1959 British Grand Prix

 1959 British Grand Prix

Racing data
5th of 9 races in the 1959 World Automobile Championship
Surname:	XII RAC British Grand Prix
Date:	July 18, 1959
Place:	Aintree , UK
Course:	Aintree Circuit
Length:	362.1 km in 75 laps of 4.828 km
Weather:	sunny, dry
Pole position
Driver:	Jack Brabham	Cooper-Climax
Time:	1: 58.0 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Stirling Moss Bruce McLaren	BRM Cooper-Climax
Time:	1: 57.0 min
Podium
First:	Jack Brabham	Cooper-Climax
Second:	Stirling Moss	BRM
Third:	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax

The 1959 British Grand Prix took place on July 18, 1959 on the Aintree Circuit near Aintree and was the fifth race of the 1959 World Automobile Championship .

Reports

background

The 1959 British Grand Prix was held for the third time at the Aintree Circuit. The venue changed annually at this time with the Silverstone Circuit . At the halfway point of the 1959 Automobile World Championship, Jack Brabham led the drivers 'championship and his team Cooper in the constructors' championship. Opponent Ferrari was forced to pause a race because a strike in his home country Italy prevented him from crossing the border. So no Ferrari took part in the race, only Tony Brooks received the approval from the team to drive for another team in order to preserve his chances in the drivers' world championship. The use of Brooks was the only race of the season for the reigning constructors' world champion, Vanwall , who fielded a new car with the Vanwall VW59 . However, this car was only a minor development of the previous year's car and was not competitive. It was the only use of this vanwall.

Cooper and BRM went with three vehicles and unchanged driver pairings on the grid, with Lotus was Innes Ireland as team-mate Graham Hill for a race of Alan Stacey replaced. The Aston Martin team retired after a race break and competed again with Roy Salvadori and Carroll Shelby and was the only team with Avon tires that did not use Dunlop tires.

As in previous years, the majority of the driver field was made up of drivers with private cars. Stirling Moss drove a BRM for BRP one last time , after the race he switched back to the Rob Walker Racing Team , for which Maurice Trintignant was registered. Moss' teammates were Ivor Bueb and Chris Bristow . Bueb contested his last Formula 1 Grand Prix; he later had a fatal accident in a Formula 2 race in France. Bristow, however, made his debut in the automobile championship. The Scuderia Centro Sud had three cars here, two Cooper T51 for Ian Burgess and Hans Herrmann and a Maserati 250F for Fritz d'Orey . For Herrmann and d'Orey it was the last race for Scuderia Centro Sud, and Herrmann drove a Cooper for the last time in his career.

Brian Naylor drove his only race of the season and registered a new car for it, the JBW Type 1 . The car was powered by a Maserati engine installed behind the driver. Along with Cooper, this vehicle was the second with a mid-engine. Mike Parkes reported another new car for the race, a Fry , which was not competitive and was only used in this race. At the 1966 French Grand Prix , Parkes returned to the World Automobile Championship .

Jack Fairman , Trevor Taylor , Mike Taylor , Peter Ashdown , Keith Greene , Bill Moss , Henry Taylor and Tim Parnell tried to qualify with private Cooper, David Piper and Dennis Taylor on Lotus. It was the debut for Trevor Taylor, Mike Taylor, Greene, Henry Taylor, Parnell and Piper, the only race for Bill Moss, Ashdown and Dennis Taylor.

Stirling Moss had won both previous races on the Aintree Circuit, Brooks one when he shared the victory with Moss. Vanwall was once successful with the designers.

training

Aston Martin improved the racing ability of its cars in the weeks leading up to the Grand Prix and drove for pole position together with Cooper and BRM . Brabham on Cooper and Salvadori on Aston Martin achieved the same time of 1: 58.0 minutes in this duel. Pole position was awarded to Brabham, the first of his career and the first in team history for the Cooper works team. At the same time, it was the only pole position of the season for both of them. With this training result, five different drivers in five different teams achieved pole position in the first five races of the season. Only for the designer Cooper was it the first starting place in the 1959 Formula 1 season.

