05

too, didn't they, Richard? Yes, Moss's

12:07

parents had actually met at Brooklyn's

12:10

in Surrey, the cathedral of pre-war

12:12

British motor racing. And here's another

12:14

anoract fact for you. Stirling's dad,

12:17

Alfred, was a descendant of a

12:19

family of Ashkenazi Jews known as

12:22

Moses, until they left Germany at

12:24

the end of the 19th century

12:26

when they settled in... London and

12:29

changed their name. So Moss is

12:31

derived from Moses. And since Sterling's

12:33

Scottish mum had wanted to call

12:36

him Hamish and was only narrowly

12:38

overruled, he might have risen to

12:40

fame not as Sterling Moss, a

12:43

great name for a racing driver,

12:45

but as Hamish Moses. Didn't he

12:47

actually say, if I'd been called

12:50

Hamish Moses, not Sterling Moss, it

12:52

wouldn't have been so good for

12:54

me? I'm sure that's true. Yes.

12:57

I mean, that's a very headline

12:59

friendly name. Anyway, his father would

13:01

become a very successful dentist, but

13:04

he also had a passion for

13:06

motorsport in his youth, and he

13:09

competed at Brooklyn's in the 1920s.

13:11

And then when he was spending

13:13

a few months in the USA

13:16

in 1924 studying dentistry at a

13:18

college in Indiana, he actually entered

13:20

the Indianapolis 500 and finished 16th.

13:23

Fantasticistic. Pretty good, huh? Yeah. Alfred's

13:25

wife, the former Aileen Crawford, was

13:27

the great-great-niece of Black Bob Crawford,

13:30

a hero of the Peninsula War

13:32

in the early 19th century, in

13:34

which, as you will remember, Matt,

13:37

Spain and Portugal and Britain, fought

13:39

the French. Aileen was a very

13:41

keen equestrian, which was something she

13:44

passed on to Sterling and his

13:46

sister Pat, but she also entered

13:48

races and rallies in her own

13:51

three-wheeled Morgan, and after they were...

13:53

married in London in 1927, she

13:56

and Alfred competed together in rallies

13:58

and trials. I have to say,

14:00

the last minute has just been

14:03

a screed of Richard Williams and

14:05

Iraq facts. More to come. So,

14:07

obviously, as with Mike Hawthorne, it

14:10

almost seemed preordained that Sterling Moss

14:12

would get into racing himself. And

14:14

the two of them were just

14:17

the right age to take advantage

14:19

of the revival of motor racing

14:21

in Britain just after the war.

14:24

because there were lots of decommissioned

14:26

former RAF fighter and bomber bases

14:28

ready to be turned into circuits

14:31

with decent tarmac surfaces and a

14:33

few straw bales lining the corners.

14:35

And there were also lots of

14:38

demob pilots who'd return to civilian

14:40

life, perhaps resuming their former careers

14:42

but looking for some excitement in

14:45

their lives again. And engineers and

14:47

mechanics. who knew how to turn

14:50

bits of old Austin Sevens and

14:52

fear Topolinos or Topolini into serviceable

14:54

racing cars. And there were plenty

14:57

of enthusiasts, ready to organize the

14:59

meetings, acting as stewards and scrutiniers

15:01

and track marshals. So although the

15:04

first post-war race was held in

15:06

the Bois de Boulogne outside Paris

15:08

in 1945, it was in Britain

15:11

that motor racing really started to

15:13

boom over the next few years,

15:15

with meetings up and down the

15:18

country from Goodwood in Sussex to

15:20

Silverstone in Northamptonshire and Croft in

15:22

North Yorkshire, all old aerodromes, and

15:25

the crowds flocked to them. They

15:27

did, and it's fair to say

15:29

that both men... talking about obviously

15:32

Hawthorne and Moss again, made rapid

15:34

progress in that burgeoning motor racing

15:37

scene. Progressing, I suppose, by today's

15:39

standards, ludicrously quickly to the top

15:41

echelon. And this podcast is all

15:44

about reappraising the history of most

15:46

sport, not just this episode, but

15:48

the whole series. So it's worth

15:51

our pausing and reflecting on their

15:53

assents briefly. Hawthorne's first race of

15:55

any kind was on September the

15:58

2nd 1950 when he drove his

16:00

1934 Riley Ulster Imp to a

16:02

class victory in the annual speed

16:05

trials on the Brighton Sea Front.

16:07

Fast forward to June 1952, barely

16:09

a year and a half later,

16:12

when he was just 23, and

16:14

he was racing a Cooper Bristol

16:16

in the Belgian Grand Prix, assisted...

16:19

Assisted by my grandmother's first cousin's

16:21

husband, Huey Sewell. Of course he

16:23

was. I won't keep talking about

16:26

Huey Sewell, but it's worth a

16:28

second mention. Anyway, by the end

16:31

of the season, after a stellar

16:33

third place at Silverstone, and a

16:35

fine fourth at Zanfort, Hawthorne had

16:38

been offered a works Ferrari drive,

16:40

extraordinarily fast progress. Moss, meanwhile, had

16:42

driven cars from a relatively young

16:45

age, but he started racing properly

16:47

in 1948. For his 18th birthday,

16:49

his father bought him a Cooper

16:52

Jap. powered by a 500 CC

16:54

motorcycle engine, with which to compete

16:56

in the venue Formula 3 series.

16:59

After a couple of good performances

17:01

in Hill Climbs, he entered and

17:03

won his first single-seater race on

17:06

the rough aerodrome it was, wasn't

17:08

it? The rough aerodrome in Yorkshire

17:10

on April the 7th, 1914-48. Then

17:13

after numerous wins at national level,

17:15

he scored his first major international

17:18

victory in the RAC tourist trophy

17:20

in 1950, at the wheel of

17:22

a Jaguar XK120, on the eve,

17:25

of his 21st birthday. Yeah, Jaguar

17:27

had actually turned him down for

17:29

a drive in one of their

17:32

own cars. They said he was

17:34

too young. But a conversation at

17:36

the legendary steering wheel club in

17:39

Mayfair where off-duty racing people gathered

17:41

led to him borrowing a similar

17:43

car for the race. And he

17:46

beat the works machines in absolutely...

17:48

foul weather, which made the racing

17:50

world and Jaguar sit up and

17:53

take notice. Absolutely, yes. And the

17:55

next year, still aged only 21,

17:57

he started his first Grand Prix.

18:00

The 1951 Swiss Grand Prix it

18:02

was at Bremgarten, which was a

18:05

daunting place to race for anyone,

18:07

still more so for a formal

18:09

one debutant. and the car he

18:12

raced was an HWM, which, to

18:14

continue the southeast of England theme,

18:16

stood for Hirschham and Walton Motors

18:19

in Surrey. It's now an Aston

18:21

Martin dealership, Anorac, fact. And still

18:23

called Hirscheman Walton Motors, I think.

18:26

It is, it is, it is.

18:28

Anyway, back to 1951 and back

18:30

to 21-year-old Sterling Moss. Some people

18:33

listening may be thinking, well, yes,

18:35

but nowadays you get teenagers racing

18:37

in Formula One. And they're right,

18:40

you do. But today's teenage Formula

18:42

One drivers have 10 plus years.

18:44

of racing under their belts in

18:47

carting and all sorts of junior

18:49

racing. And that really wasn't the

18:51

case back in the day. Moss

18:54

and Hawthorne didn't have that kind

18:56

of apprenticeship. No one did. And

18:59

I think it's worth underlining that

19:01

because, well, it says something not

19:03

only about racing at the time,

19:06

but also about the talent level

19:08

of both Hawthorne and Moss, that

19:10

they could graduate to Formula One

19:13

so quickly and almost instantly compete

19:15

on Well, level terms, good terms,

19:17

certainly, with much more experienced drivers.

19:20

I mean, as early as 1953

19:22

at Reams, I know I'm jumping

19:24

forward a bit, but anyway, as

19:27

early as 1953 at Reams, Hawthorne

19:29

beat the great Juan Manuel Fangeo

19:31

in what was immediately christened the

19:34

race of the century. I mean,

19:36

damn impressive, very impressive. But as

19:38

I say, I'm running ahead a

19:41

bit now, and I'm actually going

19:43

to leave you to describe that

19:46

race. properly and in detail a

19:48

bit later on in the pod.

19:50

Yeah, I wonder if the early

19:53

success of those two had something

19:55

to do with horses and motorbikes.

19:57

As a schoolboy, Moss won a

20:00

lot of show jumping trophies and

20:02

Hawthorne was successful in motorcycle trials

20:04

and scrambling as a teenager. I

20:07

think that may have helped them

20:09

develop their feel for speed and

20:11

movement and balance in particular, I

20:14

think, but no doubt their natural

20:16

talent was the big thing. But

20:18

I think you're probably right. You've

20:21

got a point, you know, they

20:23

didn't just start racing from never

20:25

having competed on anything on wheels.

20:28

No, they got a feel for

20:30

competition. Yes, yes, yes, yes. You

20:32

mentioned that Hawthorne was offered a

20:35

drive by Ferrari at the end

20:37

of 1952, which he accepted, of

20:40

course, and that's another intriguing subplot

20:42

in our tale. Moss had been

20:44

offered a drive with Ferrari a

20:47

year earlier, but it never came

20:49

off, and what actually happened played

20:51

a big part in shaping his

20:54

career. Enso Ferrari probably noticed his

20:56

talent first in 1949 when Sterling

20:58

made his first trip to the

21:01

continent and did well at Lake

21:03

Garda in northern Italy. He was

21:05

racing his little Cooper Jack with

21:08

a twin cylinder, this time a

21:10

one-liter motorcycle engine, and he made

21:12

a good showing against the work's

21:15

12-cylinder two-liter Ferraris. And a year

21:17

later, during the Grand Prix weekend

21:19

at Monaco, he won the supporting

21:22

race, the Predim Monte Carlo for

21:24

500 CC Formula 3C. He won

21:27

the heats and the final. And

21:29

at the start of 1951 there

21:31

came the invitation from Ferrari offering

21:34

him a drive at the French

21:36

and the British Grand Prix. That

21:38

was a fantastic compliment for a

21:41

young British driver at the time.

