1958 French Grand Prix

 1958 French Grand Prix

Racing data
6th of 11 races in the 1958 World Automobile Championship
Surname:	XLIV Grand Prix de l'ACF
Date:	July 6, 1958
Place:	Reims , France
Course:	Circuit de Reims-Gueux
Length:	415.1 km in 50 laps of 8.302 km
Weather:	sunny, dry
Pole position
Driver:	Mike Hawthorn	Ferrari
Time:	2: 21.7 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Mike Hawthorn	Ferrari
Time:	2: 24.9 min
Podium
First:	Mike Hawthorn	Ferrari
Second:	Stirling Moss	Vanwall
Third:	Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips	Ferrari

The 1958 French Grand Prix took place on July 6, 1958 on the Circuit de Reims-Gueux near Reims and was the sixth race of the 1958 World Automobile Championship .

Reports

background

Debut race Lotus 16

Juan Manuel Fangio's last race

First victory of the Dino 246F1 (Mike Hawthorn at the 1958 Grand Prix of Argentina)

Halfway through the season, the drivers 'and constructors' world championship developed more and more into a duel between Ferrari and Vanwall . Vanwall has already won two races, Ferrari has not yet won one this season, but has significantly improved the performance of his cars in the last few races. Ferrari brought Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips back into the team as the fourth driver alongside regular drivers Luigi Musso , Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins and let him drive the next four races for Scuderia Ferrari. The position of Collins in the team was uncertain before the race, as Enzo Ferrari only wanted to use him in Formula 2 due to declining performance, but Hawthorn stood up for his friend, which gave him a Ferrari cockpit at the 1958 French Grand Prix . Also BRM put an extra car ready next Harry Schell and Jean Behra drove Maurice Trintignant unique to the team because the Rob Walker Racing Team again did not compete for the Grand Prix.

While Vanwall and Cooper stuck to their car and driver constellations, Team Lotus entered the race with a new car for Graham Hill . The Lotus 16 was an evolution of the Lotus 12 that Hill's teammate Cliff Allison drove in the race. The front section was made more oval and the front engine was installed at an angle, and the design was slightly revised. The Lotus 16 was the team's last car with a front engine, and since the Lotus 18 was already in the works as a rear-engined alternative, this car was no longer developed, leaving Lotus in the middle of the field.

Again the rest of the field was filled with privately entered Maserati 250Fs, which, however, were no longer victorious due to a lack of further developments. Juan Manuel Fangio , five-time world champion who dominated the years before, competed for the last time in Formula 1 with such a private Maserati. After the race, Fangio ended his motorsport career. Phil Hill , world champion of the 1961 automobile world championship , contested his first Formula 1 race at the 1958 French Grand Prix. He drove Jo Bonnier's private Maserati , who himself drove Giorgio Scarlatti's car. Like Fangio, Paco Godia drove his last Formula 1 race and then also ended his career.

The remaining three Maseratis were used by Scuderia Centro Sud for Gerino Gerini , Carroll Shelby and Troy Ruttman . For Shelby it was the Formula 1 debut, Ruttman previously only started in several Indianapolis 500 , which counted for the automobile world championship, of which he won one.

In the drivers 'championship, Vanwall driver Stirling Moss was three points ahead of Ferrari drivers Hawthorn and Musso, while in the constructors' championship Ferrari was one point ahead of Cooper and four points ahead of Vanwall. Both ratings were still completely open and every driver and team had a chance of winning the title. With Fangio, Collins and Hawthorn, three former winners competed, Ferrari was the only team that had previously been successful on this track.

training

Ferrari dominated the practice and achieved the first two starting positions. Hawthorn again set the fastest time and was seven tenths of a second faster than his team-mate Musso. Collins qualified for fourth place. Graf Berghe Von Trips started from the end of the field after failing to set a time in training. Between the Ferraris, Schell took third place on BRM. His team-mates Trintignant and Behra were also within striking distance of the top teams with positions seven and nine. Vanwall was more than a second off Hawthorn's time, Tony Brooks qualified in fifth ahead of Moss, while Lewis-Evans was in tenth.

The best driver with a private Maserati was Fangio, who completed the top ten in eighth place. Cooper was still in the lower midfield, while Lotus only achieved 18th and 19th place with a new car and was a long way behind the competition.

run

Schell started again best, who took the lead before Hawthorn, but Hawthorn countered on the first lap of the race and went into the second lap as the leader. Schell then lost several positions and dueled with Behra, Moss and Fangio for fifth. A three-way battle between Musso, Collins and Brooks began for position two, while Hawthorn in the lead benefited from the duels behind him and gained a lead. Musso emerged victorious in the chase duel after the Vanwall couldn't keep up with the Ferrari's pace and Collins fell back on lap five because his accelerator pedal stuck.