The same time was achieved in the duel for third place on the grid, Harry Schell on BRM finished third, Trintignant fourth on a private Cooper. Gregory qualified another Cooper in fifth ahead of Shelby's second Aston Martin in sixth. Shelby had the same time as Stirling Moss and Bruce McLaren on Cooper behind him. The "Top Ten" were completed by Graham Hill in the Lotus and Jo Bonnier in the BRM.

Behind Ron Flockhart on BRM and Stacey in positions eleven and twelve, many drivers qualified with private cars. Naylor with the JBW finished 14th, Brooks with Vanwall did not get beyond 17th place on the grid.

The field of drivers was limited to 24 vehicles, which meant that six drivers did not qualify. These drivers were Greene, Bill Moss, Parkes, Parnell, Dennis Taylor, and Trevor Taylor.

run

Bruce McLaren - youngest driver on a fastest lap until 2003

Without Ferrari being present, the race was dominated by Jack Brabham, who kept the lead after the start and continuously built himself a lead over the competition. He was followed in second place by Stirling Moss, who moved up from sixth on the grid.

For Brooks, the race was over after 13 laps due to ignition problems on his Vanwall. That gave Brabham the opportunity to further extend his lead in the drivers' championship; because Brabham led the race without being put under pressure from the competition. The only one who could follow Brabham was Stirling Moss, but he needed a pit stop to change tires and a few laps later to refuel.

From lap 17, many drivers retired one after the other with various defects. Mike Taylor and Naylor had problems with the transmission, Piper a defective cylinder head gasket. Herrmann retired on lap 21 with a clutch damage, Burgess on lap 31 with a gearbox damage. In lap 37, the BRM was again unreliable when Jo Bonnier was eliminated. A few laps later, his team-mate Flockhart also spun off the track, which meant that only Schell remained in the race at BRM. On lap 39, Fairman retired with a gearbox failure, d'Orey had an accident on lap 57, which meant that no driver from Scuderia Centro Sud reached the finish. The last retirement of the race was for Shelby with an Aston Martin. A defective ignition was the reason. However, the second Aston Martin crossed the finish line and was the team’s first finish

At the front, Brabham kept a constant lead over the competition and won the race 22 seconds ahead of second. He became the first driver in the 1959 automobile championship to win a second race. It was also the second win of the season for Cooper. The front-engine cars of the competition came together to three victories, but Cooper managed more and more to dominate with the mid-engine concept. It was the only success on the Aintree Circuit for both the driver and the team.

The race for second place turned into a duel between Stirling Moss and McLaren towards the end of the race. First Moss drove the fastest race lap on lap 69, then McLaren came closer and closer until he in turn drove the fastest race lap on the last race lap. He came in the slipstream of Moss and tried an overtaking maneuver on the home straight, which however just barely succeeded. Moss kept second place two tenths ahead. For McLaren it was the first podium finish in his career, and he also set the record for the youngest driver on a fastest race lap. At the 1959 British Grand Prix, he was 21 years and 321 days old when he set his first fastest race lap. This record was 44 years existence and was at the Canadian Grand Prix in 2003 by Fernando Alonso broken, which, however, only one day was younger than Bruce McLaren.

Schell finished fourth, Trintignant fifth. Aston Martin just failed to score points as Salvadori was only sixth. Behind Gregory in seventh position, the two Lotus drivers crossed the finish line, but more than four laps behind. Lotus had stopped developing the car and was already focused on building a new mid-engined car. Bristow, Henry Taylor, Ashdown and Bueb were classified behind the two drivers.

