1958 Monaco Grand Prix
The second round of the 1958 Formula-1 World Championship took place on May 18 in Monaco on the legendary track running through the narrow streets of the principality. Compared to the previous year, only Chicane underwent changes, which was slightly widened, allowing drivers to pass the turn at higher speeds, while the length of the track remained the same, amounting to 3.145 km.
After a very unrepresentative first round in Argentina, in which only one factory team and only ten racers took part, the first European Grand Prix, as usual, pleased fans with a variety of cars, teams and drivers. The hero of the Argentine stage and championship leader Stirling Moss, who won a sensational victory at the wheel of a Cooper on the track in Buenos Aires, here in Monaco competed already for his main team Vanwall, while his teammates, like last year, were Tony Brooks and Stuart Lewis-Evans.
The cars themselves have undergone only minor changes compared to the previous year, and Tony Vandervell's engineers focused their main efforts on adapting the engines to avgas, which was mandatory for use this year. As a result of the work done, new pistons were installed on the updated engines and the exhaust system was completely changed, while new lightweight magnesium alloy wheels were installed on the cars to reduce their weight.
In addition, to reduce the consequences of collisions, which were an integral part of racing on the narrow and winding Monte Carlo circuit, Vanwall cars, like last year, were equipped with wider nose cowling, reinforced with bumper bars.
Meanwhile, in addition to Vanwall, three more British works teams BRM, Cooper and Lotus were present in Monaco, and, looking at the orderly rows of green cars lined up along the track one after another, it became quite obvious that the time of Italian dominance in Formula-1 was over and the future of this motorsport lies in the hands of British manufacturers. Alfred Owen's team, which for the last two years could not boast of anything but all sorts of problems, presented their updated BRM P25 cars, which were driven by experienced Jean Behra and Harry Schell, who last year competed for Maserati, while the team's reserve driver was the “flying Scotsman” Ron Flockhart.
The Cooper team, on the contrary, retained the previous line-up in the persons of Jack Brabham and Roy Salvadori, while both drivers this season received at their disposal new Cooper T45 cars, which were equipped with Climax engines with a displacement of 2.2 and 2.0 liters.
In addition, two more Cooper cars were entered into the Grand Prix by the private team of Rob Walker, which, thanks to Stirling Moss, managed to become a real triumphant of the first stage, while the new T45 car was placed at the disposal of Maurice Trintignant, who became the new leader of the team, while the T43 car that brought Walker victory in Argentina was left in reserve.
Meanwhile, the Lotus team and their boss Colin Chapman, who appeared for the first time on the Formula-1 arena, managed to arouse genuine interest from both fans and their rivals, however, in their debut Grand Prix the team had to use their last year's Formula-2 Lotus 12 cars, as their new Lotus 16s were still in preparation.
As for the Lotus drivers, they were two permanent team members, Cliff Allison and Graham Hill, who made their World championship debut in this Grand Prix.
The last British car to take part in this Grand Prix was the Connaught B with a 1.5-liter Alta engine, which was entered by Lewis-Evans' manager Bernie Ecclestone, who made it available to Briton Paul Emery and American Bruce Kessler.
As for the Italian manufacturers, they were also represented very impressively, however, Tiffosi pinned their greatest hopes, naturally, on the Scuderia and their new Ferrari 246 Dino cars, which showed themselves very well during the first stage in Argentina.
At the same time, here in Monaco the Maranello team was already represented by four drivers and, as last year, the German aristocrat Wolfgang von Trips became the teammate of Peter Collins, Mike Hawthorn and Luigi Musso.
Meanwhile, most of the private racers competed, as usual, in Maserati 250Fs, and in Monaco there were as many as 10 of them, including not only the already familiar Chico Godia, Horace Gould, Giorgio Scarlatti, Gerino Gerini and Jo Bonnier, but also a local veteran Louis Chiron, as well as newcomers Ken Kavanagh, Luigi Taramazzo, Andre Testut and Maria Teresa de Filippis, who became the first woman to compete in a World Championship Grand Prix.
As for Juan Manuel Fangio, the Argentine was absent from the paddock this time, being busy preparing for his debut race in Indianapolis, and thus the Monaco round became the first Formula-1 Grand Prix since 1951 in which no world champion took part. In addition, another surprise was the fact that after six years of absence, the Italian OSCA team returned to the World championship, which was here represented by two 1.5-liter F2/S sports cars, driven by Giulio Cabianca and Luigi Piotti.
