1959 Italian Grand Prix

 1959 Italian Grand Prix

Racing data
8th of 9 races of the 1959 World Automobile Championship
Surname:	XXIX Gran Premio d'Italia
Date:	September 13, 1959
Place:	Monza , Italy
Course:	Autodromo Nazionale Monza
Length:	414 km in 72 laps of 5.75 km
Weather:	sunny, dry
Pole position
Driver:	Stirling Moss	Cooper-Climax
Time:	1: 39.7 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Phil Hill	Ferrari
Time:	1: 40.4 min
Podium
First:	Stirling Moss	Cooper-Climax
Second:	Phil Hill	Ferrari
Third:	Jack Brabham	Cooper-Climax

The 1959 Italian Grand Prix took place on September 13, 1959 at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza near Monza and was the eighth race of the 1959 World Cup .

Reports

background

As in the previous year, the 1959 Italian Grand Prix was held on the route variant without the steep curve. In addition to the German Grand Prix and the French Grand Prix , the Monza track was another high-speed circuit that brought advantages to front-engined cars. However, Cooper had greatly improved his rear-engined Cooper T51 over the course of the season , so that the car could keep up with the competition on such routes and was capable of winning. Jack Brabham , Bruce McLaren and Giorgio Scarlatti drove for Cooper . Scarlatti replaced Masten Gregory for one race , who had to sit out the rest of the season due to injury. Neither Scarlatti nor Gregory subsequently drove any more races for the Cooper works team. Ferrari increased the number of its cars for the home race to five. In addition to regular drivers Tony Brooks , Phil Hill and Dan Gurney , Cliff Allison and Olivier Gendebien returned to the team. Gendebien drove his second and final race of the season, he drove private Cooper the following year, but returned to Ferrari for a race in 1961 . For Gurney it was the last race for Scuderia Ferrari in his career and he moved to BRM the following year .

BRM decided not to start at the 1959 US Grand Prix , which meant that Harry Schell drove the last race for BRM. Harry Schell then ended his career with two more races in a private Cooper. Even Ron Flockhart went one last time for BRM, Jo Bonnier was the team still get another year as a driver. The team has already started developing the successor to the BRM P25 , the BRM P48 . The new car was similar to its predecessor, but had a rear engine. A P48 was reported for Bonnier, but the car was not yet used, Bonnier drove training and races with the P25. The new BRM only made its debut in the second race of the season in the 1960 Automobile Championship. Aston Martin also drove the last race of the season with the two regular drivers Roy Salvadori and Carroll Shelby . The team then only took part in the Grand Prix of Great Britain in 1960 and then withdrew from the automobile championship due to lack of competitiveness. For Shelby, the 1959 Italian Grand Prix was the last Formula 1 race of his career. Lotus drove with Graham Hill and Innes Ireland , Graham Hill also canceled his contract and switched to BRM in the following season. Graham Hill only returned to Lotus in the 1967 automobile championship.

Many drivers were registered for the race with private cars. Stirling Moss and Maurice Trintignant drove the Cooper T51 for the Rob Walker Racing Team , Colin Davis and Ian Burgess for the Scuderia Centro Sud . This was Davis' last Grand Prix. Jack Fairman drove an outdated Cooper T45 for High Efficiency Motors , Giulio Cabianca a Maserati 250F .

In the drivers' championship, Brabham led by four points over Brooks and 9.5 points over Moss. Brabham had the chance to become world champion early if he had scored five points more than Brooks and at the same time received more points than Moss, including the results and the point for the fastest race lap. All three drivers were able to become world champions on their own. The constructors' championship was decided between Cooper and Ferrari, whereby Cooper would have been enough to win the title early. Moss had previously won the race twice, Maserati and Ferrari were also twice successful.

training

During practice, Ferrari and individual Cooper drivers dueled for pole position . Moss achieved the fastest lap time for the second time in a row, a tenth of a second faster than Brooks. Brabham qualified in third place, which means that all three title contenders started the race from row one. Brooks teammates qualified in fourth to eighth place, only Schell on BRM slipped between the Ferraris in seventh place. Brabham's next best team-mate was McLaren in ninth place, Graham Hill completed the top ten on Lotus.

