A quick guide to Sir Stirling Moss

His passing in April 2020, aged 90, was an emotional day for fans of motor racing.

One of the true legends of the sport, a daring driver known best for his years on racing’s greatest stage – Formula One. His name has since resonated culturally, both as an iconic British sportsman and a vibrant personality. But who was Sir Stirling Moss, and why is he such a legendary figure in motor racing and beyond?

Here, we will explore his life, his racing legacy and some of the things you might not have known about him.

A true legend of motor racing

The name Sir Stirling Moss is still synonymous with F1 60 years after his retirement, and that is evident in how leading figures in the sport reacted to news of his death.

F1 Journalist David Tremayne wrote that on his day “he was the ultimate racer” and that the public loved him even without getting his hands on the elusive F1 trophy.

The tributes were led by Lewis Hamilton, the incumbent top British racer who – just like Moss – drives for the Mercedes F1 team. Hamilton, as well as describing Moss as a ‘racing legend’, spoke of his close friendship with a ‘great man’. Damon Hill, who won the F1 Championship in 1996, said that Moss "launched all the other careers of British racing drivers who went on to become world champions".

It wasn’t just fellow British drivers who paid respect. They were joined by official tributes from right across the F1 industry. There were kind words from, among others, Silverstone racetrack and leading F1 teams like Ferrari, McLaren and Williams.

Sir Stirling helped to cement his legendary status by becoming the first British driver to win the British Grand Prix in 1955. Although he would never win the F1 championship, he didn’t need this accolade for his talents as a driver to be recognised. In fact, he is often referred to as the best driver never to win the F1 crown.

Moss was the era’s ‘Mr Motor Racing’, offering a mix of driving talent, charisma and impeccable sportsmanship that contributed to such long-lasting appeal. He entered the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1990, then a decade later was knighted for his services to motor racing.

He will also be remembered as being behind the wheel in an era of truly iconic classic cars, including the 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SLR driven during his famous Mille Miglia triumph, or the 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196 driven in the 1955 British Grand Prix.

If you’re a classic car enthusiast like Sir Stirling – whether you already own one or you’re in the market – don’t forget about the importance of classic car insurance in protecting your precious vehicle.

His early life

Stirling Craufurd Moss was born on 17th September 1929, in London.

Despite being a keen horseman as a youth, his true passion and calling was to be found with cars – perhaps unsurprising given he came from a family of driving and racing enthusiasts. His father Alfred competed twice in the famous Indianapolis 500 in the United States. His mother Aileen, as well as competing in races, drove ambulances for the NHS during World War Two.

Meanwhile, Stirling’s sister, Pat Moss, is one of the most successful and influential female motor racers of all time. Around the same era as Stirling’s racing career, she won the Ladies' European Rally Championship five times and often challenged stereotypes by competing in – and winning – races against men.

So motor racing was very much in Sir Stirling’s blood, and his road to F1 stardom began early. His father bought him a car aged nine, which he drove in the fields around their home until getting a driving licence at 15 years old. By the age of 18 he was already competing regularly in local races and making a name for himself as a driver with a lot of potential.

A legend of Formula 1

Having worked his way through Formula 3 and Formula 2, Sir Stirling would eventually compete in his first Formula 1 race in May 1951, racing for the HWM team at the Swiss Grand Prix and finishing in a respectable 8th place.

His early F1 years were spent driving British cars, in a period where Italian cars dominated the sport. After a couple of largely unsuccessful seasons, Moss would eventually join Mercedes in 1954 and work alongside the legendary Argentinian driver Juan Manuel Fangio. In 1955, their relationship as Mercedes drivers would blossom and help the pair both achieve milestones in their careers. Fangio picked up the third of his five F1 titles while Moss would enjoy some of his most famous moments as a racer.

This included victory in the 1955 British Grand Prix at Aintree. Finishing 0.2 seconds ahead of his teammate Fangio, Moss became the first British driver to win the race, an achievement he would repeat in 1957. He would also go on to finish second in the F1 championship in 1955, his best result to date.

He would never go one step further to seize the elusive top prize, though, finishing second to Fangio for the next two seasons. When the Argentinian retired in 1958, it was billed as the time for Moss to take his place at the top of the sport.

But he didn’t win the championship that year and the story behind it, one of truly outstanding sportsmanship, is symbolic of Sir Stirling Moss the man and perhaps an indication of why his personality is still so revered by the sport.