21:43

It was a bit like Dick

21:45

Seaman being invited to join Mercedes

21:48

in 1937. Yeah, good point actually,

21:50

quite parallel. Yeah, yeah. But, well,

21:52

of course, Simon was the inspiration

21:55

for the, the only real inspiration

21:57

for the generation of Moss and

21:59

Hawthorne. He was the only bloke,

22:02

you know, in the 30s who'd

22:04

really gone from. Britain and taken

22:06

on the continental. They didn't have

22:09

the phrase, if you can see

22:11

it, you can be it, but

22:14

that's what he was. Yeah, he

22:16

was. But anyway, Moss had to

22:18

turn down the first of those

22:21

two races for Ferrari because he

22:23

was already committed to driving an

22:25

HWM at Arvas in Berlin. And

22:28

Enso Ferrari, who wasn't used to

22:30

being rebuffed, gave the car in

22:32

both races to the Argentinian driver.

22:35

Jose Frolan Gonzales, who responded by

22:37

winning at Silverstone. That was Ferrari's

22:39

first ever Grand Prix win, while

22:42

Sterling had to be content with

22:44

winning the Formula Three race. I

22:46

have to say, can you imagine

22:49

physically two more different 1950s drivers

22:51

than Sterling Moss and Gonzales? They

22:53

probably didn't even adjust the cockpit.

22:56

Probably. For anybody who doesn't know,

22:58

Sterling was lissom and nimble and

23:00

Gonzales was not. Not at all.

23:03

Gonzales was about a yard wide.

23:05

Yeah, yeah, he absolutely was. Anyway,

23:08

sorry, where were you before I

23:10

distracted you? Nevertheless, it wasn't over

23:12

between Moss and Ferrari or not

23:15

yet. Enso invited Sterling to Modena

23:17

and he was amused when Sterling

23:19

and his dad turned up in

23:22

a Morris Minor, which they'd driven

23:24

all the way from London, was

23:26

actually finished in Sterling's personal paint

23:29

scheme, which was green and pale

23:31

green, mint green, I think. It

23:33

must have taken a long time.

23:36

Probably the only Morris minor with

23:38

that finish. So once again, Ferrari

23:40

offered Sterling a car, at this

23:43

time for the non-championship Grand Prix

23:45

of Bari in Pulia, down the

23:47

right-hand side of it, the Italian

23:50

coast. But the promise that if

23:52

he did well, there'd be a

23:55

full contract, a Grand Prix contract

23:57

for 1952. And even as a

23:59

possibility, this was big news. There

24:02

was an editorial in Autosport which

24:04

said, it's known that Sterling is...

24:06

intensely patriotic and would prefer to

24:09

drive a British car. Nevertheless, no

24:11

one can possibly blame him for

24:13

grasping the opportunity with both of

24:16

his capable hands. I don't think

24:18

Watersport wrote that when Ollie Berman

24:20

took the Ferrari drive in Saudi

24:23

Arabia earlier this year. Well I'm

24:25

sure Ollie is intensely patriotic too.

24:27

I'm sure he is. And that's

24:30

what Sterling hoped to do, but

24:32

when he and his dad got

24:34

to Bari, after a flight to

24:37

Rome and a very uncomfortable overnight

24:39

train journey across Italy, they went

24:42

to the garage where the Scuderia

24:44

Ferrari had pitched its camp and

24:46

discovered that there was no car

24:49

for Sterling. Well, there was a

24:51

car, but it wasn't his. The

24:53

mechanics told him it had been

24:56

assigned to a much more experienced

24:58

man, Piero Tarufi, and Italian, of

25:00

course. Sterling and his dad were

25:03

furious, particularly when no explanation was

25:05

forthcoming. Enso Ferrari, of course, was

25:07

almost 500 miles away in Modena

25:10

and pretty much in Communicado, I

25:12

think. Sterling responded by vowing on

25:14

the spot, never to accept a

25:17

drive from him again. And he

25:19

kept the promise, even when Ferrari

25:21

sent him a telegram at the

25:24

end of the season, offering an

25:26

exclusive contract. Part of him in

25:28

his mission in life had become

25:31

to beat the Ferraris. And it

25:33

took more than a decade for

25:36

a reconciliation to come, when they

25:38

had another meeting in Italy and

25:40

Enso offered Sterling a car to

25:43

race in the World Championship in

25:45

1962, we're getting ahead of ourselves

25:47

here, but it's relevant, to be

25:50

run by Rob Walker's team in

25:52

Walker's Blue and White Colors. Ferrari

25:54

had won the 1961 Drivers and

25:57

Contractors Championship, so it looked as

25:59

though after so many near-misses, Sterling

26:01

would finally win the title. But

26:04

before that could happen, he had

26:06

his awful crash in a lotus

26:08

at Goodwood, which left him in

26:11

a coma for a month and

26:13

paralyzed down one side of his

26:15

body for six months. That finished

26:18

his grump. career and left us

26:20

with one of motor racing's great

26:23

might-of-beams. Although Enso Ferrari always claimed

26:25

that Moss was one of his

26:27

favorite drivers along with Nivalari. He

26:30

did, yeah, and rightly so. Anyway,

26:32

Hawthorne's 1953 Ferrari deal meant that

26:34

he became a former one regular,

26:37

slightly sooner than Moss did. But

26:39

in 1954, Moss's manager, Ken Gregory,

26:41

along with his father, I mean

26:44

Sterling's father, negotiated the purchase of

26:46

a Maserati 250F, the brand-new model

26:48

from Ferrari's local rival. And one

26:51

of the most beautiful racing cars

26:53

ever made, I might add. I

26:55

couldn't agree with you more. In

26:58

fact, I might even caval with

27:00

one of the. You know, it's...

27:02

Yeah, perhaps the most beautiful. And

27:05

what those who drove it said

27:07

was also the nicest to drive?

27:09

Absolutely. Absolutely. Anyway, it cost five

27:12

thousand five hundred pounds. They cost

27:14

a lot more now. Anyway, it

27:17

cost five thousand five hundred pounds,

27:19

which was actually to be fair,

27:21

a hell of a lot of

27:24

money at that time. But it

27:26

proved to be a shrewd investment

27:28

because Moss won the 1954 non-champions.

27:31

200, his first Formula One win.

27:33

By the way, there were lots

27:35

of non-championship Formula One races back

27:38

in those days. And he finished

27:40

a long way ahead of Reg

27:42

Parnelles for Rari 625. And a

27:45

few months later, now, with factory

27:47

Mazarati work support, Moss nearly won

27:49

the 1954 Italian Grand Prix at

27:52

Monza, losing out only when an

27:54

oil pipe broke with 10 laps

27:56

to go. And how about this,

27:59

in the crowd that day, was

28:01

a 14-year-old Tifozo? His name? Mario

28:04

Andretti. Anrak fact. Sensitional. Anyway, such

28:06

impressive results earned more... a move

28:08

to Mercedes-Benz for 1955, alongside the

28:11

aforementioned Great Juan Manuel Fanger. So

28:13

from 1955 to the end of

28:15

1958, Moss and Hawthorne were both

28:18

full-timers in the Formula One World

28:20

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to upgrade your selling today. Before

30:27

the break, we mentioned that by

30:29

1955, Sterling Moss and Mike Hawthorne

30:32

were both full-time Formula One drivers.

30:34

Although we should make clear, as

30:36

with most, if not all, other

30:38

drivers at the time, they did

30:41

plenty of sports car races and

30:43

other events too. I'm going to

30:45

ask you, Richard, how well known

30:47

were they to the British public

30:50

by that time? I'm asking you,

30:52

without being cheeky, because I hadn't

30:54

been born in 1955, nor would

30:56

I be for another seven years,

30:59

whereas you were already a schoolboy

31:01

and doubtless a regular order sport

31:03

reader. Not quite. The money from

31:06

the paper round didn't stretch that

31:08

far. Okay. And you never nicked

31:10

a copy of order sport either.

31:12

But those two were very well

31:15

known indeed by then and not

31:17

just to motor racing enthusiasts. In

31:19

my memory they were up there

31:21

with the biggest stars of British

31:24

sport, Stanley Matthews in football and

31:26

Dennis Compton in cricket, Reg Harris

31:28

in cycling and Roger Bannister of

31:30

course in athletics. Moss and Hawthorne

31:33

were young and they were succeeding

31:35

in a glamorous sport. Of course.

31:37

the general public, including me, hardly

31:40

ever saw them in action. There

31:42

wasn't much sport on the single

31:44

TV channel, two channels after 1955,

31:46

and no Grand Prix racing on

31:49

TV at all, apart from newsreel

31:51

clips, if there was a big

31:53

accident. British pathé type of thing.

31:55

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so there would

31:58

be, you know, an entry. 55

32:00

you'd see 20 seconds or something,

32:02

but otherwise you just saw them

32:04

in still photographs in the newspapers.

32:07

But that didn't stop Moss and

32:09

Hawthorne becoming heroes to people of

32:11

all ages, but particularly, I'd just

32:13

say, to schoolboys like me. I

32:16

was very quickly a Moss fan.

32:18

There was something I and lots

32:20

of others liked about his sort

32:23

of cool elegance at the wheel

32:25

and his habit of winning against

32:27

the odds, so it was very

32:29

appealing. But it was Hawthorne who

32:32

of the two scored the first

32:34

really major success when he became

32:36

Britain's first world championship Grand Prix

32:38

winner in 1953 in France and

32:41

then repeated the trick in 1954

32:43

in Spain. And now you're going

32:45

to tell us about the race

32:47

of the century. Well, that first

32:50

win at Reims in 1983 made

32:52

headlines. The first Grand Prix victory

32:54

for a Brit since Seaman at

32:57

the Nurburgering in 1938. And an

32:59

incredibly dramatic one. Hawthorne's Ferrari and

33:01

Fangio's Mazarati, two red cars, raced

33:03

neck and neck up the finishing

33:06

straight at top speed on the

33:08

final lap with Hawthorne gradually pulling

33:10

ahead to take the checkered flag.

33:12

by a very narrow margin. Yeah,

33:15

very, very narrow. I think it

33:17

was barely a second. And the

33:19

lead had changed, if I'm not

33:21

mistaken, again and again, every lap

33:24

for two hours and three quarters.

33:26

Fantastic. Yep. And the year later,

33:28

he showed it hadn't been a

33:31

fluke by winning again for Ferrari

33:33

at the Pedrobes Street Circuit in

33:35

Barcelona. Moss, on the other hand,

33:37

had to wait until 1955 for

33:40

his first win in a World

33:42

Championship Grand Prix. It was at

33:44

entry on the perimeter road of

33:46

the Grand National Course, and it

33:49

was in a Mercedes. He finished

33:51

a couple of lengths ahead of

33:53

Fangio, the World Champion, and the

33:55

team's number one driver. And the

33:58

celebrations were huge, of course. British

34:00

driver winning the British Grand Prix.