Aston Martin finished in the back field in practice, Cabianca on Maserati finished last. Both cars were several seconds slower than the competition.

run

Cooper T51 - first rear-engined car to win the constructors' championship

The race turned into a strategy duel between Ferrari and Cooper. While most teams tried to go through without a pit stop to change tires, Ferrari opted for a one-stop strategy for all of their cars. Immediately after the start, Brooks suffered a clutch damage that meant the end of the race for him. Brooks 'chances of winning the drivers' title fell significantly and Moss and Brabham had the opportunity to improve their starting position for the last race of the season. Moss kept the lead at the start, Hill gained several positions and was second behind him. Brabham followed in third, ahead of Gurney and Schell. Graham Hill also retired shortly after the start of the race with a damaged clutch.

On lap two the classification for Ferrari improved, Phil Hill overtook Moss and thus took the lead, Gurney overtook Brabham behind. Then the leadership changed several times between Moss and Phil Hill. Moss overtook Phil Hill on lap four, Phil Hill countered one lap later. Then he led up to lap 15, when Moss was again in first place for a race lap. It wasn't until lap 32 that Moss won the duel when Phil Hill pitted to change tires. Before that, the second Lotus also retired, Ireland had a brake failure on his car. There were also three engine failures, which eliminated Fairman, McLaren and Salvadori.

Halfway through the race, Ferrari decided to pit all of its drivers for a tire change. The team expected Cooper and the RRC Walker Racing Team to follow a similar strategy and pit stop as well, but Ferrari remained the only team with a one-stop strategy. Cooper repeatedly faked tire changes to keep Ferrari safe, but the cars fell by the wayside. In the end Ferrari caught up with the Cooper because of fresher tires, but Moss still won the race with a lead of 46 seconds over Phil Hill. Moss won the second race in a row, this win was enough for Cooper to win the constructors' championship early. This was the first title in team history and at the same time the first design engineer title for a car with a rear-engined car. This was also the beginning of a new era in formula, because in the next decades no other team succeeded in winning a world championship with a front engine.

Phil Hill finished second, Brabham completed the podium in third place. So the drivers' world championship remained open, both Brabham, Moss and Brooks still had a chance to win the title. Brabham started the last race of the season with a lead of 5.5 points over Moss and 8 points over Brooks. The other places were occupied by three Ferrari drivers, Gurney and Allison received points for positions four and five, Gendebien came in sixth. The BRM drivers Schell and Bonnier came in seventh and eighth, Trintignant and Shelby completed the top ten.

For Moss it was the third and last victory in Monza, and it was the only success for Cooper on the racetrack. In the following year, the race was boycotted by many teams because they returned to the old route with the banked turns, whereby Ferrari achieved the last victory of a front-engined car.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Owen Racing Organization	02	Harry Schell	BRM P25	BRM 2.5 L4	D.
	04th	Ron Flockhart
	06th	Jo Bonnier	BRM P25
			BRM P48
Cooper Car Company	08th	Bruce McLaren	Cooper T51	Climax 2.5 L4	D.
	10	Giorgio Scarlatti
	12	Jack Brabham
RRC Walker Racing Team	14th	Stirling Moss	Cooper T51	Climax 2.5 L4	D.
	16	Maurice Trintignant
Team Lotus	18th	Graham Hill	Lotus 16	Climax 2.5 L4	D.
	20th	Innes Ireland
High efficiency motors	22nd	Jack Fairman	Cooper T51	Maserati 2.5 L4	D.
David Brown organization	24	Roy Salvadori	Aston Martin DBR4	Aston Martin 2.5 L6	A.
	26th	Carroll Shelby
Ottorino Volonterio	28	Giulio Cabianca	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	D.
Scuderia Ferrari	30th	Tony Brooks	Ferrari Dino 246F1	Ferrari 2.4 V6	D.
	32	Phil Hill
	34	Cliff Allison
	36	Dan Gurney
	38	Olivier Gendebien
Scuderia Centro Sud	40	Colin Davis	Cooper T51	Maserati 2.5 L4	D.
	42	Ian Burgess

