Review of 1958 season
The 1958 season was truly one of the most interesting and exciting in the history of Formula 1, marked by an incredible fight for the championship title between the two Britons Mike Hawthorn and Stirling Moss, the outcome of which remained uncertain until the very last race and was resolved by a margin of just one point, but, unfortunately, it was also one of the most tragic, bringing the deaths of three outstanding drivers Luigi Musso, Peter Collins and Stuart Lewis-Evans, each of whom had extraordinary talent and could well have become world champion one day. Besides, this year will also be remembered for the first Grand Prix victory of a rear-engined car, the debut in Formula 1 of the legendary Team Lotus and the first female driver Maria Teresa de Filippis, as well as the farewell to the Royal motor racing of its incomparable champion, Juan Manuel Fangio.
When Maserati team announced their withdrawal from Formula 1 at the end of 1957, the great Argentine, who had already won his fifth championship title at the wheel of the Modenese car, suddenly found himself on the sidelines of the championship, and, unable to join one of the factory teams, Fangio had no choice but to try his luck as a private driver. Having bought two of his former team's championship cars, Juan Manuel, driving one of them, was the fastest driver in trainings at the season opener in Buenos Aires, but in the race itself, due to problems with tires and the engine, the Argentine was thrown back and eventually finished only 4th.
After a less than successful start to the season, the Argentine champion took it as a sign to seriously consider ending his racing career (a decision that was only strengthened by his prompt kidnapping by Fidel Castro supporters), and he ended up racing for only one last time this year, bidding farewell to all his fans at the French Grand Prix. In that race, Fangio took part at the wheel of a new super-light Maserati 250F with a shortened wheelbase, however, despite the rather impressive speed, a broken clutch pedal prevented him from reaching the podium, and the Maestro ended his last race in Formula 1 in 4th place.
In the absence of the Argentine champion, all the trump cards were in the hands of the drivers of the two strongest teams, Ferrari and Vanwall, and given that five of the seven drivers of these teams were British, it became obvious even before the start of the championship that Fangio's successor would most likely be one of the natives of Foggy Albion. At the same time, the main pair of contenders, in fact, identified themselves already at the earliest stage of the championship, and, having begun their fight at the first round in Argentina, Stirling Moss from Vanwall and Mike Hawthorn from Scuderia Ferrari fought with varying success with each other all season, deciding the fate of the title only in the last race in Morocco.
At the same time, it should be noted that the strongest driver in 1958 was, without a doubt, Moss, who already in Argentina managed to show his class, winning a brilliant victory over the Ferrari drivers at the wheel of Rob Walker's low-powered Cooper (after Stirling's main team, Vanwall, decided to abandon the expensive tour to South America this year as well).
Entering the European part of the season, Stirling also performed beyond all praise, becoming the main contender for victory in the Dutch, Belgian, German, Portuguese, Italian and Moroccan Grand Prix, but due to frequent technical failures, the Englishman managed to win only half of them (on the tracks in Zandvoort, Porto and Ain Diab), and in the end he did not have enough points to beat Hawthorn in the overall standings.
In retrospect, several factors played a role in Moss' failure, but perhaps the most significant was the introduction of new regulations that prohibited the use of special racing fuel in Formula 1 from that year, which meant that the Vanwall engines lost both power and reliability, and could no longer compete on equal terms with the new Ferrari 6-cylinder engines, which had been designed from the start to run on regular fuel.
Another factor that worked against Stirling was the ban, also introduced this year, on changing cars during the race between drivers of the same team, which deprived the Englishman of the opportunity to earn at least a few more points, which would have been critical in the fight for the title. And of course, we must not forget the truly chivalrous behavior of Moss during the Portuguese Grand Prix, where after the finish he sided with Hawthorn after he made a mistake and gave evidence in his favor, which gave Mike the opportunity to avoid disqualification and earn a couple more points, which ultimately decided the fate of the title.
Nevertheless, even recognizing Moss' superiority this season, calling Hawthorn an "accidental" champion would be a big mistake. Indeed, this year Mike managed to fully reveal his talent, and from the very first stages he began to clearly demonstrate his superiority over the other Scuderia racers, almost immediately establishing himself as the undisputed leader of the "scarlets".
At the same time, realizing that the only advantages the new Ferraris 246 Dino had over the Vanwalls were their power and reliability, Hawthorn used them to the full, thanks to which he managed not only to achieve his only victory in France, where on the long straights of the Reims track the Vanwall drivers had no chance to resist the speed of the Ferraris, but also to win a whole series of second places, which, by and large, brought him ultimate success.
It should also not be forgotten that after the profound shock that Mike experienced after the death of his best friend Collins at the Nurburgring, he was still able to overcome himself and finish the season at the highest level, after which, having finally won the desired title, the Englishman said goodbye to motor racing forever... only to die in a road accident just three months later.
Meanwhile, the championship title this season was far from the only prize that Ferrari and Vanwall were eager to win, since it was this year that the Constructors' Cup was first established, intended for the most successful manufacturer of racing cars, and the fundamental role in the fight for this cup was played by the supporting drivers of the two teams, with the British team's number two Tony Brooks handling it better than anyone else.