Qualification
As in previous years, the regulations for the Monaco Grand Prix were different from the rest of the stages, limiting the total number of participants in the race to 16, and this meant that this weekend approximately half of the drivers would be eliminated during qualifying, which foreshadowed the hottest fighting for positions at the start. Meanwhile, wanting to further add fuel to the fire, the organizers awarded the fastest driver a substantial cash prize of 100,000 francs, which also had its effect and led to the fact that from the first minutes of training on Thursday the track was crowded. At the same time, to the surprise of many, one of the fastest drivers of the weekend unexpectedly turned out to be Jean Behra on BRM, who won practice on Thursday, thereby confirming the significant progress achieved by Alfred Owen's team in the off-season, however, in the end, the Frenchman still lost pole position to Tony Brooks on Vanwall, who turned out to be the fastest the next day.
As for the third position, it was Jack Brabham in a Cooper, who, according to the results of the draw, got the car with a more powerful engine, and thus the entire first row was completely occupied by British cars from three different teams!
By the way, Coopers proved to be one of the fastest cars on this winding track at all, which was confirmed by the excellent results of not only Brabham, but also of Salvadori and Trintignant, who showed approximately the same time and took 4th and 5th positions, respectively. Meanwhile, things were not so rosy at Scuderia, and, suffering due to too stiff suspension, the Ferrari drivers were only thinking about how not to fly out of the top ten. As a result, the fastest Scuderia driver turned out to be Hawthorn, who managed to take only 6th position, while Collins, who suffered through all the training with an incomprehensible vibration in his car, and Musso, who, as usual, was inferior in speed to his teammates, took only 9th and 10th places respectively. As for von Trips, he was forced to spend most of the training driving a less powerful car with a 2-liter engine, as a result of which he never managed to rise above 12th place.
Apart from Ferraris, another qualifying failure could be called Moss, whose main car, for some unknown reason, turned out to be completely uncontrollable, and as a result, on Thursday, Stirling drove only a few fast laps at the wheel of Brooks' car, whereas on Friday he did not leave the pits at all, sadly watching his rivals improve their results over and over again.
Nevertheless, by Saturday, Vanwall mechanics still managed to prepare a spare car for their leader, which turned out to be quite competitive, however, given that the conditions on the track that day after the night rain were by no means ideal, Stirling managed to take only 7th position on the grid, directly behind his teammate Lewis-Evans.
As for the rest of the drivers, their main goal was simply to qualify, and in the end the lucky ones who made it to the start were Schell in a BRM, who was clearly inferior to his teammate Behra, a couple of Lotuses and Scarlatti with Bonnier in two Maseratis. At the same time, Chapman's drivers, who in their debut Grand Prix almost flew beyond the qualification barrier, could have been a little higher, however, throughout all the days of training they were constantly haunted by various problems: on Allison's car, first the head gasket burned out, and then the pipe-line broke, forcing him to stop right on the track, while Hill constantly experienced serious problems with the brakes, which ultimately led him to fly off the track at the Station hairpin and cost him quite a lot of damage to the car.
Meanwhile, most of the drivers who did not get to the start, as expected, were private Maserati racers, who were accompanied by those on OSCAs and Connaught, as well as Ron Flockhart, who was deprived of the right to drive for BRM at the last minute and tried to make it to the start, albeit in vain, behind the wheel of Rob Walker's Cooper T43. At the same time, it should be noted that not only Emery and Kessler managed to show up at the wheel of the Connaught in training, but also their boss Ecclestone, who, unable to come to terms with the disastrous performance of his drivers, decided to personally show his class. As was to be expected, nothing good came of Bernie’s attempt, and the only thing he managed to get out of a couple of laps spent on the track was to understand that his car was really no good.
Race
As usual, before the start of the Grand Prix, Prince Rainier of Monaco, together with his wife, Princess Grace, made a traditional lap of honor in his car, after which the drivers began to prepare for the start.
Start. After the wave of the national flag, Brooks, Behra and Brabham, who were standing on the front row, almost simultaneously take off and, like the rest of the field, rush to the first turn. At the same time, it is Behra who manages to take the most advantageous trajectory and leave his rivals behind, however, in the hairpin he is almost carried off the track by Salvadori, who, trying to take the lead at any cost, takes the inner radius, applies too late braking and eventually rushes in straight line past the entire leading three, as if not noticing the turn!
However, as one would expect, this breakthrough does not bring Roy any benefit, and while getting back to the desired trajectory, the Englishman not only misses a good half of the peloton, but also receives a blow from one of the cars, which leads to the weakening of the steering arm on his Cooper! Having somehow reached the pits, Salvadori loses about three laps during repairs, after which he returns to the track last, now having no opportunity to compete not only for victory, but even for points!
Position after 1st lap: Behra, Brooks, Brabham, Moss, Trintignant, Lewis-Evans, Musso, Hawthorn, Schell, von Trips.