Classifications

Starting grid

Item	driver	constructor	time	Ø speed	begin
01	Stirling Moss	Cooper-Climax	1: 39.7	207.62 km / h	01
02	Tony Brooks	Ferrari	1: 39.8	207.41 km / h	02
03	Jack Brabham	Cooper-Climax	1: 40.2	206.59 km / h	03
04th	Dan Gurney	Ferrari	1: 40.8	205.36 km / h	04th
05	Phil Hill	Ferrari	1: 41.2	204.55 km / h	05
06th	Olivier Gendebien	Ferrari	1: 41.4	204.14 km / h	06th
07th	Harry Schell	BRM	1: 41.6	203.74 km / h	07th
08th	Cliff Allison	Ferrari	1: 41.8	203.34 km / h	08th
09	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	1: 42.0	202.94 km / h	09
10	Graham Hill	Lotus Climax	1: 42.9	201.17 km / h	10
11	Jo Bonnier	BRM	1: 43.1	200.78 km / h	11
12	Giorgio Scarlatti	Cooper-Climax	1: 43.3	200.39 km / h	12
13	Maurice Trintignant	Cooper-Climax	1: 43.4	200.19 km / h	13
14th	Innes Ireland	Lotus Climax	1: 43.5	200.00 km / h	14th
15th	Ron Flockhart	BRM	1: 43.6	199.81 km / h	15th
16	Ian Burgess	Cooper Maserati	1: 44.6	197.90 km / h	16
17th	Roy Salvadori	Aston Martin	1: 44.7	197.71 km / h	17th
18th	Colin Davis	Cooper Maserati	1: 44.9	197.33 km / h	18th
19th	Carroll Shelby	Aston Martin	1: 46.4	194.55 km / h	19th
20th	Jack Fairman	Cooper Maserati	1: 49.4	189.21 km / h	20th
21st	Giulio Cabianca	Maserati	1: 51.5	185.65 km / h	21st

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Stirling Moss	Cooper-Climax	72		2: 04: 05.4	01	1: 41.0
02	Phil Hill	Ferrari	72		+ 46.7	05	1: 40.4
03	Jack Brabham	Cooper-Climax	72		+1: 12.5	03	1: 43.1
04th	Dan Gurney	Ferrari	72		+1: 19.6	04th	1: 41.5
05	Cliff Allison	Ferrari	71		+ 1 lap	08th	1: 41.8
06th	Olivier Gendebien	Ferrari	71		+ 1 lap	06th	1: 43.3
07th	Harry Schell	BRM	70		+ 2 rounds	07th	1: 44.9
08th	Jo Bonnier	BRM	70		+ 2 rounds	11	1: 43.8
09	Maurice Trintignant	Cooper-Climax	70		+ 2 rounds	13	1: 44.2
10	Carroll Shelby	Aston Martin	80		+ 2 rounds	19th	1: 45.4
11	Colin Davis	Cooper Maserati	68		+ 4 rounds	18th	1: 45.5
12	Giorgio Scarlatti	Cooper-Climax	68		+ 4 rounds	12	1: 45.2
13	Ron Flockhart	BRM	67		+ 5 rounds	15th	1: 44.7
14th	Ian Burgess	Cooper Maserati	67		+ 5 rounds	16	1: 45.3
15th	Giulio Cabianca	Maserati	64		+ 8 rounds	21st	1: 53.4
-	Roy Salvadori	Aston Martin	44		DNF	17th	1: 44.7	Engine failure
-	Bruce McLaren	Cooper-Climax	22nd		DNF	09	1: 42.8	Engine failure
-	Jack Fairman	Cooper Maserati	18th		DNF	20th	1: 51.6	Engine failure
-	Innes Ireland	Lotus Climax	14th		DNF	14th	1: 44.8	Brakes
-	Graham Hill	Lotus Climax	01		DNF	10	1: 57.7	coupling
-	Tony Brooks	Ferrari	00		DNF	02		coupling

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 02  Stirling Moss Cooper-Climax / BRM 25.5 03  Tony Brooks Ferrari 23 04th  Phil Hill Ferrari 20th 05  Dan Gurney Ferrari 13 06th  Maurice Trintignant Cooper-Climax 12 07th  Jo Bonnier BRM 10 08th  Masts Gregory Cooper-Climax 10 09  Bruce McLaren Cooper-Climax 8.5 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  Olivier Gendebien Ferrari 3 15th  Tony Bettenhausen Epperly-Offenhauser 3 16  Innes Ireland Lotus Climax 3 17th  Cliff Allison Ferrari 2 18th  Paul Goldsmith Epperly-Offenhauser 2 19th  Jean Behra Ferrari 2

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  cooper 38 (45) 02  Ferrari 32 (34) 03  BRM 18th 04th  lotus 3

Web links

• Results at motorsportarchiv.de
• Photos at f1-facts.com
• Grand Prix Results: Italian GP, ​​1959 at grandprix.com
• Moss and Cooper outfox Ferrari at espnf1.com