1959 USA Grand Prix

 1959 USA Grand Prix

Racing data
9th of 9 races in the 1959 World Automobile Championship
Surname:	II United States Grand Prix
Date:	December 12, 1959
Place:	Sebring , USA
Course:	Sebring International Raceway
Length:	351.12 km in 42 laps of 8.36 km
Weather:	sunny, dry
Pole position
Driver:	Stirling Moss	Cooper-Climax
Time:	3: 00.0 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Maurice Trintignant	Cooper-Climax
Time:	3: 05.0 min
Podium
First:	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax
Second:	Maurice Trintignant	Cooper-Climax
Third:	Tony Brooks	Ferrari

The 1959 US Grand Prix took place on December 12, 1959 at the Sebring International Raceway near Sebring and was the ninth race of the 1959 World Cup .

Reports

background

Jack Brabham (1966) - first Australian world champion

Cooper T51 - first rear-engined car to win the driver's title

Bruce McLaren (1966) - youngest Grand Prix winner from 1959 to 2003

For the first time a Grand Prix of the USA took place as part of the World Motor Show. This was already the second race of the season in the USA, after the Indianapolis 500 had already been part of the automobile world championship. In contrast to this race, however, many European teams took part in the US Grand Prix. The race was originally intended to be the season opener, but was postponed to the end of the year. This was also the only race on the Sebring International Raceway, the Grand Prix only took place as part of the supporting program for the 12-hour race in Sebring and achieved little audience response and a financial failure. For this reason, the venue for the US Grand Prix switched to the Riverside International Raceway the following year . There were three months between the Italian Grand Prix and the US Grand Prix, during which, however, two Grand Prix not counted as part of the Automobile World Championship took place. Stirling Moss won the International Gold Cup at Oulton Park on Cooper , Ron Flockhart won the Silver City Trophy at Snetterton Motor Racing Circuit on BRM ; both Grand Prix were held in Great Britain.

The constructors 'championship had already been decided in favor of Cooper, but Moss, Jack Brabham and Tony Brooks still had chances for the drivers' title. All three drivers had previously won two races each, but Brabham had the best chances thanks to more podium positions, while Brooks could not become world champion on his own. Brabham needed, including the fastest race lap and the elimination of results, a win for the drivers' title, or a second place if Moss weren't the winner. A victory was also enough for Moss to become world champion, with a second place Brabham should not have won and Brooks should not have achieved the maximum number of points of nine points. Brooks, on the other hand, should have won and set the fastest race lap, with Brabham only being allowed to finish third in this scenario. However, a Ferrari win had already become difficult at this point, as the Cooper outnumbered and proved to be dominant. Their rear engine concept has already established itself and has proven its superiority over Ferrari's front engine with several successive races. In the following season, only two front-engined cars won a Grand Prix, after which the era of these cars was finally over.

In addition to Brooks, Cliff Allison , Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips and Phil Hill drove for Ferrari . Graf Berghe von Trips returned to Ferrari after almost a season break, for Brooks it was the last race at Ferrari, he drove a private Cooper and a race for his former team Vanwall the following season . Cooper registered Brabham and Bruce McLaren for the race, both drivers stayed with the team for more years. In Lotus returned Alan Stacey back and drove next to Innes Ireland . Graham Hill had already left Lotus and was not participating in the race. His new team, BRM , also stayed away from the US Grand Prix, as they had secured third place in the constructors' championship and could not improve or worsen. One last time was Connaught reported for a Grand Prix, Bob Said drove the new Connaught Type C . Since the team was insolvent before the car was even finished, Said built the car independently, but it lacked competitiveness, which is why this one assignment remained for both the car and the driver.

Other drivers and teams took part in private cars, Moss and Maurice Trintignant in a Cooper T51 for the Rob Walker Racing Team , Harry Schell for the Ecurie Bleue . Rodger Ward , winner of the Indianapolis 500 that year, had been invited by the race organizer to report a Kurtis Kraft midget for the race. However, the car was underpowered compared to the Formula 1 racing cars and thus clearly inferior. As a result of Aston Martin's absence , Roy Salvadori drove an obsolete private Cooper T45 . Alejandro de Tomaso drove an even older model . It was the last Grand Prix for him and his OSCA team . Fritz d'Orey also drove his last race, the only time the Tec-Mec -Maseratis was used, and the American drivers George Constantine , Harry Blanchard and Phil Cade drove their only Grand Prix.

No former or reigning world champion took part in the race, this fact only occurred again at the 1994 Monaco Grand Prix .

training

The training was again dominated by Cooper. Moss and Brabham were several seconds faster than the competition from Ferrari. With a time of exactly 3 minutes, Moss reached the third pole position in a row. With a total of four pole positions, he was the most frequent driver of all drivers in the first place on the grid in the 1959 World Cup. Brabham qualified in second place, which put Moss in a position that would have been enough for the world championship title. A controversy arose over third place. Brooks was already qualified for this starting position when the organizers noticed that Schell had driven a faster lap towards the end of training and awarded him third place. However, it went unnoticed that Schell took a short cut on the route and thus skipped an entire section of the route. This gave him a time advantage of six seconds, which is why Ferrari and several other teams protested, but this was not granted. Brooks therefore started the race from fourth place ahead of Trintignant to Cooper and his team mate Graf Berghe von Trips, Allison and Hill.