Lap 2: Moss, who thanks to a great start managed to immediately get into 4th place, wins back another position, leaving Brabham behind!
Meanwhile, Stirling's teammate Lewis-Evans, on the other hand, loses two positions to the two Ferraris of Hawthorn and Musso, while Collins leaves behind his teammate von Trips.
Lap 3: Collins gains another position by overtaking Schell, while behind the two Lotuses manage to pass Scarlatti's Maserati!
Lap 4: Hawthorn continues his breakthrough and leaves Trintignant behind, thus moving up to 5th!
Meanwhile, his Scuderia teammates Collins and von Trips are also not sitting idly by and each win back one position, ahead of Lewis-Evans and Schell respectively! In addition, on the same lap, Scarlatti makes a successful counterattack on Hill, thus regaining 14th position.
Lap 5: Brabham also cannot hold off the attacks of Hawthorn, who is now the most active driver on the track, and thus Mike is already 4th!
Lap 6: Lewis-Evans continues to lose ground and now gives way to von Trips, dropping to 10th position!
Lap 8: Hawthorn is simply unstoppable today and now leaves Moss behind, who is also forced to throw out the white flag for his compatriot!
Position after 10 laps: Behra, Brooks, Hawthorn, Moss, Brabham, Trintignant, Musso, Collins, von Trips, Lewis-Evans.
Behra continues to confidently lead the race, with a couple of seconds ahead of Brooks, however, the fastest driver on the track now is Hawthorn, who continues to fly around the track, closing his gap to the two leaders literally before our eyes!
Lap 12: After several laps of pursuit, Trintignant finally manages to find a gap in Brabham's defense and Maurice takes the lead, thus already getting into the points!
Meanwhile, on the same lap, the engine in Lewis-Evans' Vanwall begins to dangerously overheat, and the Englishman, fearing an explosion, turns into the pits, becoming the first retirement in this race.
Lap 15: Brabham continues to lose ground and now lets Musso pass, dropping to 7th!
Lap 20: Brooks is in trouble! The engine on the Englishman's Vanwall begins to lose power, and Hawthorn and Moss pass him without difficulty, thus pushing Tony into 4th!
Position after 20 laps: Behra, Hawthorn, Moss, Brooks, Trintignant, Musso, Brabham, Collins, von Trips, Schell.
Lap 21: Due to a failure of anti-roll bar, Brabham's Cooper begins to skid heavily in turns, which is immediately used by Collins, who pushes the Australian back to 8th!
Meanwhile, Allison, after a long chase, still manages to get ahead of Bonnier, and thus the Lotus debutant becomes 11th!
Lap 22: Brabham loses another position to von Trips and then pulls into the pits for repairs. Having lost a lot of time, the mechanics still manage to get the Australian’s Cooper in order, however, Jack returns to the track second to last, ahead of only his teammate Salvadori!
Lap 23: Heading up the hill from Ste Devote, a grinding sound suddenly comes from under the hood of Brooks' Vanwall and Tony immediately pulls to the side of the road, switching the engine off.
Having got out of the car, the Englishman looks under the hood, and, oh horror!, he discovers that it was only one spark plug that came out of the cylinder head! Realizing that he will no longer be able to push his car again in this section, Tony can only throw up his hands, and thus he becomes the second retirement in this race, joining his teammate Lewis-Evans.
Lap 27: Behra begins to experience serious problems with the brakes, and his lead over Hawthorn is rapidly shrinking, now amounting to only 1.5 seconds!
Meanwhile, due to the breakdown of one of the connecting rods, the engine in Scarlatti's Maserati begins to work on only five cylinders, and the Italian is immediately overtaken by Hill in the second Lotus, which pushes him to 12th!
Lap 28: Just one lap is enough for Hawthorn to finally catch up with Behra, however, it never comes to overtaking, as the Frenchman immediately turns into the pits, letting Mike into the lead without any fight! Meanwhile, all Jean's hopes for at least some decent result are immediately dispelled by his mechanics, who, after inspecting the brakes on his BRM, just shake their heads, thus forcing the disappointed Frenchman to leave such a promising race, who today missed a real chance to win his first Grand Prix in Formula-1.
Lap 29: After spending several laps in a car with a faulty engine, Scarlatti finally gives up and also pulls into the pits, dropping out of the race.
Position after 30 laps: Hawthorn, Moss, Trintignant, Musso, Collins, von Trips, Schell, Allison, Bonnier, Hill.
Despite Behra's retirement and the acquired lead, Hawthorn also fails to become the clear favorite of the Grand Prix, since Moss, who is behind him, unexpectedly picks up the pace and begins to rapidly catch up with the leading Ferrari!
Lap 32: Moss closes the gap to Hawthorn and is literally hangs on his tail, looking for a suitable place to attack!
