Cliff Allison

This article is about British racing driver Henry Clifford "Cliff" Allison ; for other namesake see Clifford Allison

Cliff Allison

Nation:	United Kingdom
Automobile world championship
First start:	1958 Monaco Grand Prix
Last start:	1961 Monaco Grand Prix
Constructors
1958  Team Lotus  • 1959–1960  Scuderia Ferrari  • 1961 UDT-Laystall Racing Team
statistics
World Cup balance:	WM-12. ( 1960 )
Starts Victories Poles SR 16 - - -
World Cup points :	11
Podiums :	1
Leadership laps :	-

Henry Clifford "Cliff" Allison (born February 8, 1932 in Brough , Westmorland , † April 7, 2005 in Brough , (now) Cumbria ) was a British racing driver .

Life

Allison belonged to the considerable reservoir of British garage owners who, out of their enthusiasm for motorsport, were more or less pure amateurs in the Formula 1 races of the 1950s, who usually "filled in" the starting fields for their home grand prix. While most had little luck with it, the man from Northumberland was able to prove his class at least a few times and also lost his unofficial "amateur status".

After he had been relatively successful in Formula 3 from 1952 to 1955 on a Cooper - JAP with two victories in the races in Cadwell Park and Bo'ness in June 1954 and further good placements, he tried his hand at sports car races in the following two years for Colin Chapman's Lotus Eleven project. He won in 1957 the class rating in Le Mans and moved in 1957 in the Formula 2 , where he was the first to Lotus 12 to 1958 to make his debut in Formula 1 piloted.

Lotus 12

Cliff Allison on the right at the number 16 Lotus Eleven; Graham Hill on the left ; Photo from 1957

During the 1958 Formula 1 season at the Belgian Grand Prix one of those situations arose that was determined by the typical “if”, “would be” and “would have” of the lost opportunities. True to the quote attributed to Colin Chapman that " the perfect Formula 1 monoposto victoriously collapses after crossing the finish line ", all vehicles placed in front of Allison suffered a defect - but only after reaching the rating.

The gearbox on the vanwall of the winner Tony Brooks finally failed after the finish, the front engine of the runner-up Mike Hawthorn exploded when the black and white checkered flag was waved for him, and finally at Stuart Lewis-Evans ' vanwall the vanwall broke shortly before the finish Tie rod, but that didn't stop him from rolling over the finish line. So it was only fourth place for Allison with his Lotus and not the victory he had hoped for. One more lap and it would be more able . Whether Chapman, as the designer of the Lotus, then coined the aforementioned bon mot as a reaction to this finish is unclear, but it would be entirely understandable.

The Ferrari racing team , however, saw his talent, as Allison had only driven just outside the points in two races in sixth place and otherwise engine damage had made it impossible for him to achieve a better result, and on personal recommendation Mike Hawthorn trusted him for the following season, in which he was However, did not have a completely victorious material compared to the mid-engine Cooper , a car. Although the Ferrari 256 had around 60  hp more than the agile rival models, it also had to move an additional 100 kg. Fifth place at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza was his best result. Only Tony Brooks drove a GP success for Ferrari that year.

During the 1960 Formula 1 season , however, they were completely competitive again, so that Allison was able to celebrate second on the podium for the first time at the Argentine Grand Prix . Two weeks earlier he had already won the 1000 km race on the Nürburgring with Phil Hill . But at the Monaco Grand Prix he had a serious accident during training in the harbor chicane. When he woke up from a coma in the hospital , to his own surprise, he tried to speak French , which Allison said was impossible since he had never mastered the language.

It took him much of the next year to heal his severe face, head and arm injuries. After a hopeful second place at the BRDC International Trophy 1961, he tried his hand at the wheel of a customer Lotus of the UDT Laystall team again in Formula 1. After an eighth place in Monaco, he started in Spa-Francorchamps . In a serious accident, he broke both legs and decided to retire from racing because he had realized that he had lost some of his skills in the fatal accident in Monte Carlo .

He continued to run the family business until he retired and occasionally even drove the local school bus when he was old. When he occasionally visited a few Grand Prix again during the 1990s, he was surprised to find that, contrary to his expectations, he had not been forgotten. In 1992 he announced in Monaco that at the time of his accident he was certainly just as quick, if not faster, than his teammates at the time. When he took part in the regularity test of today's Mille Miglia on a Lotus at Malcolm Rickett's side, Luca di Montezemolo chose him personally to philosophize about the old days .

statistics

Statistics in the automobile world championship

general overview

season	team	chassis	engine	run	Victories	Second	Third	Poles	nice Race laps	Points	WM-Pos.
1958	Team Lotus	Lotus 12	Climax 2.0 L4	7th	-	-	-	-	-	3	18th
		Lotus 16	Climax 2.2 L4	1	-	-	-	-	-
	Scuderia Centro Sud	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	1	-	-	-	-	-
1959	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari Dino 156	Ferrari 1.5 V6	1	-	-	-	-	-	2	17th
		Ferrari Dino 246	Ferrari 2.4 V6	4th	-	-	-	-	-
1960	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari Dino 246	Ferrari 2.4 V6	1	-	1	-	-	-	6th	12.
1961	UDT Laystall Racing Team	Lotus 18	Climax 1.5 L4	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
total				16	-	1	-	-	-	11

Single results

season	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11
1958
		6th	6th		4th	DNF	DNF	10	DNF	7th	10
1959
	DNF		9			DNF		5	DNF
1960
	2	DNQ
1961
	8th		DNS

Legend
colour	abbreviation	meaning
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1956	Lotus Engineering Ltd.	Lotus Eleven	Keith Hall	failure	accident
1957	Lotus Engineering Ltd.	Lotus Eleven	Keith Hall	14th place and class win
1958	Lotus Engineering Ltd.	Lotus MK15	Graham Hill	failure	Engine failure
1959	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 250TR 59	Hernando da Silva Ramos	failure	Gearbox damage
1961	UDT Laystall Racing Team	Lotus Elite	Mike McKee	failure	Engine failure

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1958	Team Lotus	Lotus Eleven	Colin Chapman	Rank 6
1959	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 250TR59	Jean Behra	Rank 2

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th
1955	lotus	Lotus Mk9	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	TAR
							11
1957	lotus	Lotus Eleven	BUA	SEB	MIM	ONLY	LEM	KRI	CAR
							14th	18th
1958	lotus	Lotus Eleven Lotus 15	BUA	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	RTT
				6th			DNF	DNF
1959	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 250TR	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	RTT
			2	DNF	5	DNF	3
1960	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 250TR	BUA	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM
			1		DNF	3
1961	UDT Laystall Racing Team	Lotus Elite	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	PES
						DNF

Web links

Commons : Cliff Allison  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Cliff Allison at www.grandprix.com (English)
• Cliff Allison at 500race.org (English)