Lotus qualified for the grid in positions nine and twelve, McLaren completed the top ten. The time gaps between the vehicles were very long. In the outdated Cooper, Salvadori was still eleven on the grid, but was more than six seconds slower than Moss. Said in the Connaught was thirteenth, more than 21 seconds behind, while d'Orey in the Tec-Mec was 27 seconds short of pole time. Cade in the Maserati 250F qualified for penultimate place, more than half a minute slower than Moss. The Maserati was no longer competitive and was only used in two races the following season. Ward in the Kurtis-Kraft-Midget finished last in training.

run

At the start, Brabham overtook Moss, who countered on the first lap and took the lead. A preliminary decision for the world championship was a few positions behind when Graf Berghe von Trips drove into the rear of his team-mate Brooks while braking and forced him to stop in the repair pit. Brooks' distance to the top was then two minutes after the pit turned out to be no repair. Both Brooks and Graf Berghe von Trips continued the race with working cars, only the nose on Graf Berghe von Trips' car was damaged. Another accident occurred on the first lap of the race, with Said retiring for Connaught in the last race. Moss pulled away from Brabham and extended his lead until a technical defect ended his race on lap five. Brabham took the lead from team-mate McLaren, although third place would have been enough for him to become world champion at that point. Due to clutch defects, Stacey and Schell also dropped out early, so that Schell did not take advantage of his unauthorized third place on the grid. Further technical defects forced Constantine, d'Orey and Hill to retire in the following laps.

By the halfway point of the race, Brabham and McLaren extended their lead over third-placed Allison to 30 seconds. McLaren did not attack Brabham, but kept the distance to him small in order to secure the drivers' title for Brabham in the event of any problems. Count Berghe von Trips drove behind Allison, followed by Trintignant and Brooks. Cooper and Ferrari took the first six places. With de Tomaso, Ward and Salvadori, other drivers with technical defects were eliminated and Allison also parked his Ferrari on lap 23 with a damaged clutch. Thus only seven vehicles remained in the race for the second half of the race, Trintignant improved to third in front of Graf Berghe von Trips and Brooks.

In the last laps of the race, Trintignant and Brooks kept catching up to the top. When the final lap began, Trintignant was only four seconds behind McLaren when Brabham ran out of gas half a lap before the end of the race. McLaren slowed down to give Brabham victory, but Brabham was forced to push the car to the finish. When Trintignant got close to the two leaders, McLaren changed strategy and passed Brabham to win the race himself. He took the lead for the first time in his career and won the race by less than a second over Trintignant. McLaren thus became the youngest ever Formula 1 race winner and held this record for more than 40 years. The record was only broken by Fernando Alonso at the 2003 Hungarian Grand Prix . The win secured Brabham the title of drivers, the first for an Australian racing driver and the first for Cooper, as well as the premiere driver title of a rear-engined car. Trintignant achieved the only fastest race lap of his career and secured fifth place in the drivers' championship. Trintignant was the last driver in Formula 1 history to receive a point for the fastest race lap; this point was abolished from the 1960 Automobile World Championship . Brooks still reached the podium in third place, Brabham finished fourth. Due to the rule that a driver is only scored if he pushes the car over the finish line after a failure, Brabham had to push his Cooper 800 meters up a hill in order to be scored for the points. Brooks won the runner-up in third place. Ireland finished fifth in a Lotus ahead of Graf Berghe von Trips and Blanchard in a Porsche.

In the constructors' championship, Cooper achieved the maximum 40 points due to the cancellation rules and became world constructors champion in the 1959 automobile world championship. Ferrari was runner-up ahead of BRM

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Leader Cards Inc.	01	Rodger Ward	Kurtis power midget	Offenhauser 1.5 L4
Scuderia Ferrari	02	Tony Brooks	Ferrari Dino 246F1	Ferrari 2.4 V6	D.
	03	Cliff Allison
	04th	Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips
	05	Phil Hill
RRC Walker Racing Team	06th	Maurice Trintignant	Cooper T51	Climax 2.5 L4	D.
	07th	Stirling Moss
Cooper Car Company	08th	Jack Brabham	Cooper T51	Climax 2.5 L4	D.
			Cooper T45
	09	Bruce McLaren	Cooper T51
Team Lotus	10	Innes Ireland	Lotus 16	Climax 2.5 L4	D.
	11	Alan Stacey
High efficiency motors	12	Roy Salvadori	Cooper T45	Maserati 2.5 L4	D.
Automobili OSCA	14th	Alejandro de Tomaso	Cooper T43	OSCA 2.0 L4	D.
Camoradi USA	15th	Fritz d'Orey	Tec-Mec F415	Maserati 2.5 L6	D.
Mike Taylor	16	George Constantine	Cooper T45	Climax 2.5 L4	D.
Blanchard Automobiles	17th	Harry Blanchard	Porsche RSK	Porsche 1.5 B4
Connaught Cars - Paul Emery	18th	Bob Said	Connaught Type C	Alta 2.5 L4	D.
Ecurie Bleue	19th	Harry Schell	Cooper T51	Climax 2.2 L4	D.
Phil Cade	22nd	Phil Cade	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	D.