As in the 1958 Belgian Grand Prix, the race was characterized by failures due to engine damage, Allison retired on lap six with engine failure, Shelby in his debut race on lap nine.

By lap nine, Musso was getting closer and closer to Hawthorn and taking a lot of risk to win the race. At that time, the French Grand Prix was considered to be the Grand Prix with the highest prize money for victory, and as Musso's girlfriend later announced, he was heavily in debt and urgently needed this prize money. There was also a kind of private alliance at Ferrari between the British drivers Collins and Hawthorn, which was directed against Musso and made it difficult for him to benefit from team-internal help in the race, such as stable management. With a win, Musso wanted to improve his position at Scuderia Ferrari and take the lead in the drivers' championship. All of these prerequisites meant that Musso drove too risky while catching up on Hawthorn and lost control of his car. He slid off the track and his Ferrari was thrown into a ditch slightly deeper towards the race track. The car then collided with the ground at an inconvenient angle and overturned several times, throwing Musso out of the car. He later died in a hospital in Reims as a result of the serious head injury he sustained in the accident. After Ferrari had already lost a large number of its drivers in fatal accidents last year, this trend continued at this point, Collins died during the current season, Hawthorn died after the season in an accident on public roads and from trips in the automobile - 1961 World Championship at the 1961 Italian Grand Prix .

Brooks moved up to second place, but he also retired a few laps later with an engine failure. After Trintignant had parked his car with a defective fuel pump on lap 23, the next serious accident occurred on lap 28, which made it clear how low the safety precautions of the Circuit de Reims-Gueux were at that time. Godia survived the accident, but never took part in a Formula 1 race again. Behra, Moss and Fangio then dueled for second place; Schell was a few seconds behind this group, while Hawthorn extended his lead.

On lap 33, Graham Hill's car overheated, who retired again with a technical defect and still failed to finish, so Lotus had a double breakdown in both of its cars. Further engine damage decimated the field in the remaining race distance, Lewis-Evans had one on lap 35, Schell's engine failed on lap 41. And for BRM, too, there was a failure of all cars, as on the same lap of Behra's car, the last one left of the team that dropped the fuel pump. Until then, Behra had dueled Moss for second place and was in a promising position for a podium finish.

Hawthorn won the race safely 24 seconds ahead of second-placed Moss. Hawthorn led every lap of the race, set the fastest race lap and started from pole position. With that he achieved a Grand Slam . This was Hawthorn's third and final win, and Ferrari's first win of the season. However, the success was overshadowed by the death of the teammate. Graf Berghe von Trips completed the podium in third place, while Fangio was fourth in his last race. He owed this to the winner Hawthorn, who slowed down the last lap of the race so as not to lap Fangio. Collins, who had technical problems on the last lap, was only classified fifth because, thanks to Hawthorn, Fangio was able to complete the last lap and thereby overtook Collins.

Brabham crossed the finish line in sixth place, Cooper was again unable to score points, Salvadori came in eleventh place, 13 laps behind. Phil Hill reached seventh place in his debut ahead of Bonnier and Gerini, Ruttmann came tenth.

In the drivers' standings, the top five positions remained unchanged, but Moss and Hawthorn outperformed the competition with points and were tied after the race. All drivers still had theoretical chances to become world champions. In the constructors' championship, too, everything was still open, Ferrari extended its lead over Vanwall to six points, which overtook Cooper. Maserati rose to fifth in the constructors' championship thanks to Fangio's points, but these were the last points in the team's history. The Maserati 250F was used for two more years, but no longer achieved the competitiveness of previous years.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Scuderia Ferrari	02	Luigi Musso	Ferrari Dino 246F1	Ferrari 2.4 V6	E.
	04th	Mike Hawthorn
	06th	Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips
	42	Peter Collins
Vandervell Products Ltd	08th	Stirling Moss	Vanwall VW57	Vanwall 2.5 L4	D.
	10	Tony Brooks
	12	Stuart Lewis-Evans
Owen Racing Organization	14th	Jean Behra	BRM P25	BRM 2.5 L4	D.
	16	Harry Schell
	18th	Maurice Trintignant
Cooper Car Company	20th	Roy Salvadori	Cooper T45	Climax 2.0 L4	D.
	22nd	Jack Brabham		Climax 2.2 L4
Team Lotus	24	Graham Hill	Lotus 16	Climax 2.0 L4	D.
	26th	Cliff Allison	Lotus 12	Climax 2.2 L4
Scuderia Centro Sud	28	Carroll Shelby	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	P
	30th	Troy Ruttman
	32	Gerino Gerini
Juan Manuel Fangio	34	Juan Manuel Fangio	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	P
Jo Bonnier	36	Phil Hill	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	P
Giorgio Scarlatti	38	Jo Bonnier	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	P
Paco Godia	40	Paco Godia	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	P