Having been unable to reach his full potential last year due to injury, Tony has managed to make up for lost time this season and become a real shadow of Moss, taking over every time Stirling had to pull over with yet another failure, and, having recorded three victories in Belgium, Germany and Italy, Brooks eventually managed not only to take third place in the overall standings behind Hawthorn and Moss, but also bring his team that coveted Constructors' Cup.
However, despite this success, the Vanwall era in Formula 1 was already coming to an end, and, unable to come to terms with the loss of his third driver Lewis-Evans, who died from burns received during the last round in Morocco, Tony Vandervell soon announced the dissolution of his team, which had been a real flagship of British racing car manufacturing in Formula 1 in the 50s.
As for Scuderia, this year was even more tragic for them, and, certainly, even winning another championship title was a small consolation for the "scarlet" team against the backdrop of the deaths of two their drivers, Luigi Musso and Peter Collins. At the same time, it should be noted that both fatal accidents that happened to Luigi and Peter, although they happened on different tracks (in Reims and Nürburgring respectively), were very similar to each other and were the result of the Scuderia drivers' ardent desire to take the lead at any cost, which eventually led to their mistakes.
It must also be acknowledged that Musso and Collins were killed at the very moment when they were at the peak of their form and could well have counted on serious achievements both this year and in the future (Luigi was only two points behind Hawthorn in the championship before the French Grand Prix, while Peter had achieved a truly magnificent victory at his home track in Silverstone two weeks before the German stage).
However, as often happens, after one hero leaves the stage, another one immediately appears, and this year Phil Hill got his chance to prove himself, who, undoubtedly, became the main discovery of this season. Having spent only two full Grand Prix at the wheel of Ferrari on the tracks in Monza and Ain Diab (the German Grand Prix, in which Phil took part in the Formula 2 class, can be ignored), the American finished both of them on the podium, while in Morocco Hill became one of the main heroes of the race at all, making an invaluable contribution to Scuderia's final victory in the championship, after he gave up his second place to Hawthorn and thereby added two decisive points to his teammate's piggy bank.
Naturally, with such a tense and tragic fight between Ferrari and Vanwall for the title of the best team in the championship, the rest of the season's events noticeably faded into the background, however, it should be noted that this year was a truly important milestone for the other three factory teams, Cooper, BRM and Lotus. For example, John Cooper's team, having at their disposal cars that were about 100 hp inferior to their competitors, managed to show not just decent, but truly magnificent results this year, winning their first two podiums in Great Britain and Germany, which was made possible not only by the excellent handling of their rear-engined cars, but also by the efforts of Roy Salvadori, who took a fairly high 4th place in the overall standings at the end of the championship.
At the same time, an equally strong demonstration of the potential of the rear-engined Coopers was the success of Rob Walker's team, which, thanks to Stirling Moss and Maurice Trintignant, managed to win the first two stages in Argentina and Monaco and thus become the first private team to taste the victorious champagne in the top league of motorsport.
Meanwhile, Alfred Owen's team, which had finally managed to bring their long-suffering BRM P25 cars up to scratch, also had a very decent season, and their reward was not only the first points earned, but also the first double podium, which was won in the Netherlands by Jean Behra and Harry Schell. However, despite the good speed characteristics of the Bourne cars, their reliability still left much to be desired, and due to frequent technical failures, Jean, who was perhaps the strongest driver in the championship after those from Ferrari and Vanwall, missed not only several podiums, but also the opportunity to win his first victory (again!) on the track in Monte Carlo.
As for Schell, unlike the Frenchman, luck has generally not passed him by this year and, regularly scoring points, the American was eventually able to even get ahead of his teammate in the overall standings, taking a very respectable 6th place.
As for the last factory team, Lotus, their debut season in Formula 1 was, frankly speaking, ambiguous. On the one hand, Colin Chapman's new cars showed not the worst speed (considering the low-power Climax engines installed in them), and at the wheel of one of them, Cliff Allison even managed to finish 4th on the Spa-Francorchamps circuit and thus earn for the team their first points.
However, when compared to the rear-engined Coopers, which used exactly the same engines, it became obvious that the Lotus cars were far inferior in both speed and handling, not to mention reliability, which was their real Achilles heel this season.
Nonetheless, despite the lack of serious success, Allison still managed to make a good impression on the Commendatore himself with his confident driving in the Belgian and German Grand Prix and thus earn himself a place in the Scuderia next year, while the second Lotus driver Graham Hill, having not shown any special results in his debut season, remained in Chapman's team for another year.
As for the private drivers, they failed to offer any surprises this year, and the main news on this front was the debut in Formula 1 of the first female driver, Maria Teresa de Filippis, who spent this season behind the wheel of her own Maserati 250F.
At the same time, it cannot be said that the Italian, who spent most of the races at the very end of the field, managed to impress anyone with her speed, however, on her home track in Monza she still had a very real chance to earn points, which, to her disappointment, disappeared along with a failed engine just 13 laps before the finish.
Alternative driver standings
Alternative team standings