34:02

But afterwards, some people wondered if

34:04

Fangeo had allowed Moss to win

34:07

on home ground. Just as he'd

34:09

let another teammate, the German driver

34:11

Karl Kling, win the Berlin Grand

34:14

Prix the previous year. Fangeau, being

34:16

a gentleman, of course, always denied

34:18

it. Yes, he did. And well,

34:20

look, obviously I don't know whether

34:23

or not Fangeo gifted that win

34:25

to Moss or not. No one

34:27

does. Well, no one does now.

34:29

But I do remember if I

34:32

moved the... if I may move

34:34

the subject on slightly, I do

34:36

remember that when in 2016 I

34:38

took Kevin Magnuson to have lunch

34:41

with Sterling and his wife Susie

34:43

at their famously high-tech muse house

34:45

in Mayfair, London. You must have

34:48

been there. I know, yeah. Wonderful.

34:50

Yeah, absolutely one. Beloved magazine writers,

34:52

you know, interior decoration magazines. Wonderful,

34:54

and privileged to be to be

34:57

inside it. Anyway. The reason I

34:59

took Magnuson was that Moss was

35:01

and still is Magnuson's all-time hero,

35:03

which I think is a feather

35:06

in a young Dane's cap. Don't

35:08

you agree? Oh yeah. Absolutely. Anyway,

35:10

that's why I arranged the lunch

35:12

for us all. And while we

35:15

were sitting there, having by the

35:17

way beer and twiglets, I had

35:19

the feeling that that must have

35:22

been served in the Moss's house

35:24

for... decades. That's a dinner of

35:26

champions. You'd imagine Susie saying, don't

35:28

worry, I'm not sure, sorry, lunch

35:31

of champs. Yeah, lunch. Imagine Susie

35:33

saying, don't worry, Sterling, I've got

35:35

the beer and the twiglets. Anyway,

35:37

Kevin asked Sterling, what was it

35:40

like to race against Fanjo? It's

35:42

a great question to be able

35:44

to ask someone, a dwindling number

35:46

of people, probably almost no one

35:49

left that you could ask that

35:51

question too now. And I'm not

35:53

very good at the moss impersonation,

35:56

but I'll just show that I'm

35:58

being Sterling Moss. He said Well,

36:00

Fanjo often got the better of

36:02

me in formal one, boy! Remember

36:05

he always called you boy, yeah.

36:07

And he was well into his

36:09

80s at the time. But in

36:11

sports cars I could usually handle

36:14

him. And I remember Kevin just

36:16

looking at me and saying, so

36:18

cool. stage whispering under his breath.

36:20

Anyway, anyway, back to 1955. Yeah,

36:23

a lovely story, but one of

36:25

the things I liked about Sterling

36:27

was hearing him say once, somebody

36:29

once said to him, don't you

36:32

get bored telling people the same

36:34

stories, they ask you the same

36:36

questions and you tell them, you

36:39

have to tell them the same

36:41

stories. He said, no, he said,

36:43

that happens all the time, he

36:45

said, but I always think when

36:48

somebody asks me about, you know,

36:50

something, that I've spoken of millions

36:52

of millions of times. they haven't

36:54

heard the answer from me. And

36:57

that's true. Isn't that marvelous? It's

36:59

marvelous and it's true. But he

37:01

would give that to people. Very

37:03

generous. Look, he was a great

37:06

man, but I'll just, if I

37:08

may tell one little story about

37:10

that Magnuson lunch, Twiglets and Beer,

37:13

and Susie had prepared, you've probably

37:15

seen Sterling's famous scrapbooks or something.

37:17

Oh yeah. Anyway, he took out

37:19

some scrapbooks or she had... rooted

37:22

out some scrapbooks from the early

37:24

60s, where he'd raced in Ross

37:26

Gilda, which is in Denmark, in

37:28

fact Kevin's hometown, very sweet of

37:31

her to find them. Anyway, they

37:33

turned the pages and he said,

37:35

boy, you might look at this

37:37

one. And there was a picture

37:40

and of course it's in Danish.

37:42

And what does it say, boy?

37:44

Kevin read the headline said, it

37:47

says you won. and then he

37:49

turned a couple more pages. What

37:51

does it say with that one

37:53

boy? It says he won again.

37:56

Anyway, all right, back to 1955

37:58

when Moss also won the mill

38:00

Amelia, which was the grueling time

38:02

trial around a thousand miles as

38:05

the name suggests of Italian public

38:07

roads, and he won it in

38:09

a Mercedes. 300 SLLS sports car.

38:11

Help by his co-driver, the journalist

38:14

Dennis Jenkinson, whom we often mention

38:16

in this podcast. he charged from

38:18

Brescia to Rome and back in

38:21

10 hours and 7 minutes at

38:23

an average speed of 97.95 miles

38:25

an hour and that's a record

38:27

that stands in perpetuity since the

38:30

race was abandoned after several spectators

38:32

were killed two years later. Magnificent

38:34

really wasn't it magnificent? It was

38:36

a magnificent race and I actually

38:39

drove the whole of that 1955

38:41

route a few years ago. It

38:43

took me not 10 hours but

38:45

three and a half days. But

38:48

you didn't have Jenks sitting next

38:50

to you. I didn't, no prompting

38:52

me. And I also observed traffic

38:54

lights and speed limits. It's more

38:57

or less. More or less. But

38:59

anyway, we'll do a podcast on

39:01

the Mille Millio one because it

39:04

really deserves it. It does, it

39:06

certainly does. Back to the rivalry.

39:08

Hawthorne also won a sports car

39:10

classic that year, the 24 hours

39:13

of Lamont, sharing a works D-type

39:15

Jaguar with another Brit, Iva Bueb.

39:17

But the victory was tainted, to

39:19

say the least, by Hawthorne's involvement

39:22

in an accident four hours into

39:24

the race, in which Pierre LeVex

39:26

Mercedes flew into the enclosure opposite

39:28

the pits, killing himself along with

39:31

83 spectators, the youngest of them

39:33

an 11-year-old schoolboy. It seems incredible

39:35

today that the race should continue

39:38

to the finish, but it did.

39:40

Mercedes withdrew their other two cars

39:42

during the night, including the one

39:44

in the lead being driven by

39:47

Moss and Fangeo, and Hawthorne and

39:49

Bueb took the win. They did

39:51

indeed. And if I may, I'd

39:53

like to read a short passage

39:56

about that race, Lamont 1955, from

39:58

Hawthorne's autobiography, challenged me the race,

40:00

which was published actually in early

40:02

1958. Out of the corner of

40:05

my eye, I saw something flying

40:07

through the air. was Pierre Laveg's

40:09

Mercedes, which went cartwheeling over the

40:12

safety barrier, bounced once, then disintegrated

40:14

with the force of an exploding

40:16

bomb. It was all over in

40:18

a second or two, but it

40:21

remains fixed in my mind like

40:23

a slow motion film." End quote.

40:25

Then Hawthorne goes on to describe

40:27

the accident in much more detail

40:30

over quite a few pages. and

40:32

he finishes that description of the

40:34

race as follows, and if I

40:36

may read just a little bit

40:39

more, Richard, quote, the next day,

40:41

as the special editions of the

40:43

newspapers began to arrive at the

40:46

circuit, it was obvious that public

40:48

opinion was going to turn against

40:50

motor racing. But public opinion is

40:52

something that is aroused and molded

40:55

by people in far away newspaper

40:57

offices and radio stations, by politicians,

40:59

and so-called and so-called... informed sources.

41:01

The tens of thousands of spectators

41:04

at Lamont showed no anger, only

41:06

a staggering fatalism. The accident might

41:08

have been as remote as an

41:10

earthquake in Chile to the throng

41:13

of people lining the circuit, for

41:15

they stayed on to the end,

41:17

despite the cold and driving rain.

41:19

Indeed, as soon as the dead

41:22

and injured had been removed, and

41:24

the frightful evidence of carnage cleared

41:26

away as far as possible, the

41:29

spectators crowded back against the rails

41:31

three or four deep, pressing right

41:33

up against the burned-out wreck of

41:35

the Mercedes, and trampling into the

41:38

mud the newspapers, with their screaming

41:40

headlines about the disaster. Mud, that

41:42

only a short while before had

41:44

been tinged with the blood of

41:47

the dead and dying. Of course

41:49

there was worldwide shock and horror,

41:51

but after a long and very

41:53

thorough judicial inquiry, to which Hawthorne

41:56

actually gave evidence, it was determined

41:58

that no individual was to blame

42:00

and no charges were brought. It

42:03

was, as we'd say today, a

42:05

racing incident, just one that killed

42:07

84 people and injured more than

42:09

100 others. I mean, obviously, it

42:12

goes without saying we hope

42:14

nothing like that ever ever ever

42:16

happens again. But Hawthorne's description

42:19

is quite vivid, isn't it? It's

42:21

very vivid. I think if something

42:23

like that did happen again, that

42:25

would be the end of motor

42:28

racing. It could be. And there

42:30

was another controversy that involved Hawthorne

42:32

and Moss in the early 1950s,

42:34

and it was over national service.

42:37

I dimly remember older brothers of

42:39

friends doing national service. I was

42:41

just... luckily few years too young

42:43

to get caught by it. But

42:45

with the Second World War still

42:47

fresh in people's minds and British

42:49

forces fighting in the war in

42:51

Korea, all healthy young males had

42:54

to spend 18 months in the

42:56

armed forces and then stay on

42:58

the reserve strength for another four

43:00

years. You had to pass a

43:02

medical examination and some people made

43:04

efforts to fail it. just as

43:06

a few years later, young Americans

43:08

would pretend to have, let's say,

43:10

bone spurs in order to dodge

43:12

the Vietnam draft. In Britain, whenever

43:14

a celebrity appeared to be dodging

43:17

the call-up, the newspapers went to

43:19

town. And while Hawthorne was racing

43:21

in Argentina at the start of

43:23

1954, the Tory member of Parliament

43:26

for Asia asked a question about

43:28

it in the House of Commons,

43:30

and the Daily Mirror ran an

43:33

editorial headline catch this dodger!" Hawthorne's

43:35

dad explained that he'd been given

43:37

a deferral in order to complete

43:39

his engineering studies, that's the sort

43:42

of thing that quite often happened,

43:44

and then had been informed that his

43:46

call-up had been cancelled. And a year

43:48

later, it was Moss's turn to catch

43:51

the flag. Manny Shinwell, a very prominent

43:53

left-wing Labour MP, stood up in the

43:55

house and said, when I hear of

43:57

these daring and courageous young people going

44:00

abroad, racing around tracks to the

44:02

danger of their lives, and when

44:04

I hear of their physical incapacity,

44:07

I wonder, I should have thought

44:09

that if they are capable of

44:11

doing one thing, they were certainly

44:13

capable of doing the other. Again,

44:16

there were some hostile headlines. Sterling

44:18

was in America at the time,

44:20

but his father sent Shinwell and

44:23

every other MP, a copy of

44:25

his son's medical records, which showed

44:27

that in 1947 when he was

44:29

18, he volunteered for the RAF.