In the drivers' championship, Brabham extended his lead over Brooks to 13 points. Phil Hill remained in third place despite his absence, Stirling Moss and McLaren improved to fourth and fifth in the drivers' standings. In the constructors 'championship, Cooper was ten points ahead of Ferrari after the race, while BRM came within two points of Ferrari thanks to Stirling Moss' second place.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
David Brown Corporation	02	Roy Salvadori	Aston Martin DBR4	Aston Martin 2.5 L6	A.
	24	Carroll Shelby
British Racing Partnership	06th	Stirling Moss	BRM P25	BRM 2.5 L4	D.
	46	Ivor Bueb	Cooper T51	Borgward 1.5 L4
	48	Chris Bristow
Owen Racing Organization	08th	Harry Schell	BRM P25	BRM 2.5 L4	D.
	10	Jo Bonnier
	42	Ron Flockhart
Cooper Car Company	12	Jack Brabham	Cooper T51	Climax 2.5 L4	D.
	14th	Masts Gregory
	16	Bruce McLaren
Rob Walker Racing Team	18th	Maurice Trintignant	Cooper T51	Climax 2.5 L4	D.
Vandervell Products Ltd.	20th	Tony Brooks	Vanwall VW59	Vanwall 2.5 L4	D.
Scuderia Centro Sud	22nd	Ian Burgess	Cooper T51	Maserati 2.5 L4	D.
	24	Hans Herrmann
	40	Fritz d'Orey	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6
Team Lotus	28	Graham Hill	Lotus 16	Climax 2.5 L4	D.
	30th	Alan Stacey
JB Naylor	36	Brian Naylor	JBW Type 1	Maserati 2.5 L4	D.
High efficiency motors	38	Jack Fairman	Cooper T45	Climax 2.5 L4	D.
Ace Garage-Rotherham	44	Trevor Taylor	Cooper T51	Climax 1.5 L4	D.
Alan Brown Equipe	50	Mike Taylor	Cooper T45	Climax 1.5 L4	D.
	52	Peter Ashdown
Gilby Engineering	54	Keith Greene	Cooper T45	Climax 2.5 L4	D.
United Racing Stable	56	Bill Moss	Cooper T51	Climax 1.5 L4	D.
RHH Parnell	58	Henry Taylor	Cooper T51	Climax 1.5 L4	D.
	66	Peter Ashdown	Cooper T45
David Fry	60	Mike Parkes	Fry	Climax 1.5 L4	D.
Dennis Taylor	62	Dennis Taylor	Lotus 12	Climax 1.5 L4	D.
Dorchester Service Station	64	David Piper	Lotus 16	Climax 1.5 L4	D.

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	Jack Brabham	Cooper-Climax	1: 58.0	147.29 km / h	01
02	Roy Salvadori	Aston Martin	1: 58.0	147.29 km / h	02
03	Harry Schell	BRM	1: 59.2	145.81 km / h	03
04th	Maurice Trintignant	Cooper-Climax	1: 59.2	145.81 km / h	04th
05	Masts Gregory	Cooper-Climax	1: 59.4	145.57 km / h	05
06th	Carroll Shelby	Aston Martin	1: 59.6	145.32 km / h	06th
07th	Stirling Moss	BRM	1: 59.6	145.32 km / h	07th
08th	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	1: 59.6	145.32 km / h	08th
09	Graham Hill	Lotus Climax	2: 00.0	144.84 km / h	09
10	Jo Bonnier	BRM	2: 00.0	144.84 km / h	10
11	Ron Flockhart	BRM	2: 00.2	144.60 km / h	11
12	Alan Stacey	Lotus Climax	2: 02.8	141.54 km / h	12
13	Ian Burgess	Cooper Maserati	2: 03.0	141.31 km / h	13
14th	Brian Naylor	JBW Maserati	2: 03.0	141.31 km / h	14th
15th	Jack Fairman	Cooper-Climax	2: 04.2	139.94 km / h	15th
16	Chris Bristow	Cooper-Borgward	2: 04.4	139.71 km / h	16
17th	Tony Brooks	Vanwall	2: 04.6	139.49 km / h	17th
18th	Ivor Bueb	Cooper-Borgward	2: 04.8	139.27 km / h	18th
19th	Hans Herrmann	Cooper Maserati	2: 05.6	138.38 km / h	19th
20th	Fritz d'Orey	Maserati	2: 05.6	138.38 km / h	20th
21st	Henry Taylor	Cooper-Climax	2: 05.6	138.38 km / h	21st
22nd	David Piper	Lotus Climax	2: 05.6	138.38 km / h	22nd
23	Peter Ashdown	Cooper-Climax	2: 06.2	137.82 km / h	23
24	Mike Taylor	Cooper-Climax	2: 07.0	136.86 km / h	24
25th	Keith Greene	Cooper-Climax	no time		DNQ
26th	Bill Moss	Cooper-Climax	no time		DNQ
27	Mike Parkes	Fry-Climax	no time		DNQ
28	Tim Parnell	Cooper-Climax	no time		DNQ
29	Dennis Taylor	Lotus Climax	no time		DNQ
30th	Trevor Taylor	Cooper-Climax	no time		DNQ