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	Stirling Moss	Cooper-Climax	3: 00.0	167.20 km / h	01
02	Jack Brabham	Cooper-Climax	3: 03.0	164.46 km / h	02
03	Harry Schell	Cooper-Climax	3: 05.2	162.51 km / h	03
04th	Tony Brooks	Ferrari	3: 05.9	161.89 km / h	04th
05	Maurice Trintignant	Cooper-Climax	3: 05.0	162.68 km / h	05
06th	Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips	Ferrari	3: 06.2	161.63 km / h	06th
07th	Cliff Allison	Ferrari	3: 06.8	161.11 km / h	07th
08th	Phil Hill	Ferrari	3: 07.2	160.77 km / h	08th
09	Innes Ireland	Lotus Climax	3: 08.2	159.91 km / h	09
10	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	3: 08.6	159.58 km / h	10
11	Roy Salvadori	Cooper Maserati	3: 12.0	156.75 km / h	11
12	Alan Stacey	Lotus Climax	3: 13.8	155.29 km / h	12
13	Bob Said	Connaught-Alta	3: 27.3	145.18 km / h	13
14th	Alejandro de Tomaso	Cooper-OSCA	3: 28.0	144.69 km / h	14th
15th	George Constantine	Cooper-Climax	3: 30.6	142.91 km / h	15th
16	Harry Blanchard	Porsche	3: 32.7	141.50 km / h	16
17th	Fritz d'Orey	Tec-Mec-Maserati	3: 33.4	141.03 km / h	17th
18th	Phil Cade	Maserati	3: 39.0	137.42 km / h	18th
19th	Rodger Ward	Kurtis-Kraft-Midget-Offenhauser	3: 43.8	134.48 km / h	19th

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	42		2: 12: 35.7	10
02	Maurice Trintignant	Cooper-Climax	42		+ 0.6	05	3: 05.0
03	Tony Brooks	Ferrari	42		+ 3: 00.9	04th
04th	Jack Brabham	Cooper-Climax	42		+ 4: 57.3	02
05	Innes Ireland	Lotus Climax	39		+ 3 rounds	09
06th	Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips	Ferrari	38		+ 4 rounds	06th
07th	Harry Blanchard	Porsche	38		+ 4 rounds	16
-	Cliff Allison	Ferrari	23		DNF	07th		coupling
-	Roy Salvadori	Cooper Maserati	23		DNF	11		Power transmission
-	Rodger Ward	Kurtis-Kraft-Midget-Offenhauser	20th		DNF	19th		coupling
-	Alejandro de Tomaso	Cooper-OSCA	13		DNF	14th		Brakes
-	Phil Hill	Ferrari	08th		DNF	08th		coupling
-	Fritz d'Orey	Tec-Mec-Maserati	06th		DNF	17th		Oil leak
-	George Constantin	Cooper-Climax	05		DNF	15th		Cylinder head gasket
-	Harry Schell	Cooper-Climax	05		DNF	03		coupling
-	Stirling Moss	Cooper-Climax	05		DNF	01		Power transmission
-	Alan Stacey	Lotus Climax	02		DNF	12		coupling
-	Bob Said	Connaught-Alta	00		DNF	13		accident
-	Phil Cade	Maserati	00		DNS			Engine failure

World Cup stands after the race

The first five of the race got 8, 6, 4, 3, 2 points. The driver with the fastest race lap received an additional 1 point. Only the five best results from nine races counted. Only the points of the best placed driver on a team counted in the constructors' championship.

Driver ranking

Item driver constructor Points 01  Jack Brabham Cooper-Climax 31 (34) 02  Tony Brooks Ferrari 27 03  Stirling Moss Cooper-Climax / BRM 25.5 04th  Phil Hill Ferrari 20th 05  Maurice Trintignant Cooper-Climax 19th 06th  Bruce McLaren Cooper-Climax 16.5 07th  Dan Gurney Ferrari 13 08th  Jo Bonnier BRM 10 09  Masts Gregory Cooper-Climax 10 10  Rodger Ward Watson-Offenhauser 8th

Item driver constructor Points 11  Jim Rathmann Watson-Offenhauser 6th 12  Johnny Thomson Lesovsky-Offenhauser 5 13  Harry Schell BRM 5 14th  Innes Ireland Lotus Climax 5 15th  Olivier Gendebien Ferrari 3 16  Tony Bettenhausen Epperly-Offenhauser 3 17th  Cliff Allison Ferrari 2 18th  Paul Goldsmith Epperly-Offenhauser 2 19th  Jean Behra Ferrari 2

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  cooper 40 (53) 02  Ferrari 32 (40) 03  BRM 18th 04th  lotus 5

Web links

• Results at motorsportarchiv.de
• Photos at f1-facts.com
• Grand Prix Results: United States GP, 1959 at grandprix.com
• Long Push For A Champion at sportsillustrated.cnn.com