44:32

but he'd been turned down when

44:34

the medical exam revealed that he'd

44:36

suffered from nephritis, which was a

44:39

kidney disease, and that was during

44:41

his days at Haleybury School. It

44:43

had actually cost him two years

44:46

of his schooling, so he too

44:48

was off the hook. And by

44:50

this time, one way or another,

44:52

Moss and Hawthorne were not just

44:55

heroes to schoolboys, but familiar figures

44:57

to the general public. They were

44:59

indeed. And I actually think policemen

45:02

in the 1950s did indeed ask

45:04

speeding motorists the question, who do

45:06

you think you asked, Sterling Moss?

45:08

Actually legend... has it that Sterling

45:11

himself was once asked that very

45:13

question by a policeman who'd stopped

45:15

him for speeding. I mean that

45:18

may or may not be apocryphal

45:20

but it's a lovely story and

45:22

I'm gonna say I believe it.

45:25

Well so so do I and

45:27

it must be true and he

45:29

was actually done for speeding once

45:31

and banned for a bit in

45:34

his Morris Minor I think and

45:36

that made headlines too. I wouldn't

45:38

mind having been driven by Sterling

45:41

Moss in a speeding Morris Meyer.

45:43

What is without doubt is that

45:45

Moss was also not just a

45:48

speeder but a bit of a

45:50

ladies man. If I may say

45:52

so, when he talked of crumpet,

45:54

which he did often, he wasn't

45:57

referring to a small circle of

45:59

griddle bread made from an unsweetened

46:01

batter of milk flour and yeast,

46:04

was he? They are very tasty,

46:06

but that's not what Sterling meant.

46:08

No, he meant beautiful women, which

46:10

the word crump it used to

46:13

be used to describe back in

46:15

the day. Look, it's a totally

46:17

unacceptable usage now, of course, and

46:20

terribly passay. But we are going

46:22

back more than 60 years. Anyway,

46:24

Hawthorne was also... a bit of

46:27

a ladies man, but while Moss

46:29

used to eye women up in

46:31

the crowd as he was racing

46:33

through the streets of Monaco, or

46:36

so he said, Hawthorne would chat

46:38

them up in village pubs in

46:40

Surrey. I mean, whatever works, I

46:43

guess. Having said that, Hawthorne did

46:45

father a son with Jacqueline Delorna.

46:47

whom he met at Reims in

46:49

1953 one of his most glorious

46:52

weekends of course. So it wasn't

46:54

always village pubs in Surrey for

46:56

Mike. Moss was famously lean and

46:59

fit as you've said Richard. Hawthorne

47:01

by contrast, well he wasn't fat.

47:03

But he was certainly stocky, can

47:06

we call him stocky? I guess,

47:08

yes, yeah. He wasn't fat, but

47:10

he was stocky. Well, he wasn't

47:12

González, don't give me wrath. Definitely

47:15

not, no. No, no. Anyway, although

47:17

Moss went prematurely bald, he always

47:19

looked younger than Hawthorne, I thought,

47:22

despite Hawthorne's luxuriant shock of blonde

47:24

hair. Hawthorne's sports jacket and bow

47:26

tie almost ever present even when

47:29

he was flat out flailing away

47:31

at the wheel of a former

47:33

one car, believe it or not,

47:35

also made him look old. Well,

47:38

to modernize anyway. I mean he

47:40

had about him the look of

47:42

a country squire, didn't he? Yeah,

47:45

there was a bit of the

47:47

Young Farmers Club about him, I

47:49

always thought. Anyway, they both smoked.

47:51

Everyone did back then. Sterling smoked

47:54

cigarettes cigarettes. promoting Craven A, a

47:56

once popular brand that disappeared in

47:58

all but a very few countries

48:01

long ago. Back in the day,

48:03

though, Craven A Ads carried a

48:05

photograph of sterling in a race

48:08

helmet. puffing on a siggie alongside

48:10

the quote, When I smoke I'm

48:12

choosy, Craven A gives me all

48:14

I want of a smoke and

48:17

nothing I don't. Hawthorne famously smoked

48:19

a pipe. I wonder who was

48:21

the last Formula One driver. to

48:24

smoke regularly. Well, and admitted. Might

48:26

do some researching, right? And admit

48:28

it. And admit it. Yeah. Actually,

48:30

in last week's pod, Patrick de

48:33

Peier we mentioned, he was definitely

48:35

a big smoker. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

48:37

yeah. Can't imagine any of the

48:40

current, well, you know, something. Not

48:42

even clandestinely. Yes. Well, perhaps, perhaps

48:44

some of them, but we won't

48:47

go there. Anyway, Hawthorne famously smoked

48:49

a pipe and I'm absolutely sure

48:51

that no current formal one driver

48:53

driver's smoke a pine Can you

48:56

imagine Ollie Berman smoking a pipe?

48:58

Anyway, Richard, let's get back to

49:00

a sensible conversation. You've mentioned mosses

49:03

nephritis, a kidney disease, but coincidentally

49:05

Hawthorne also suffered from a kidney

49:07

disease, a much more serious one

49:10

in fact. And by 1955, he

49:12

already had a kidney removed. and

49:14

his remaining kidney was beginning to

49:16

cause him problems in his final

49:19

years, the story goes that he

49:21

wasn't expected to see the age

49:23

of 35. I mean, in fact,

49:26

he didn't even see 30, but

49:28

that was for another reason as

49:30

we'll discuss soon. But before we

49:32

come to that... I just want

49:35

to ask you, do you think

49:37

they were friends? I mean, Hawthorne

49:39

was extremely pally with Peter Collins,

49:42

but what about Moss? What was

49:44

the nature of the Hawthorne Moss

49:46

relationship? Well, they got on well

49:49

enough that Moss once gave Hawthorne

49:51

a lift from England to a

49:53

race in France, and in those

49:55

days the drivers from different teams

49:58

regularly shared transportation and stayed in

50:00

the same hotels and had meals

50:02

together and swam in the hotel

50:05

pools together during a race weekend.

50:07

But the relationship between Moss and

50:09

Hawthorne was nothing like. as close

50:11

as that between Hawthorne and Collins,

50:14

as you say. Those two were

50:16

genuine mates. Monami mates, in fact.

50:18

And if any of our listeners

50:21

don't know what I'm on about

50:23

there, Monami mate is what Hawthorne

50:25

and Collins called each other. And

50:28

Monami... They got it from a

50:30

cartoon strip, I think. A French

50:32

cartoon? Indeed. Yes. address somebody who's

50:34

Monami mate. Monami mate. And they

50:37

called each other, morning Monami mate,

50:39

etc. And actually Monami mate is

50:41

the title of Chris Nixon's excellent

50:44

book about them, about Hallform and

50:46

Collins, which dear listener, I mean

50:48

you really should buy if you

50:51

spotted anywhere because it's quite hard

50:53

to come by now and it's

50:55

usually pretty pricey when you do.

50:57

It's an absolute classic. And it's

51:00

easy to imagine that Hawthorne was

51:02

a bit wary of the kind

51:04

of professional attitude with which Moss

51:07

approached his career, and probably a

51:09

bit cynical too, about Moss's ability

51:11

to gather publicity. All his life,

51:13

Moss was more than happy to

51:16

give interviews, to road test a

51:18

car for a magazine, or to

51:20

show up as a sponsor's event.

51:23

When I was a cub reporter

51:25

for a local evening paper, he

51:27

took me for a drive in

51:30

a Bugatti to celebrate the opening

51:32

of a new Mercedes dealership. You've

51:34

just, I have to say, the

51:36

way you've just dropped that in.

51:39

When I was a cub reporter,

51:41

I was driven by Sterling Moss

51:43

in a Bugatti. Well, here's another

51:46

one. Many years later, when I

51:48

was working for a national paper,

51:50

I sat behind him in a

51:52

two-seater soapbox cart going down the

51:55

Goodwood Hill to publicise the festival

51:57

of speed. And before we set

51:59

off, I said, you be Moss,

52:02

I'll be Jenks. Anyway, there are

52:04

two examples of how he turned

52:06

being Stirling Moss into a very

52:09

successful business, which could be sustained

52:11

very profitably after the end of

52:13

his grand pre-career. And Hawthorne was

52:15

known to refer to him. from

52:18

time to time, behind his back,

52:20

as Moses, his family's old Jewish

52:22

name. Of course, that would be

52:25

unacceptably anti-Semitic now. But back then,

52:27

I have to say, it probably

52:29

seemed like a bit of relatively

52:32

harmless public schoolboy joshing. In fact,

52:34

during Moss's school days at Haleybury,

52:36

when he was a flying winger

52:38

on the rugby field, he did

52:41

hear occasional shouts of catch the

52:43

yid. Again, not uncommon for the

52:45

time, but completely. unacceptable now. I

52:48

mean, completely unacceptable and just almost

52:50

amazing to hear to our modern

52:52

ears. Yeah, yeah. And as drivers,

52:54

I think, of the two, Moss

52:57

was the purest's favorite. He'd copied

52:59

his relaxed straight arms headback style

53:01

from Nina Farina, the first world

53:04

champion, but it became as much

53:06

his own signature as the white

53:08

helmet he wore. Hawthorne by contrast

53:11

seemed more obviously pugnacious at the

53:13

wheel, you know, leaned forward a

53:15

bit more, not so elegant. Yes,

53:17

very much a lean forward rather

53:20

than lean back driver. As I

53:22

say, I was always a mossman

53:24

or boy. But I do think

53:27

there's a danger now of underrating

53:29

Hawthorne for various reasons. Matt, you

53:31

and I would probably agree that

53:33

Dennis Jenkinson, Motorsports Continental correspondent for

53:36

many years, was as good a

53:38

judge of a post-war racing driver

53:40

as anyone. And here's what he

53:43

wrote about Hawthorne in his great

53:45

book, The Racing Driver, published in

53:47

1958. Talking about drivers who had

53:50

the fighting quality, he called Tiger.

