69 Facts About Stirling Moss

Sir Stirling Craufurd Moss was a British racing driver and broadcaster, who competed in Formula One from 1951 to 1961.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest drivers to never win the Formula One World Drivers' Championship, Moss won a record 212 official races across several motorsport disciplines, including 16 Formula One Grands Prix.

In endurance racing, Stirling Moss won the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1954, as well as the Mille Miglia in 1955 with Mercedes.

Stirling Moss was immediately successful in motor racing, taking several wins in Formula Three at national and international levels, prior to his first major victory at the RAC Tourist Trophy in 1950, driving a Jaguar XK120.

Stirling Moss made his Formula One debut at the 1951 Swiss Grand Prix with HWM, making several intermittent appearances before moving to Maserati in 1954, where he achieved his maiden podium at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Stirling Moss joined Mercedes in 1955, taking his maiden win at the British Grand Prix as he finished runner-up in the championship to career rival Juan Manuel Fangio.

Stirling Moss again finished runner-up to Fangio in 1956 and 1957 with Maserati and Vanwall, winning multiple Grands Prix across both seasons.

Stirling Moss took four wins in his 1958 campaign, but lost out on the title again to Mike Hawthorn by one point.

From 1959 to 1961, Stirling Moss competed for Walker, taking multiple wins in each as he finished third in the World Drivers' Championship three times.

Stirling Moss retired from motor racing in 1962, after an accident at the non-championship Glover Trophy left him in a coma for a month and temporarily paralysed.

Stirling Moss achieved 16 wins, 16 pole positions, 19 fastest laps and 24 podium finishes in Formula One, the former of which remains the record for a non-World Drivers' Champion.

Stirling Moss was a three-time winner of the Monaco Grand Prix, four-time winner of the British Empire Trophy, and five-time winner of the International Gold Cup.

Stirling Moss contested the World Sportscar Championship from 1953 to 1962, winning 12 races with various manufacturers.

In rallying, Stirling Moss finished runner-up at the Monte Carlo Rally in 1952.

In British popular culture, Stirling Moss was a widely recognised public figure, with his name becoming synonymous with speed in the mid-20th century.

Stirling Moss made several media appearances, including in the James Bond film Casino Royale, and was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1961.

Stirling Moss was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1990.

Stirling Moss was born in London to amateur racing drivers Alfred and Aileen Stirling Moss.

Stirling Moss's grandfather was Jewish and from a family that changed their surname from Moses to Moss.

Stirling Moss was brought up at Long White Cloud house on the south bank of the River Thames.

Stirling Moss was a gifted horse rider, as was his younger sister, Pat Stirling Moss, who went on to become a successful rally driver.

Stirling Moss was educated at several independent schools: Shrewsbury House School, Clewer Manor Junior School, and Haileybury and Imperial Service College.

Stirling Moss disliked school and did not get good grades.

Stirling Moss concealed the bullying from his parents and used it as "motivation to succeed".

Stirling Moss purchased his own car at age 15 after he obtained a driving licence.

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

Stirling Moss competed in as many as 62 races in one year and drove 84 different makes of car over the course of his career.

Stirling Moss kept his record of the most Formula One Grand Prix victories by an English driver until 1991, when Nigel Mansell overtook him.

Stirling Moss then persuaded his father, who opposed his son's racing career and wanted him to become a dentist, to let him buy it.

Stirling Moss soon demonstrated his natural talent and ability with numerous wins at both the national and international levels, and continued to compete in Formula Three, with Coopers and Kiefts, after he had progressed to more senior categories.

Stirling Moss went on to win the race six more times, in 1951,1955,1958 and 1959, and 1960 and 1961.

Enzo Ferrari, the founder of Ferrari, approached Stirling Moss and offered him a Formula Two car to drive at the 1951 Bari Grand Prix before a full-season in 1952.

Also a competent rally driver, Stirling Moss was one of three people to have won a Coupe d'Or for three consecutive penalty-free runs on the Alpine Rally.

Stirling Moss achieved his first Formula One victory when he won the Oulton Park International Gold Cup.

Fangio took the victory, and Stirling Moss had to push his Maserati to the finish line.

