Stirling Moss created the path for others to follow – his legacy will remain

He was lightening fast and the original poster boy for Formula One, but he was also a gentleman, writes Jack de Menezes

He was the man who forged what being a grand prix driver came to mean (AFP)

Last year I was due to get a real taste of what it feels like to be a racing driver by spending a season in the Ginetta Racing Drivers Club championship. That dream ended before 2019 began thanks to a testing accident at Goodwood.

Amid the embarrassment and a hefty £3,000 bill, one track official responsible for logging the accident asked what corner the crash took place, and upon being informed it was on the exit of the Fordwater kink, he quipped: “Well you’re in good company, that corner caught out Stirling Moss, too.”

Remarkably there was a great deal of solace in those words, for Moss’s reputation remains just as large today as it did for those who had the privilege to see him in his prime. Of course, that’s where the similarities ended.

On Sunday, the sadness of Moss’s passing was matched by the scale of tributes to one of Britain’s truly great personalities. There is something about Formula One drivers that sees the true legends of the sport stand the test of time, whether it be Jim Clark, Sir Jackie Stewart, James Hunt and Niki Lauda or Ayrton Senna.

Maybe it is because of what it meant to be an F1 superstar, but arguably they don’t come any bigger than Moss – because he was the man who forged what being a grand prix driver came to mean.

For starters Moss was fast – really fast. In the space of a decade, Moss finished runner-up in the F1 championship four times and finished third on three further occasions, yet in an era when chopping and changing teams and manufacturers was common mid-season, the cards just never fell in his favour. Secondly – and more importantly – Moss was a gentleman.

It was this trait that would cost him the 1958 world championship, when his backing of Mike Hawthorn gave his fellow Briton the points needed to hold on to the championship in the first season after five-time world champion Juan Manuel Fangio’s retirement. However, it was also a trait that ensured his cheeky side warmed others to him, as the remaining 58 years of his life post-retirement would prove.

Moss was the original F1 poster boy, the man who led the way and forged the path for the likes of Clark, Graham Hill and Hunt to follow. The sport will rightly mourn his loss when it can do so, but his legacy as the driver everyone wanted to be will never truly die out.

Yours,

Jack de Menezes

Sports news correspondent