53:52

One can quote examples of seeing

53:54

Hawthorne Tiger ever since his Cooper

53:56

Bristol days. Remember how he caught

53:59

and passed Villarezi, who was driving

54:01

the big Ferrari at Boram Wood

54:03

in the pouring rain back in

54:06

1952, and then the next year

54:08

when he fought Fangio, tooth and

54:10

nail, throughout the French Grand Prix

54:13

and won, and unheard of. thing

54:15

for an Englishman to do. Or,

54:17

more recently, his drive at Naples

54:19

last year to recover second place

54:22

after being delayed at the pits

54:24

by a broken fuel pipe. And

54:26

the opening lapse of the 1956

54:29

British Grand Prix at Silverstone with

54:31

the BRM. Hawthorne, Tiger's all right.

54:33

Great stuff, and yes, I'd agree

54:35

with you, Richard, that of the

54:38

two, Moss was the finer driver.

54:40

But then, I mean, in the

54:42

1950s, Moss was as good as

54:45

anyone. Actually, better than anyone other

54:47

than Ascarian fan-jo. Some might say

54:49

Moss was the equal of Ascarian

54:52

fan-jo, in fact. But as we

54:54

often say on Coloscely, that's probably

54:56

another podcast. It'd be quite a

54:58

good one, actually. Anyway, Hawthorne was

55:01

damn good himself. I don't know.

55:03

We can never know whether Hawthorne's

55:05

growing realization that his kidney disease

55:08

might mean that he might never

55:10

live to old age, or even

55:12

to middle age, made him less

55:14

risk averse. But I don't think

55:17

so. His driving was never aggressive,

55:19

nor even devil may care, in

55:21

the manner of, you know, Nino

55:24

Farina. Well, not on track anyway.

55:26

On the Guilford bypass, one rainy

55:28

day, maybe it was, but we'll

55:31

come to that later. Of course,

55:33

attitudes to risk were rather different

55:35

in those days, and drivers were

55:37

asked about it all the time

55:40

in interviews. Moss was nearly killed

55:42

several times on the banking at

55:44

Monza in 1957 when the steering

55:47

failed on his Maserati at 160

55:49

miles an hour. And at spy

55:51

in 1960 when a wheel came

55:54

off on his lotus and he

55:56

broke both legs and crushed three

55:58

vertebrae and was racing again within

56:00

seven weeks, believe it on that.

56:03

But here's what he said. If

56:05

you asked me if it was

56:07

a dangerous sport, I'd say yes,

56:10

obviously, but what's the point of

56:12

living if you can't do at

56:14

least one thing? As for Hawthorne,

56:16

even after to his involvement in

56:19

the catastrophe at the Mont and

56:21

the deaths of Luigi Mussoe and

56:23

Peter Collins, he thought that a

56:26

concern with safety precautions was something

56:28

that could be taken too far.

56:30

Bear in mind too that when

56:33

he rejoined Ferrari in 1957, his

56:35

teammates were Eugenio Castellotti, Alfonso de

56:37

Portago, Musso and Collins, and within

56:39

18 months all four would be

56:42

dead. Quite a tally, quite as

56:44

telling statistic. Yeah, that was an

56:46

awful time. And here's something he

56:49

wrote. Motor racing is dangerous. It's

56:51

dangerous to climb up mountains. It's

56:53

dangerous to cross main roads. It's

56:55

dangerous to explore a jungle. Grand

56:58

Prix racing is a calculated risk

57:00

accepted by those who take part

57:02

in it. No regulations could be

57:05

drawn up, which would guarantee safety.

57:07

If you take away the normal

57:09

hazards of motor racing, you take

57:12

away the reasons for going motor

57:14

racing. That's from a book called

57:16

Champion Year about the 1958 season,

57:18

which he finished with his ghostwriter

57:21

after the final race in Casablanca

57:23

and which was published a few

57:25

months later after his death. Actually,

57:28

it's an interesting point because therefore

57:30

both Moss and Hawthorne had in

57:32

common the view that... danger was

57:35

part of it. I think they

57:37

all did in those days. I

57:39

think they did. The attitudes varied

57:41

slightly in some some preferred the

57:44

safety of old aerodrome circuits, others

57:46

like Moss, preferred road circuits with

57:48

the telegraph poles and ditches and

57:51

farmhouses and stuff to run into.

57:53

Amazing. Anyway. We've now talked about

57:55

both Hawthorne's books, challenged me the

57:57

race and champion year and I

58:00

like them. I like them both

58:02

ghostwritten But the thoughts were probably

58:04

Hawthorne's well. Yes. I think they're

58:07

very very good reads even now

58:09

all these years later They bring

58:11

that world to life again. I

58:14

recommend them if anyone's listening me

58:16

the race and champion year and

58:18

actually they're not too expensive you

58:20

can find them online. Anyway, as

58:23

I say, whatever their differences as

58:25

men or indeed as drivers, Moss

58:27

and Hawthorne were quick and competitive,

58:30

both of them, which is how

58:32

they came to be duking it

58:34

out for the Formula One Drivers

58:36

World Championship in 1958. So let's

58:39

set the scene, shall we? At

58:41

the beginning of the 1958 Formula

58:43

One season, Hawthorne had scored two

58:46

championship status Formula One Grand Prix

58:48

wins, both of them Ferrari, in

58:50

1953 and 1954, as we've mentioned

58:53

earlier. And also he'd finished third

58:55

in the 1954 Formula One Drivers

58:57

World Championship. Moss, meanwhile, was a

58:59

six-time World Championship status Formula One

59:02

Grand Prix winner heading into 1958,

59:04

and he'd had a run of

59:06

three successive second-place finishes in the

59:09

Formula One Drivers World Championship in

59:11

1955, 1956. and 1957. So he

59:13

really was a bona fide superstar

59:16

and he was considered by most

59:18

people who knew how many beans

59:20

made five to be the natural

59:22

heir to Fangeo who of course

59:25

had won his fifth Formula One

59:27

Drivers World Championship in 1957 and

59:29

would retire in 1958 aged 47.

59:32

Yeah, Moss had built that reputation

59:34

off the back of some really

59:36

sensational wins. Wins that even today

59:38

are up there with the very

59:41

best in motor racing history. In

59:43

1957 alone, there'd been three historic

59:45

Grand Prix wins. The Van Wall,

59:48

the British team, he finally got

59:50

to drive a competitive British Grand

59:52

Prix. He'd shared the winning van

59:55

wall at the British Grand Prix

59:57

with Tony Brooks and that was

59:59

at Aintry, the first World Championship

1:00:01

Grand Prix win for a British

1:00:04

driver, British car combination. beating the

1:00:06

Ferraris and Mazurattis. There were two

1:00:08

of them Brooks and Moss because

1:00:11

Brooks started the race with an

1:00:13

injury. Moss's car broke down. Brooks

1:00:15

brought his car in and Moss

1:00:17

took it over and in those

1:00:20

days you could share the win

1:00:22

and the championship points. And then

1:00:24

Moss beat the Italian teams on

1:00:27

their home ground first at Pescara

1:00:29

and then at Monza. Pescara, actually,

1:00:31

just correct me if I'm wrong,

1:00:34

Richard, but I believe there's a

1:00:36

rather good book that's been written

1:00:38

about that race. Can you remind

1:00:40

me who wrote it? Why would

1:00:43

anyone want to write a book

1:00:45

about one obscure motor race in

1:00:47

1957? Anyway, heaven knows. By the

1:00:50

way, it was my friend Richard

1:00:52

Williams and do buy it, it's

1:00:54

excellent. The last road race. And

1:00:57

Moss was like Fangeo in that

1:00:59

you could put him into almost

1:01:01

any car and he'd win. And

1:01:03

indeed his sixth world championship wins

1:01:06

to that point had come with

1:01:08

three different teams, Mercedes, Maserati and

1:01:10

Van Wall. Yes. And it's fair

1:01:13

to say that Moss had done

1:01:15

a lot more winning at the

1:01:17

top level heading into the 1958

1:01:19

season than had Hawthorne. We've made

1:01:22

that clear. Because Hawthorne had actually

1:01:24

had a... pretty lean few years

1:01:26

in Formula One following his early

1:01:29

breakthrough victories. In fact, even making

1:01:31

the podium have been a struggle

1:01:33

for him in the mid-1950s. 1955

1:01:36

and 1956 were terrible years for

1:01:38

him. I'm talking about Hawthorne. He

1:01:40

scored no formal one world championship

1:01:42

points at all in 1955, and

1:01:45

in 1956 he scored four. only

1:01:47

four. Why? Why so? Well, we've

1:01:49

mentioned earlier that Hawthorne's dad owned

1:01:52

a garage in Surrey, and when

1:01:54

he died, when Hawthorne's father died

1:01:56

I mean, Mike made the decision

1:01:58

to move to a British team,

1:02:01

Van Wall, for 1955, so that

1:02:03

he could take over the running

1:02:05

of his father's garage. Anyway, after

1:02:08

a couple of unsuccessful races for

1:02:10

Van Wall in early 1955, Hawthorne

1:02:12

headed back to Ferrari, but his

1:02:15

desire to continue to race sports

1:02:17

cars for Jaguar, with whom he'd

1:02:19

won that tragic Lamar 24-hours race

1:02:21

in 1955, as we've explained, actually,

1:02:24

off the back of a brilliant

1:02:26

drive, it was a brilliant drive

1:02:28

by him, although of course it

1:02:31

was overshadowed by the tragedy that

1:02:33

we've talked about. Anyway, that enthusiasm

1:02:35

for racing Jaguar sports cars encouraged

1:02:38

him to leave Ferrari for B.R.M.

1:02:40

for 1956, which didn't work out

1:02:42

either. And he also suffered a

1:02:44

couple of bad crashes that year,

1:02:47

which left him, well, perhaps a

1:02:49

little disillusioned with racing in general

1:02:51

for a while, didn't it? Yeah,

1:02:54

possibly. Possibly. That disillusionment didn't last

1:02:56

long because a move back to

1:02:58

a works Ferrari drive for 1957,

1:03:00

where he was united with a

1:03:03

fellow Brit, Peter Collins, who became

1:03:05

his great-great-mate, his monami-mate, in fact,

1:03:07

reinvigorated his career. And that feels

1:03:10

like the perfect time to take

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at Factor Meals.com. So

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here we are then, we've arrived

1:04:33

in 1958 at last, a season

1:04:35

in which the Formula One Drivers

1:04:37

World Championship would boil down to

1:04:40

a straight fight between Sterling Moss

1:04:42

and Mike Hawthorne. And if that

1:04:44

wasn't honour enough, whichever of them

1:04:47

won it would become Britain's first

1:04:49

Formula One World Champion. High stakes.