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	Mike Hawthorn	Ferrari	2: 21.7	210.92 km / h	01
02	Luigi Musso	Ferrari	2: 22.4	209.88 km / h	02
03	Harry Schell	BRM	2: 23.1	208.86 km / h	03
04th	Peter Collins	Ferrari	2: 23.3	208.56 km / h	04th
05	Tony Brooks	Vanwall	2: 23.4	208.41 km / h	05
06th	Stirling Moss	Vanwall	2: 23.7	207.98 km / h	06th
07th	Maurice Trintignant	BRM	2: 23.7	207.98 km / h	07th
08th	Juan Manuel Fangio	Maserati	2: 24.0	207.55 km / h	08th
09	Jean Behra	BRM	2: 24.2	207.26 km / h	09
10	Stuart Lewis-Evans	Vanwall	2: 25.3	205.69 km / h	10
11	Paco Godia	Maserati	2: 27.1	203.18 km / h	11
12	Jack Brabham	Cooper-Climax	2: 27.3	202.90 km / h	12
13	Phil Hill	Maserati	2: 29.5	199.91 km / h	13
14th	Roy Salvadori	Cooper-Climax	2: 30.0	199.25 km / h	14th
15th	Gerino Gerini	Maserati	2: 30.7	198.32 km / h	15th
16	Jo Bonnier	Maserati	2: 30.9	198.06 km / h	16
17th	Carroll Shelby	Maserati	2: 32.0	196.63 km / h	17th
18th	Troy Ruttman	Maserati	2: 36.0	191.58 km / h	18th
19th	Graham Hill	Lotus Climax	2: 40.9	185.75 km / h	19th
20th	Cliff Allison	Lotus Climax	2: 49.7	176.12 km / h	20th
21st	Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips	Ferrari	no time		21st

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Mike Hawthorn	Ferrari	50		2: 03: 21.3	01	2: 24.9
02	Stirling Moss	Vanwall	50		+ 24.6	06th
03	Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips	Ferrari	50		+ 59.7	21st
04th	Juan Manuel Fangio	Maserati	50		+ 2: 30.6	08th
05	Peter Collins	Ferrari	50		+ 5: 24.9	04th
06th	Jack Brabham	Cooper-Climax	49		+ 1 lap	12
07th	Phil Hill	Maserati	49		+ 1 lap	13
08th	Jo Bonnier	Maserati	48		+ 2 rounds	16
09	Gerino Gerini	Maserati	47		+ 3 rounds	15th
10	Troy Ruttman	Maserati	45		+ 5 rounds	18th
11	Roy Salvadori	Cooper-Climax	37		+ 13 rounds	14th
-	Jean Behra	BRM	41		DNF	09		Fuel pump
-	Harry Schell	BRM	41		DNF	03		Engine failure
-	Stuart Lewis-Evans	Vanwall	35		DNF	10		Engine failure
-	Graham Hill	Lotus Climax	33		DNF	19th		Overheating
-	Paco Godia	Maserati	28		DNF	11		accident
-	Maurice Trintignant	BRM	23		DNF	07th		Fuel pump
-	Tony Brooks	Vanwall	16		DNF	05		Engine failure
-	Luigi Musso	Ferrari	09		DNF	02		deadly accident
-	Carroll Shelby	Maserati	09		DNF	17th		Engine failure
-	Cliff Allison	Lotus Climax	06th		DNF	20th		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 six best results from eleven 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  Stirling Moss Cooper-Climax / Vanwall 23 02  Mike Hawthorn Ferrari 23 03  Luigi Musso Ferrari 12 04th  Harry Schell BRM 10 05  Maurice Trintignant Cooper-Climax 8th 06th  Tony Brooks Vanwall 8th 07th  Jimmy Bryan Epperly-Offenhauser 8th 08th  Juan Manuel Fangio Maserati 7th 09  George Amick Epperly-Offenhauser 6th 10  Jean Behra Maserati / BRM 6th

Item driver constructor Points 11  Peter Collins Ferrari 6th 12  Stuart Lewis-Evans Vanwall 4th 13  Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips Ferrari 4th 14th  Johnny Boyd Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser 4th 15th  Tony Bettenhausen Epperly-Offenhauser 4th 16  Cliff Allison Lotus Climax 3 17th  Jack Brabham Cooper-Climax 3 18th  Roy Salvadori Cooper-Climax 3 19th  Jim Rathmann Epperly-Offenhauser 2

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  Ferrari 28 02  Vanwall 22nd 03  Cooper-Climax 19th 04th  BRM 10 05  Maserati 6th 06th  lotus 3

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Mistress of the maestro of Maranello In: https://www.theguardian.com/international , accessed November 29, 2013.
2. ↑ Musso Killed in 1958 French GP ( Memento from December 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) In: http://gpevolved.com , accessed on November 30, 2013.

Web links

• Photos at f1-facts.com
• Grand Prix Results: French GP, 1958 at grandprix.com