Harry Schell

Harry Schell

Nation:	United States
Automobile world championship
First start:	Monaco Grand Prix 1950
Last start:	1960 Argentine Grand Prix
Constructors
1950 Horschell Racing, Ecurie Bleue • 1951–1952 Scuderia Enrico Platé  • 1953 Gordini  • 1954 Harry Schell • 1954–1955 Maserati  • 1955 Ferrari  • 1955–1956 Vanwall  • 1956–1957 Scuderia Centro Sud  • 1957 Maserati  • 1958 Jo Bonnier • 1958– 1959 BRM  • 1959–1960 Ecurie Bleue
statistics
World Cup balance:	World Cup sixth ( 1958 )
Starts Victories Poles SR 56 - - -
World Cup points :	32
Podiums :	2
Leadership laps :	9 over 47 km

Harry Schell (born June 29, 1921 in Paris , † May 13, 1960 in Silverstone ) was an American car racing driver living in France .

Career

Schell's parents, Laury Schell and Lucy O'Reilly Schell , who lived in Paris, were well-known racing drivers in the 1930s. His mother competed in numerous races and also ran the Delahaye racing team, for which René Dreyfus , Gianfranco Comotti and others drove. Harry himself made his first appearance at the Indianapolis 500 in 1940 . The Second World War , in which Schell served in the US Air Force , interrupted his career, but shortly after 1945 he took part in races again.

Initially it was Formula 2 cars, but he later joined Formula 1 and contested 56 world championship races between 1950 and 1960. By participating in the Monaco Grand Prix in 1950 with a Cooper- JAP , he became the first driver to drive a mid-engined racing car in a World Championship round. Until 1955 he started with moderate success in Maserati , Gordini and Ferrari . He achieved his first championship points at the 1956 Belgian Grand Prix on Vanwall . In the 1957 season he was teammate Juan Manuel Fangios on Maserati and reached third place at the Pescara Grand Prix . In the seasons 1958 and 1959 Schell belonged to BRM - factory team and achieved the Grand Prix of the Netherlands in 1958 with second place his best Formula 1 result.

In addition, Schell, like many other drivers of his era, competed in Formula 1 races and sports car races that were not part of the World Cup . However, Schell never achieved a major victory, numerous second and third places show his class.

“Arry”, as he was called because of the French pronunciation of his name, was popular with the public because of his relaxed approach to life and his reputation as a playboy and feared by his racing colleagues because of his jokes.

At the end of 1959 Schell switched to the Cooper racing team. On May 13, 1960 he came off the track during training for the BRDC International Trophy 1960, which was not part of the world championship, in Silverstone on a wet road and had a fatal accident.

statistics

Statistics in the automobile world championship

general overview

season	team	chassis	engine	run	Victories	Second	Third	Poles	nice Race laps	Points	WM-Pos.
1950	Horshell Racing Corporation	Cooper T12	JAP 1.1 V2	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
	Ecurie Bleue			1	-	-	-	-	-
1951	Enrico Platé	Maserati 4CLT / 48	Maserati 1.5 L4s	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
1952	Enrico Platé	Maserati 4CLT / 50	Maserati Platé 2.0 L4	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
1953	Equipe Gordini	Gordini T16	Gordini 2.0 L6	7th	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
1954	Harry Schell	Maserati A6GCM	Maserati 2.0 L6	4th	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
		Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	1	-	-	-	-	-
	Officine Alfieri Maserati	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	1	-	-	-	-	-
1955	Officine Alfieri Maserati	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 555 Super Qualo	Ferrari 2.5 L4	1	-	-	-	-	-
	Vandervell Products Ltd.	Vanwall VW 55	Vanwall 2.5 L4	2	-	-	-	-	-
1956	Vandervell Products Ltd.	Vanwall VW 2	Vanwall 2.5 L4	5	-	-	-	-	-	3	17th
	Scuderia Centro Sud	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	1	-	-	-	-	-
1957	Scuderia Centro Sud	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	5	-	-	-	-	-	10	7th
	Officine Alfieri Maserati			6th	-	-	1	-	-
1958	Joakim Bonnier Racing Team	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	1	-	-	-	-	-	14th	6th
	Owen Racing Organization	BRM P25	BRM 2.5 L4	9	-	1	-	-	-
1959	Owen Racing Organization	BRM P25	BRM 2.5 L4	7th	-	-	-	-	-	5	13.
	Ecurie Bleue	Cooper T51	Climax 2.5 L4	1	-	-	-	-	-
1960	Ecurie Bleue	Cooper T51	Climax 2.2 L4	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
total				57	-	1	1	-	-	32

Single results

season	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11
1950
		DNF		8th
1951
	12			DNF
1952
	DNF			DNF / DNF	17th
1953
	7th		DNF	7th	DNF	DNF	DNF		9
1954
	6th			DNF	12	7th	DNF		DNF
1955
	7 / DNF / DNF	DNF		DNS		9 / DNF	DNF
1956
		DNF		4th	10 / DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF
1957
	4th	DNF / DNF		6th	DNF	7th	3	5
1958
	6th	5	2		5	DNF	5	DNF	6th	DNF	5
1959
	DNF		DNF	7th	4th	7th	5	7th	DNF
1960
	DNF

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
1953	Automobiles Gordini	Gordini T16S	Maurice Trintignant	Rank 6 and class win
1955	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 121LM	Maurice Trintignant	failure	Cylinder overheated
1957	Officine Alfieri Maserati	Maserati 450S Zagato Coupe	Stirling Moss	failure	Power transmission

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1954	Harry Schell	Ferrari 250MM Vignale	Alfonso de Portago	failure	Axle break
1955	Luigi Chinetti	Ferrari 750 Monza	Piero Taruffi	Rank 5
1956	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 860 Monza	Luigi Musso	Rank 2
1957	Maserati Factory	Maserati 300S	Stirling Moss	Rank 2
1958	Porsche KG	Porsche 718 RSK	Wolfgang Seidel	3rd place and class win

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th
1953	Gordini	Gordini T16S	SEB	MIM	LEM	SPA	ONLY	RTT	CAP
					6th
1954	Alfonso de Portago Harry Schell	Ferrari 290MM Ferrari 250MM	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	CAP
			2	DNF
1955	Gordini Luigi Chinetti Scuderia Ferrari	Gordini T24S Ferrari 750 Monza Ferrari 121LM	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	TAR
			5	5		DNF
1956	Scuderia Ferrari Maserati	Ferrari 860 Monza Maserati 300S	BUA	SEB	MIM	ONLY	KRI
				2		1	DNF
1957	Maserati	Maserati 300S Maserati 450S	BUA	SEB	MIM	ONLY	LEM	KRI	CAR
			DNF	2		15th	DNF	3	DNF
1958	Porsche	Porsche 718 RSK	BUA	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	RTT
				3		7th

literature

• Stan Grayson: The man who raced for fun (Harry Schell). In: Automobile Quarterly ( ISSN  0005-1438 ), Volume XIII V, No. 2 (1975), p. 134 ff.

Web links

Commons : Harry Schell  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Harry Schell on 500race.org
• Harry Schell. www.motorsportmemorial.org, accessed June 5, 2019 (English).