1:04:51

The season was to be 11

1:04:53

rounds long, well. 10 if you

1:04:56

discount the Indy 500, which you

1:04:58

probably should, because it was run

1:05:00

to different rules and was a

1:05:03

race that none of the Formula

1:05:05

One big hitters ever really entered

1:05:07

in those days. Although strangely it

1:05:09

did count for the Formula One

1:05:12

World Championship in the 50s, didn't

1:05:14

it? Anyway, so the season began

1:05:16

in Argentina in January, but remarkably

1:05:19

there were only 10. entries ten

1:05:21

cars entered. Why was that Richard?

1:05:23

Well the main reason was a

1:05:25

big change in the F1 fuel

1:05:28

regulations for 1958. From that year

1:05:30

alcohol-based mixtures were banned and all

1:05:32

the cars had to run on

1:05:35

regular pump fuel and that meant

1:05:37

significant modifications. Of the big teams,

1:05:39

the Mazuratis and Ferraris were ready

1:05:41

for that. The Vanwalls and BRMs

1:05:44

weren't, so they didn't go to

1:05:46

Argentina. And that didn't suit Moss,

1:05:48

who decided he couldn't afford to

1:05:51

miss the chance of getting some

1:05:53

points for the championship. So after

1:05:55

persuading Vanwall to let him drive

1:05:57

another... car just for that one

1:06:00

race, he got his friend Rob

1:06:02

Walker, the heir to the Johnny

1:06:04

Walker whiskey fortune, to lend him

1:06:07

his little Cooper climax. Now that

1:06:09

was basically a Formula Two car

1:06:11

with a slightly enlarged two-liter engine

1:06:13

and they'd be up against the

1:06:16

two and a half litres of

1:06:18

the Italian cars. And it was

1:06:20

rear engine, or mid-engine to be

1:06:23

more exact, at a time when

1:06:25

every Formula One World Championship race

1:06:27

had been won in a car

1:06:29

with the engine in front of

1:06:32

the driver of the driver. So

1:06:34

when Moss arrived at the Buenos

1:06:36

Aires Autodrome, no one expected the

1:06:39

Cooper to be able to compete

1:06:41

with the more powerful Ferraris, even

1:06:43

when he qualified seventh. But through

1:06:45

a very clever piece of strategy,

1:06:48

Moss managed to beat Luigi Musser's

1:06:50

Ferrari into second and Hawthorne into

1:06:52

third. Because while the Italian teams

1:06:55

were making pit stops to change

1:06:57

their tires, Moss's mechanic, the Great

1:06:59

Alf Francis, put out a new

1:07:01

set on the pit counter, making

1:07:04

it look as though the Cooper

1:07:06

would be coming in soon. And

1:07:08

it would have to be a

1:07:11

slow stop, because taking off each

1:07:13

Cooper wheel required unscrewing four nuts,

1:07:15

whereas each Ferrari wheel, wire wheels,

1:07:17

had only a single knock-off hub,

1:07:20

Anorak fact. It certainly is, and

1:07:22

I'm happy to hear you record

1:07:24

it. Thank you. And that was

1:07:27

probably the greatest bluff in the

1:07:29

history of motor racing. Instead of

1:07:31

changing his tires, Moss managed to

1:07:33

run all the way through on

1:07:36

one set of Dunlops. And by

1:07:38

the end, they were so far

1:07:40

gone that the rubber had warmed

1:07:43

down and he was looking at

1:07:45

the canvas underneath. but he managed

1:07:47

to hang on and he finished

1:07:49

two and a half seconds ahead

1:07:52

of Mussoe who was furious that

1:07:54

his team had been fooled. I

1:07:56

have to say it is one

1:07:59

of the great victories because it

1:08:01

had that tactical gamesmanship but totally

1:08:03

legit. And then Moss had to

1:08:05

be able to handle the tires

1:08:08

even as they were falling apart.

1:08:10

And Musso was catching him of

1:08:12

course at the end of fresh

1:08:15

tires. Must have been brilliant to

1:08:17

be there. Oh, imagine. Imagine it

1:08:19

slowly dawning on the Ferrari team,

1:08:21

oh God, we've been hoodwinked here.

1:08:24

And here are a couple more

1:08:26

anoract facts for you Matt. It

1:08:28

was Cooper's first world championship win

1:08:31

as a constructor and the first

1:08:33

Grand Prix win for a rear-engine

1:08:35

car, or mid-engine, since auto union

1:08:37

in the 1930s. Nice one, nice

1:08:40

one Richard, or nice two, I

1:08:42

should say. God knows how many

1:08:44

anthrax we've crocked up this podcast,

1:08:47

but anyway, plenty. Anyway, Cooper won

1:08:49

the second race of the 1958

1:08:51

season two at Monaco, albeit, imagine

1:08:53

that in this day and age,

1:08:56

it was four months later. I

1:08:58

mean... that was not rare really

1:09:00

in those days to have a

1:09:03

four-month gap between races. No, I

1:09:05

mean sometimes there was a four-month

1:09:07

gap at the end of the

1:09:09

season too between the penultimate race

1:09:12

and the very last one, you

1:09:14

know, in which tension could build

1:09:16

for the drivers championship showdown. A

1:09:19

different world, as we've said a

1:09:21

few times. Anyway, that second Cooper

1:09:23

win of the 1958 season at

1:09:25

Monaco really put the rear-engine cat

1:09:28

among or the mid-engine cat. among

1:09:30

the front-engine pigeons. Quite a lot

1:09:32

of people had thought that perhaps

1:09:35

Argentina had been a fluke. But

1:09:37

despite Enzo Ferrari's insistence that, quote,

1:09:39

the horse should always pull the

1:09:41

carriage, unquote, car design was only

1:09:44

going in one direction, and that

1:09:46

was in a rear-engine direction. Anyway,

1:09:48

this time the winner wasn't Sterling

1:09:51

Moss, it was Maurice Trantignon. whom

1:09:53

we mentioned briefly actually on our

1:09:55

last podcast about French drivers and

1:09:57

tranting on one that Monaco-Gromprian Rob

1:10:00

Walker's Cooper beating Luigi Mussoe's Ferrari

1:10:02

so Mussoe had been done twice

1:10:04

over really and actually it was

1:10:07

Mussoe who took the early championship

1:10:09

lead because Moss and Hawthorne had

1:10:11

both retired at Monaco. Moss would

1:10:13

win the next race, though, taking

1:10:16

the Dutch Grand Prix at Sandvort

1:10:18

by nearly 48 seconds, as Hawthorne

1:10:20

finished a lap down in fifth.

1:10:23

But there was a reversal of

1:10:25

fortunes in the following round at

1:10:27

Spa, as Hawthorne finished second behind

1:10:29

Van Wall's Tony Brooks, Moss was

1:10:32

number two, and Moss, who'd taken

1:10:34

the lead from third on the

1:10:36

grid at the start, Mr Gear

1:10:39

and blew his engine on the

1:10:41

first lap retiring on the spot,

1:10:43

and that tightened things up. significantly

1:10:45

in the championship standings. It did

1:10:48

indeed, and things would remain tight

1:10:50

after the next race, which was

1:10:52

the French Grand Prix at Fearsomely

1:10:55

Fast Reams, which we mentioned before,

1:10:57

on a track that played perfectly

1:10:59

to the strengths of Ferrari's Dino-246,

1:11:01

Hawthorne took the pole ahead of

1:11:04

Musso, and Collins made it a

1:11:06

Ferrari 1-4. Moss was only sixth

1:11:08

on the grid, qualifying two seconds

1:11:11

slower than Hawthorne, and in the

1:11:13

race Sterling could do little to

1:11:15

challenge his title rival really, who

1:11:17

beat him into second place by

1:11:20

nearly 25 seconds. It was Hawthorne's

1:11:22

first Grand Prix win since the

1:11:24

1954 Spanish Grand Prix, and it

1:11:26

would also prove to be his

1:11:29

third. and last World Championship status

1:11:31

Formula One Grand Prix win. Anyway,

1:11:33

sadly, it's a race that will

1:11:36

always be remembered for the awful

1:11:38

death of Luigi Mussoe, who crashed

1:11:40

at high speed at the kink

1:11:42

just after the pits on lap

1:11:45

10, sending car and driver somersaulting

1:11:47

through the air. Mussoe was rushed

1:11:49

to hospital, but he died of

1:11:52

his injuries later. Depriving Italy... of

1:11:54

its last remaining top line driver

1:11:56

of the era. And, and also

1:11:58

very sadly, as we'll get too

1:12:01

soon, he wasn't the only driver

1:12:03

to be killed in. former one

1:12:05

that year. No, there were rumours

1:12:08

and there were never more than

1:12:10

strong rumours that Musso had been

1:12:12

trying too hard because he wanted

1:12:14

to win the unusually large amount

1:12:17

of prize money on offer at

1:12:19

Reims in order to cover losses

1:12:21

on his car dealership back in

1:12:24

Rome. And his gambling debts. And

1:12:26

his gambling debts. He was selling

1:12:28

American cars, wasn't he? Packards, possibly,

1:12:30

the Studebakers or something like that.

1:12:33

In Rome. Unusual idea. I've never

1:12:35

seen a Packard in Rome. He

1:12:37

was probably trying to sell them

1:12:40

to the people from the film

1:12:42

industry, maybe, the booming Italian film

1:12:44

industry in Rome. Well, never. Anyway,

1:12:46

his girlfriend, Fiyama Bresci, claimed afterwards

1:12:49

that his English teammates Hawthorne and...

1:12:51

Collins had ganged up against her

1:12:53

Luigi, which forced him to drive

1:12:56

beyond his limits. I find that

1:12:58

very hard to believe, although I

1:13:00

can completely understand how her grief

1:13:02

might have made her think it.