Neubauer, already impressed when Stirling Moss had tested a Mercedes-Benz W196 at Hockenheim, promptly signed him for the 1955 season.

In 1955 Stirling Moss won Italy's one-thousand-mile Mille Miglia road race, an achievement that Doug Nye described as the "most iconic single day's drive in motor racing history".

Stirling Moss's co-driver was motor racing journalist Denis Jenkinson, who prepared a set of pace notes for Moss, and the two completed the race in ten hours and seven minutes.

Stirling Moss won the Nassau Cup at the 1956 and 1957 Bahamas Speed Week.

Stirling Moss won the first race of the season in a rear-engined F1 car, which became the common design by 1961.

Stirling Moss's sporting attitude cost him the 1958 Formula One World Championship.

Stirling Moss had shouted advice to Hawthorn to steer downhill, against traffic, to bump-start the car.

Stirling Moss read this as "HAWT REG" and thought that Hawthorn was making regular laps, so he did not try to set a fast lap.

The crew was supposed to signal the time of the lap, so Stirling Moss would know what he had to beat.

Stirling Moss was as gifted in sports cars as in Grand Prix cars.

In 1962, Stirling Moss crashed his Lotus in the Glover Trophy.

Stirling Moss felt that he had not regained his instinctive command of the car after recovering from the coma.

Stirling Moss had been runner-up in the Drivers' Championship four years in a row, from 1955 to 1958, and third from 1959 to 1961.

Stirling Moss narrated the official 1988 Formula One season review along with Tony Jardine.

Stirling Moss narrated the popular children's series Roary the Racing Car, which stars Peter Kay.

Stirling Moss competed in the 1974 London-Sahara-Munich World Cup Rally in a Mercedes-Benz but retired from the event in the Algerian Sahara.

Brian Lister invited Stirling Moss to drive for Lister on three separate occasions, at Goodwood in 1954, Silverstone in 1958 and at Sebring in 1959, and to celebrate these races, 10 special-edition lightweight Lister Knobbly cars are being built.

Stirling Moss announced that the cars will be available for both road and race use, and Moss would personally be handing over each car.

In 1990, Stirling Moss was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame.

In 2006, Stirling Moss was awarded the FIA gold medal in recognition of his outstanding contribution to motorsport.

In 2016, in an academic paper that reported a mathematical modelling study that assessed the relative influence of driver and machine, Stirling Moss was ranked the 29th best Formula One driver of all time.

In 1957, Stirling Moss published an autobiography called In the Track Of Speed, first published by Muller, London.

In 1963, motorsport author and commentator Ken Purdy published a biographical book entitled All But My Life about Stirling Moss, based on material gathered through interviews with Stirling Moss.

In 2015, when he was aged 85, Stirling Moss published a second autobiography, entitled My Racing Life, written with motor sports writer Simon Taylor.

Stirling Moss appeared as himself in the 1964 film The Beauty Jungle and was one of several celebrities with cameo appearances in the 1967 version of the James Bond film Casino Royale.

Stirling Moss relates he himself was once stopped for speeding and asked just that; he reports the traffic officer had some difficulty believing him.

Stirling Moss was one of the few drivers of his era to create a brand from his name for licensing purposes, which was launched when his website was revamped in 2009 with improved content.

In 2004, Stirling Moss was a supporter of the UK Independence Party.

Stirling Moss was a Mercedes-Benz Brand Ambassador, having kept a close relationship with the brand, and remained an enthusiast and collector of the brand, which includes the Mercedes-Benz W113, Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Stirling Moss among others.

Stirling Moss was an accomplished woodworker and craftsman, and participated in the design and construction of several of his own homes.

Stirling Moss stood by this comment, saying that he would have to be played by a heterosexual as he had spent his life "chasing crumpet and racing cars".

Stirling Moss believed that women lack the "mental aptitude" for Formula One.

On 7 March 2010, Stirling Moss broke both ankles and four bones in a foot, and chipped four vertebrae and suffered skin lesions, when he plunged down a lift shaft at his home.

Stirling Moss died of cardio-respiratory failure at his home in Mayfair, London, on 12 April 2020, aged 90, after a long illness.