Meanwhile, the engine in Schell's BRM begins to misfire, and the American pulls into the pits for a check. Having decided that the problem is in faulty spark plugs, the mechanics completely replace them, as a result of which the American loses a lot of time and returns to the track last, behind even two Coopers!
Lap 33: After hanging on Hawthorn's tail for less than one lap, Moss finally finds a gap in Mike's defense and takes the lead, thus becoming the new leader of the race!
Lap 36: Despite losing the lead, Hawthorn does his best to keep up with Moss and sets the fastest lap of the race with a time of 1'40.6!
Lap 37: Allison makes a mistake and spins, as a result of which he loses two positions at once, missing Bonnier and his teammate Hill!
Lap 39: Moss is also in trouble! Unable to break away from Hawthorn, Stirling unexpectedly easily lets the Ferrari through and stops in the pits, complaining of misfiring! After popping the hood and digging into the engine, the mechanics discover a serious malfunction in the valve mechanism, and thus this Vanwall also takes its place on the side of the road, ending Tony Vandervell's last hope for success!
Position after 40 laps: Hawthorn, Trintignant, Musso, Collins, von Trips, Schell, Bonnier, Hill, Allison, Salvadori, Brabham.
After Moss retired, Hawthorn finally remains the sole leader of the race, already more than half a minute ahead of Trintignant, who is in 2nd!
Lap 47: Allison, having missed his teammate Hill after a spin, catches up with him again and takes the lead, rising to 7th!
Lap 48: Another problem for the leader, this time for Hawthorn! About halfway through the lap, the fuel pump mount on the Englishman's Ferrari suddenly breaks, and, instantly losing speed, Mike parks his Ferrari at the side of the road, thus becoming another loser of this unpredictable Grand Prix!
Meanwhile, after Hawthorn’s retirement, the new leader of the race now becomes... Trintignant(!), who, it seems, like three years ago, manages to catch his luck by the tail again!
Lap 50: The engine in Allison's Lotus begins to overheat, forcing Cliff to make a pit stop to top up water, as a result of which the Englishman not only loses a lot of time, but also misses three rivals, dropping to penultimate place!
Position after 50 laps: Trintignant, Musso, Collins, von Trips, Bonnier, Hill, Salvadori, Brabham, Allison, Schell.
Lap 51: With smaller fuel tanks, von Trips stops for a scheduled refueling after which he returns to the track without losing a single position.
Lap 57: Schell, in last place after his pit stop, finally catches up with his first rival, Allison, and easily passes him, taking 8th.
Meanwhile, on the same lap, Salvadori, who spent the entire race at the back of the peloton, finally dropped out of the race due to problems with the gearbox.
Lap 70: Hill, who had already made it to 6th position thanks to numerous problems with his rivals, also drops out of the race due to a broken drive shaft!
Lap 71: Having caught up with Brabham, Trintignant tries to lap the Australian, but he, completely ignoring the warning flags, blocks the race leader!
Lap 72: Bonnier, who was in 5th position, makes a mistake at the Massenet and smashes his Maserati to pieces, thus losing the opportunity to earn his first points!
Lap 73: Having failed to overtake Brabham, Trintignant slows down a bit, clearly not going to risk his lead against the madcap Australian.
Lap 76: Having lulled Jack's vigilance, Maurice unexpectedly goes on the attack, and still leaves his rival behind!
Position after 80 laps: Trintignant, Musso, Collins, von Trips, Brabham, Schell, Allison.
Lap 92: Eight laps before the finish, the engine in von Trips's Ferrari jams and the German pulls to the side of the road, thus losing 4th place!
Last lap: After a very eventful and unpredictable race, Trintignant confidently brings his car to the victorious finish, winning his second victory in Monaco and bringing Rob Walker's team a second victory in a row this season!
Finishing second, 20 seconds behind, is Musso, who, as in Argentina, was again just one step away from victory, however, Luigi does not look disappointed at all, since thanks to another six points he is now the championship leader! Third place also goes to another Ferrari driver, Collins, who clearly could not boast of much speed today, however, the Englishman still manages to bring his team a double podium, thereby repeating the success achieved by the Scuderia at the first round in Argentina. Meanwhile, fourth place goes to Brabham, whose race was spoiled today by a forced pit stop, however, Jack still gets three points, which become the first of his career. As for the final two points for fifth place, they go to Schell, who, despite losing time due to a spark plug change, still manages to give BRM their first successful finish since 1951!
Interesting facts:
- Maurice Trintignant's last victory;
- Tony Brooks' first pole-position;
- Jack Brabham's first points;
- Graham Hill's debut;
- Lotus team's debut.
Driver standings
Constructor standings
Alternative GP results