He lost the championship that year to Ferrari driver and fellow Brit Mike Hawthorn. Looking back at the season, the pivotal moment came when Hawthorn was threatened with disqualification at the Portuguese Grand Prix after finishing second. Sir Stirling Moss, who had won the race, testified in Hawthorn’s defence against his removal. This led to Hawthorn’s second place being accepted, and his six championship points were reinstated.

When the season ended three months later, Hawthorn finished just one point ahead of Moss in the standings. Moss would never come closer than this to the F1 crown, but would have no regrets about his defence of Hawthorn. At the time he commented that doing it may have lost him the title, but “it's a case of what winning means to you".

In each of his final three seasons in F1, Moss finished third, but they would be peppered with iconic moments. These include victory at the Monaco Grand Prix in 1961, which is still considered among the sport’s greatest driving performances and was ranked by Moss personally as his best. In an inferior Lotus car owned by his friend Rob Walker, Moss somehow defeated drivers in far greater machines, for example the championship-winning Ferraris, in one of the greatest examples of his unrivalled skill behind the wheel.

Overall, in 66 F1 Grand Prix starts, Moss managed 16 wins, the last coming in the 1961 German Grand Prix.

More than just an F1 legend

Although he’s most synonymous with racing’s biggest competition, Sir Stirling Moss was a racing fanatic who at the same time competed in countless other events. Often, he would even compete in several races in a single day. And he did it while being an F1 driver, which is completely unheard of in the modern era.

Like his mother and legendary sister Pat, Sir Stirling loved rallies. Throughout the 1950s, he competed in the Monte Carlo Rally three times, almost winning it in 1952. He would also compete more than once in the prestigious Alpine Rally, also known as the Coupes Des Alpes.

Moss recorded three consecutive victories at the Nürburgring 1000km between 1958 and 1961. He also entered the famous Le Mans races several times, albeit less successfully.

At just 25 years old, in the year of his iconic British Grand Prix victory, Moss also notched up a victory in the gruelling Mille Miglia, or the ‘thousand-mile race’. Classic car enthusiasts will know all about this legendary race, which was devised in the 1920s and eventually scrapped in 1957 because of the serious safety concerns it caused, just two years after Moss’s win.

The original race was conducted entirely on public roads in Italy, with Moss covering the 1,000 miles at an average speed of 98mph. His record in the race would never be beaten and given it stopped in 1957 in that form, it never will be. In winning the race, he would go down as one of only two non-Italians to triumph. Along with his 1961 Monaco Grand Prix triumph, these two races are often talked about as his most iconic moments as a professional driver, even more so than the British Grand Prix win.

Overall, Moss competed in 529 motorsport races before his retirement in 1962. Of these, he won 212 times.

A career cut short

Sir Stirling would have most likely clocked up many more races and accolades throughout the 1960s. When his career ended in 1962, he was still only in his early thirties and at the peak of his powers.

He had been quite lucky after walking away from a crash in 1959. However, his career on the track was cut short by a particularly bad crash at Goodwood in 1962 that almost cost him his life. Moss attempted to overtake on a stretch of the course where cars reach up to 130mph. After coming off the track at furious speed, rescuers took more than half an hour to cut him free from the wreckage.

He was in a coma for a month afterwards and left paralysed on one side for six months after the crash. An attempted professional comeback a year later was unsuccessful, with Moss cutting a test session short after finding he had lost his edge.

Life outside of professional racing

Awarded BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year award in 1961, he was a charming character who lived a colourful, eccentric life full of things many racing or car enthusiasts may not know about.

The British Racing Drivers Club says that Sir Stirling “held a unique status which continued throughout his life, long after he retired”. Indeed, when professional racing ended, Moss, alongside focusing on his property company, was also never short of demand for engagements as a sports personality.

For example, he would also try his hand at various media work. Moss had a cameo appearance in the James Bond spoof Casino Royale in 1967, playing a chauffeur. Later in life, he narrated a British children’s animated TV series called Roary the Racing Car, which also starred legendary comedian Peter Kay.

He also had a love for high-tech and modern gadgets. His home in Mayfair was full of futuristic inventions including a carbon-fibre lift built by the team at Williams F1.

Off the track, he wasn’t immune to the rules of the road. Moss reportedly lost his driving licence for dangerous driving in 1960, and had to obtain a US licence in order to compete in races. But nothing would ever be able to distract from his love of getting behind the wheel. He still raced competitively throughout his life, even into his 80s, including competing at Goodwood Revival on his 81st birthday.

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Policy benefits, features and discounts offered may very between insurance schemes or cover selected and are subject to underwriting criteria. Information contained within this article is accurate at the time of publishing but may be subject to change.