1:13:05

She said she hated them in

1:13:07

fact. She did. She did. She

1:13:09

hated them immediately afterwards, but then

1:13:12

she also said that she saw

1:13:14

them playing football with a tin

1:13:16

can in a hotel courtyard one

1:13:18

day, and she thought, I can't

1:13:21

really carry my hatred of these

1:13:23

two guys with... me forever. There

1:13:25

we are. Fair enough. Musso was

1:13:28

quick. He wasn't fan-jio quick or

1:13:30

moss quick, but he was capable

1:13:32

of winning a Grand Prix if

1:13:34

they weren't around, although, sadly, he

1:13:37

never managed it. And, as you've

1:13:39

said, Matt, he was the last

1:13:41

of a generation. Italy and Ferrari

1:13:44

didn't have another driver of that

1:13:46

quality until Lorenzo Bandini in the

1:13:48

60s. But anyway, the next race

1:13:50

was another good one for Hawthorne

1:13:53

in championship terms, as he finished

1:13:55

second behind Collins in the British

1:13:57

Grand Prix at Silverstone. And at

1:14:00

this point you have to remember

1:14:02

that Collins was also very much

1:14:04

in the running for the World

1:14:06

Championship. But even better for Hawthorne

1:14:09

was that Moss, who'd taken pole

1:14:11

position, picked up another non-score after...

1:14:13

suffering yet another engine failure. Yes

1:14:16

and those failures were beginning to

1:14:18

derail Moss's world championship challenge and

1:14:20

he'd suffer another one at the

1:14:22

next race the Nurbagring. Dn-fing again

1:14:25

did not finishing again. Hawthorne also

1:14:27

Dn-n-f at the Nurbagring though but

1:14:29

but. far, far worse. He had

1:14:32

to endure the loss of Collins,

1:14:34

his great friend and teammate, who

1:14:36

was killed after his car left

1:14:38

the track and struck a tree

1:14:41

head-on. I mean, Richard, how devastating

1:14:43

was that, you know, not just

1:14:45

for Hawthorne and Ferrari, but also

1:14:48

for motorsport in general, particularly in

1:14:50

the UK. I mean, was there

1:14:52

a... Was there ever a sense

1:14:54

that Hawthorne might quit the sport

1:14:57

at that point there and then,

1:14:59

do you think? I mean, in

1:15:01

Hawthorne's book Champion Year, which you've

1:15:04

mentioned already, and which he dedicated

1:15:06

to Collins incidentally, he finished the

1:15:08

chapter on the tragedy of the

1:15:10

Nurbagring with the following very short

1:15:13

paragraph, quote, Fame, somebody once said,

1:15:15

is the span of a day,

1:15:17

but to live in the hearts

1:15:20

of people, that is something. They

1:15:22

are words that might well have

1:15:24

been written with Pete in mind."

1:15:26

I mean he was extremely fond

1:15:29

of Collins wasn't he and dreadfully

1:15:31

upset when he died. Yeah he

1:15:33

was devastated and after his friend

1:15:36

was killed he may have begun

1:15:38

to think about quitting at the

1:15:40

end of the season once the

1:15:42

championship had been decided but if

1:15:45

he did he didn't tell anyone.

1:15:47

And as we often find ourselves

1:15:49

saying, in those days attitudes to

1:15:52

death were just different. Very often

1:15:54

I'd look at my dad's daily

1:15:56

telegraph on a Monday morning and

1:15:58

see that a top driver had

1:16:01

been killed in Askari, Castellotti, de

1:16:03

Portago, Musso, Collins, and later on

1:16:05

Jean-Béra, Harry Shell, von Trips, the

1:16:08

Rodriguez brothers, Bandini, of course. Jim

1:16:10

Clark, who was my next hero

1:16:12

after Moss. When you just reel

1:16:14

those names off one after another,

1:16:17

it really brings it home. And

1:16:19

there were more. Those are just

1:16:21

the really famous ones. And it

1:16:24

was awful. And it was shocking

1:16:26

every time. But it was never

1:16:28

really a surprise. And it never

1:16:30

seemed like a reason for anyone

1:16:33

to stop doing it. So Hawthorne

1:16:35

didn't quit, he raced on. And

1:16:37

three weeks later, at the next

1:16:40

race in Portugal, on the challenging

1:16:42

Bovista street tracking or Porto, he

1:16:44

finished second behind Moss, but only

1:16:46

after an act of extraordinary sportsmanship

1:16:49

from Moss that's remembered to this

1:16:51

day. And it happened on the

1:16:53

final lap of the race, with

1:16:56

Moss leading and Hawthorne's second. Mike

1:16:58

had actually spun, and in restarting

1:17:00

his Ferrari and getting back onto

1:17:02

the track, he'd briefly pointed the

1:17:05

car against the flow of the

1:17:07

racing traffic. That was against the

1:17:09

rules. A marshal reported him and

1:17:12

he was duly disqualified. But, very

1:17:14

dramatically, Moss intervened on Hawthorne's behalf,

1:17:16

going to the meeting of the

1:17:18

race stewards afterwards to argue that

1:17:21

the Ferrari had been on the

1:17:23

pavement, not on the racetrack itself,

1:17:25

when Hawthorne was getting going again.

1:17:28

And Mike was reinstated to second

1:17:30

place. had Moss not supported him,

1:17:32

Hawthorne would have been disqualified, and

1:17:34

his championship chances would have been

1:17:37

severely damaged. I had no hesitation

1:17:39

in doing it, Moss once told

1:17:41

the journalist Morris Hamilton, adding, I

1:17:44

can't see how this is open

1:17:46

to debate. He wasn't on the

1:17:48

circuit. The fact that he was

1:17:50

my only rival, in the championship

1:17:53

he meant, didn't come into my

1:17:55

thinking. Absolutely not. Matt, was this

1:17:57

the greatest act of chivalry and

1:18:00

sportsmanship in F1 history? Good question.

1:18:02

Well, it was certainly one of

1:18:04

them, yes. And are we going

1:18:06

to resist the temptation to compare

1:18:09

and contrast the sportsmanship? of Moss

1:18:11

in 1958 with the antics of

1:18:13

some of today's Formula One stars

1:18:16

or indeed some of today's Formula

1:18:18

One team principles. Yes, I think

1:18:20

we are. Let's stay with 1958.

1:18:22

Do you agree? Yes, today for

1:18:25

sure. Okay. Next up was Monza.

1:18:27

Moss took the poll. But he

1:18:29

went out, retired. after just 17

1:18:32

of the 70 laps with a

1:18:34

broken gearbox. The race was won

1:18:36

by Moss's Vanwall teammate Brooks, Tony

1:18:38

Brooks, his third win of actually

1:18:41

a brilliant season. Yeah, he would

1:18:43

have been a worthy champion too.

1:18:45

Absolutely, and you called him Moss's

1:18:48

number two, which is technically true

1:18:50

at the time, but he wasn't

1:18:52

anybody's number two. He wasn't. No.

1:18:54

No. Anyway, Hawthorne finished second. So,

1:18:57

Hawthorne had a hefti lead going

1:18:59

into the last Grand Prix of

1:19:01

the season, but Van Wall had

1:19:04

won the Constructors World Championship at

1:19:06

Monza, the first ever incidentally, because

1:19:08

prior to 1958, there had been

1:19:10

no such thing as a Constructors

1:19:13

World Championship. Anurek, fact. Yep. And

1:19:15

as you say, that set up

1:19:17

a final race showdown in Morocco

1:19:20

with the Aindab circuit in Casablanca

1:19:22

hosting its first world championship Grand

1:19:24

Prix and as it would turn

1:19:26

out its last. Only the top

1:19:29

six results from each driver counted

1:19:31

towards the title in those days.

1:19:33

So the maths was a little

1:19:36

tricky to work out, especially for

1:19:38

a maths dance like me. But

1:19:40

essentially, to win the title, Moss

1:19:42

needed to win the race and

1:19:45

grab the extra point for setting

1:19:47

fastest lap, with Hawthorne finishing no

1:19:49

higher than third. or to win

1:19:52

without the fastest lap with Hawthorne

1:19:54

again finishing third or lower, but

1:19:56

again without the fastest lap. You

1:19:58

did that pretty well for a

1:20:01

maths dunce. White convincing for somebody

1:20:03

who took three goes to Passo

1:20:05

level math? Yes, okay. So Hawthorne

1:20:08

took the pole. but Moss was

1:20:10

next to him on the grid,

1:20:12

only a tenth of a second

1:20:14

slower, and he took the lead

1:20:17

at the start and led all

1:20:19

the way to the finish as

1:20:21

well as setting the fastest lap.

1:20:24

And behind him his Van Wall

1:20:26

teammate Tony Brooks held second place,

1:20:28

keeping Hawthorne at bay until his

1:20:30

engine blew up just after half

1:20:33

distance. Phil Hill, Ferrari's replacement for

1:20:35

Peter Collins, took over second place,

1:20:37

but near the end, when it

1:20:40

became that he wasn't fast enough

1:20:42

to challenge Moss, the American obeyed

1:20:44

instructions to slow down and let

1:20:46

Hawthorne buy. So Hawthorne got the

1:20:49

six points for second place that

1:20:51

he needed to clinch the championship

1:20:53

by a single point from Moss.

1:20:56

And at the end, Moss got

1:20:58

out of his car and shook

1:21:00

Hawthorne's hand. So you'd got it

1:21:02

done, you old so-and-so, he said,

1:21:05

except he probably didn't say so-and-so.