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Jack Brabham	Cooper-Climax	75		2: 30: 11.6	01	1: 57.8
02	Stirling Moss	BRM	75		+ 22.2	07th	1: 57.0
03	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	75		+ 22.4	08th	1: 57.0
04th	Harry Schell	BRM	74		+ 1 lap	03	1: 59.4
05	Maurice Trintignant	Cooper-Climax	74		+ 1 lap	04th	1: 59.2
06th	Roy Salvadori	Aston Martin	74		+ 1 lap	02	2: 00.4
07th	Masts Gregory	Cooper-Climax	73		+ 2 rounds	05	1: 58.8
08th	Alan Stacey	Lotus Climax	71		+ 4 rounds	12	2: 04.2
09	Graham Hill	Lotus Climax	70		+ 5 rounds	09	2: 01.6
10	Chris Bristow	Cooper-Borgward	70		+ 5 rounds	16	2: 05.8
11	Henry Taylor	Cooper-Climax	69		+ 6 rounds	21st	2: 07.4
12	Peter Ashdown	Cooper-Climax	69		+ 6 rounds	23	2: 08.2
13	Ivor Bueb	Cooper-Borgward	69		+ 6 rounds	18th	2: 08.0
-	Carroll Shelby	Aston Martin	69		DNF	06th	2: 00.0	ignition
-	Fritz d'Orey	Maserati	57		DNF	20th	2: 01.8	accident
-	Ron Flockhart	BRM	53		DNF	11	2: 00.2	Lathe operator
-	Jack Fairman	Cooper-Climax	39		DNF	15th	2: 05.8	transmission
-	Jo Bonnier	BRM	37		DNF	10	2: 01.2	Throttle linkage
-	Ian Burgess	Cooper Maserati	31		DNF	13	2: 00.4	transmission
-	Hans Herrmann	BRM	21st		DNF	19th	2: 07.2	coupling
-	David Piper	Lotus Climax	19th		DNF	22nd	2: 10.2	Cylinder head gasket
-	Brian Naylor	JBW Maserati	18th		DNF	14th	2: 02.0	Power transmission
-	Mike Taylor	Cooper-Climax	17th		DNF	24	2: 11.0	Power transmission
-	Tony Brooks	Vanwall	13		DNF	17th	2: 05.6	Misfires

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 27 02  Tony Brooks Ferrari 14th 03  Phil Hill Ferrari 9 04th  Stirling Moss Cooper-Climax / BRM 8.5 05  Bruce McLaren Cooper-Climax 8.5 06th  Rodger Ward Watson-Offenhauser 8th 07th  Jo Bonnier BRM 8th 08th  Jim Rathmann Watson-Offenhauser 6th 09  Maurice Trintignant Cooper-Climax 6th

Item driver constructor Points 10  Johnny Thomson Lesovsky-Offenhauser 5 11  Masts Gregory Cooper-Climax 4th 12  Harry Schell BRM 3 13  Tony Bettenhausen Epperly-Offenhauser 3 14th  Innes Ireland Lotus Climax 3 15th  Olivier Gendebien Ferrari 3 16  Paul Goldsmith Epperly-Offenhauser 2 17th  Jean Behra Ferrari 2

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  cooper 26th 02  Ferrari 16 03  BRM 14th 04th  lotus 3

Web links

• Results at motorsportarchiv.de
• Photos at f1-facts.com
• Grand Prix Results: British GP, 1959 at grandprix.com
• Brabham and Cooper take the plaudits at espnf1.com