1:21:07

He probably didn't. For Van Wall,

1:21:09

though, it was hard to celebrate

1:21:12

becoming the first-ever champion constructor. Tony

1:21:14

Vandervel, the team's owner, had achieved

1:21:16

his long-held ambition of beating those

1:21:18

bloody red cars, the Ferraris and

1:21:21

Mazarities. But late in the race,

1:21:23

the engine of the team's third

1:21:25

entry had seized, causing a crash

1:21:28

and a fire in which its

1:21:30

driver, Stuart Lewis Evans, had been

1:21:32

very badly burned. Fandeville used his

1:21:34

private plane to fly Lewis Evans

1:21:37

straight back to England, where he

1:21:39

was taken to the specialist Burns

1:21:41

unit at East Grinstead Hospital in

1:21:44

Sussex. But six days later, he

1:21:46

died. On the plane, Vandervelle had

1:21:48

told his team manager that Lewis

1:21:50

Evans wouldn't be lying on that

1:21:53

stretcher if it wasn't for my

1:21:55

bloody stupid hobby. A month later,

1:21:57

he'd withdraw the Van Wall team

1:22:00

from further immediate involvement in Grand

1:22:02

Prix racing. And once again, Matt,

1:22:04

imagine that happening today, a team

1:22:06

winning the constructors title and then

1:22:09

shutting its doors. More or less

1:22:11

unthinkable... I'd say, anyway, Tony Vanderville

1:22:13

wasn't the only one deeply affected

1:22:16

by the tragedy. Lewis Evans' close

1:22:18

friend and kind of manager, Bernie

1:22:20

Ecclestone, we've heard of him, was

1:22:22

also on that plane, occasionally lifting

1:22:25

a cup of sweet tea to

1:22:27

his mortally wounded friend's lips. Ecclestone

1:22:29

sold his connote team and completely

1:22:32

disappeared from the sport for several

1:22:34

years. Anyway. Hawthorne won the World

1:22:36

Championship, having won just one race

1:22:38

that season, one championship status Grand

1:22:41

Prix, just one, to Moss's three,

1:22:43

and Brooks three. The only other

1:22:45

driver to win a former one

1:22:48

world title with us few wins

1:22:50

was, I think you know this,

1:22:52

Richard, Keky Rossberg in 1982, Anorak

1:22:54

Fact. Anyway, back to 1958. What

1:22:57

happened next? Well. After the Moroccan

1:22:59

Grand Prix had finished and Hawthorne

1:23:01

had been declared former one world

1:23:03

champion, the Ferrari team manager Romalo

1:23:06

Tavoni slapped his victorious driver on

1:23:08

the back and said, next year

1:23:10

we'll do it all again. But

1:23:13

in champion year, the book champion

1:23:15

year, Hawthorne wrote that he shook

1:23:17

his head and replied, I won't

1:23:19

be racing next year, I'm going

1:23:22

to retire. Of course you'll be

1:23:24

racing next year, Tavone. Tavone replied.

1:23:26

But no, Hawthorne had decided to

1:23:29

give up racing at the end

1:23:31

of the year, and he was

1:23:33

as good as his word. In

1:23:35

due course, he issued a statement

1:23:38

to the press association announcing that

1:23:40

retirement. Enso Ferrari was hopping mad,

1:23:42

to say the least. It meant

1:23:45

he'd be missing out on the

1:23:47

extra starting money due to having

1:23:49

a world champion in his team

1:23:51

at every race in 1959 in

1:23:54

1959. Poor old Enso Ferrari, quite

1:23:56

often hopping mad, actually. You know

1:23:58

more than I do about him,

1:24:01

but... I'm not wrong am I?

1:24:03

No, I mean it was it

1:24:05

was part of... his repertoire of

1:24:07

gestures, I think, hopping maintenance. Absolutely.

1:24:10

Then, we've talked, we've hinted about

1:24:12

this already, let's go forward to

1:24:14

1959, January, 1959, and a wet

1:24:17

day on a difficult and dangerous

1:24:19

stretch of the Guilford bypass in

1:24:21

the South East of England. while

1:24:23

driving his very souped-up 3.4 litre

1:24:26

Jaguar Mark I in convoy with

1:24:28

Rob Walker's fast and exotic

1:24:30

gull wing Merck 300 SL.

1:24:32

And no overall speed limit

1:24:35

in those days. No overall

1:24:37

speed limit. Anyway, they were

1:24:40

driving together Hawthorne and Walker

1:24:42

and Hawthorne lost control on

1:24:45

a right-hand bend, glanced an

1:24:47

on-coming Bedford truck, Bedford Lori.

1:24:50

and skiddied into a roadside

1:24:52

tree so hard that it

1:24:54

was uprooted. I mean, he was

1:24:57

killed instantly. He was 29.

1:24:59

At the inquest, that was

1:25:01

an inquest, Walker refused to

1:25:03

reveal when I think repeatedly

1:25:06

I'm told asked by the

1:25:08

coroner how fast they'd been

1:25:10

driving. And his refusal prompted

1:25:12

press speculation that they'd been

1:25:14

racing each other. And perhaps

1:25:16

they had. In later life, Walker

1:25:19

no longer than I did in

1:25:21

fact. Anyway, it was a tragedy.

1:25:23

And I think Hawthorne is underrated

1:25:26

now. It's rather poignant that if

1:25:28

that was a race between a

1:25:30

green Jaguar and actually, I think

1:25:33

I can't remember the color of

1:25:35

Rob's Mercedes, but it was a

1:25:38

merger. Yes. Yes. Anyway, it was

1:25:40

a tragedy. And I think Hawthorne

1:25:42

is underrated now. You've mentioned that,

1:25:45

Richard, and I would go along

1:25:47

with it. As we've said... No,

1:25:49

he wasn't as good as Moss,

1:25:51

nor was he as good as

1:25:54

Fangeo or Ascari, but he was

1:25:56

as good as Collins, probably, in

1:25:58

my view, and— He raced with

1:26:00

more margin than Collins, his Mon

1:26:03

Ammy mate. Perhaps he wasn't quite

1:26:05

as good as Brooks. I'm a

1:26:07

big Brooks fan actually. And while

1:26:09

we're on the subject, this is

1:26:11

what Moss said about that. Quote,

1:26:13

my compete were both bloody good,

1:26:16

but I wouldn't rate either with

1:26:18

Tony. End quote. So Moss was

1:26:20

destined never to win the title.

1:26:22

Although he might have done if

1:26:24

he hadn't crashed at Goodwood on

1:26:26

Easter Monday, 1962. Much later, he

1:26:29

said after the events of 1958,

1:26:31

he'd lost interest in the whole

1:26:33

idea of the championship, although not

1:26:35

in winning Grand Prix. And who

1:26:37

can blame him? He tried to

1:26:39

put it all into perspective when

1:26:42

he told the American writer Ken

1:26:44

Purdie in an absolutely marvelous book

1:26:46

called All But My Life, quote,

1:26:48

So Mike won the championship once,

1:26:50

and Phil Hill won it once,

1:26:52

and Graham, he meant Hill of

1:26:55

course, won it once, and remember

1:26:57

he was speaking in 1963, and

1:26:59

Jack Brabham won it twice. Do

1:27:01

I have to win it three

1:27:03

times to prove I'm a better

1:27:06

driver than Jack is? Fangeo won

1:27:08

it five times. If I won

1:27:10

it six times, would that make

1:27:12

me a better driver than Fangeo?

1:27:14

No, it wouldn't. Winning it ten

1:27:16

times wouldn't make me a better

1:27:19

driver than Fangeo, because I'm not.

1:27:21

Fangeo was better than I was,

1:27:23

and that's that. So much for

1:27:25

the stories that statistics tell. and

1:27:27

he said he never regretted what

1:27:29

he did in Portugal, the gesture

1:27:32

that cost him the title in

1:27:34

the end. Do you believe him,

1:27:36

Matt? I do believe him, yes.

1:27:38

And in a strange way, I

1:27:40

actually think Sterling Moss's failure to

1:27:42

win the Formula One World Championship

1:27:45

actually adds to his allure and

1:27:47

his mistake, because he'll probably forever

1:27:49

be known as the greatest driver

1:27:51

never to have won the formal

1:27:53

one. World Drivers Championship. But listen,

1:27:55

he started 66 World Championship status

1:27:58

Formula One Grand Prix. He won

1:28:00

16 of... them. He bagged 16

1:28:02

pole positions and 19 fastest laps.

1:28:04

In the Formula One Drivers World

1:28:06

Championship he finished third three times

1:28:08

and second four times. But never

1:28:11

first. But you could see what

1:28:13

he meant and still means to

1:28:15

people when his life was celebrated

1:28:17

in a memorial service at Westminster

1:28:19

Abbey this summer. with a packed

1:28:21

congregation, including several world champions, and

1:28:24

with some of his most famous

1:28:26

cars, including the literally priceless Melamilia

1:28:28

Mercedes, parked outside in the sunshine.

1:28:30

It was a very emotional day.

1:28:32

But Hawthorne isn't forgotten either. Every

1:28:34

year, on January the 22nd, that's

1:28:37

the anniversary of his death, a

1:28:39

group of enthusiasts and people who

1:28:41

knew him, gather quietly and informally

1:28:43

to pay tribute at his grave

1:28:45

in a cemetery in Farnham. That's

1:28:47

a different scale of tribute, maybe,

1:28:50

but it's no less profound and

1:28:52

heartfelt, and perhaps in keeping with

1:28:54

the man. Indeed so. And that

1:28:56

feels like a great place to

1:28:58

say... and coloscely. That's history. We

1:29:00

hope you've enjoyed our look at

1:29:03

the two men who inspired the

1:29:05

generation, who inspired the generation, who

1:29:07

inspired the generation, who inspired the

1:29:09

generation of Lando Norris and George

1:29:11

Russell. I thought you were on...

1:29:13

Yes, repeat, repeat there, like a

1:29:16

stuck record, but now I see

1:29:18

what you're on about. Thank you.

1:29:20

Anyway, if you'd like to share

1:29:22

your thoughts on today's episode or

1:29:24

any of the other subjects we've

1:29:26

touched on in this series, you

1:29:29

can get in touch via podcasts

1:29:31

at the hyphen race.com or via

1:29:33

social media. I'm at the Bishaf1

1:29:35

and Richard is at R. Williams

1:29:37

1947. By the way, I'm on

1:29:39

Twitter and now Bluske. You're not

1:29:42

yet on Bluske, are you. I

1:29:44

haven't yet made. You might, you

1:29:46

You might. People

1:29:48

on Blue guy me

1:29:50

to persuade you

1:29:53

to do so.

1:29:55

So I'm here

1:29:57

by doing that.

1:29:59

I'm here by doing that. Anyway,

1:30:01

remember, if you

1:30:03

want to enjoy

1:30:06

ad-free listening or treat

1:30:08

yourself to some

1:30:10

colosily merchandise, there there

1:30:12

are links to

1:30:14

both the race members

1:30:16

and the the race shop.

1:30:19

in the episode

1:30:21

description. And actually, now

1:30:23

is the perfect time to join

1:30:25

the Members club as we've got a

1:30:27

special Black Friday offer offer you

1:30:29

can get 30% off off your

1:30:31

first month. week. that's it for

1:30:33

this week. with Until next time,

1:30:35

with thanks to our very patient

1:30:38

producer, Johnny Reynolds, for and to

1:30:40

you for listening, course and of

1:30:42

course, to Mike Hawthorne and their

1:30:44

immense their immense and unforgettable contribution

1:30:46

to the history of the

1:30:48

sport. sport. It's goodbye from me.

1:30:50

And it's goodbye from him. me.

1:30:54

And it's goodbye

1:30:56

colossally, that's history.