Profound article on Stirling Moss

[Ray Bell]

This one will either raise the hackles or change opinions, depending on where you stand, but Mike Lawrence certainly seems determined to pick up the odd opposer with it:

http://www.planet-f1.com/features/la...NG?lawrence=12

References to TGF as 'the cheating Kraut' will certainly not go down well, but more to the point in this forum is his denigration of Alf Francis.

Just where is the evidence to support his reason for Moss' crash in 1962, I have to ask?

[TimD]

Dear oh dear.

It is very often said that the one thing that irritates people about Michael Schumacher is his fan base. They spend so much time denigrating the others that they miss the point that their bile is rubbing off on the object of their adoration.

The same with this article. I am unimpressed by the comments on Schumacher, Fangio and Francis. I have no real opinion on Alf Francis, as I haven't read into his career, but I find it uncomfortable to try to accept comments made in that tone about someone rather too dead to be able to answer back.

I admire Sir Stirling utterly as a driver and as a fine human being. Far from being a "smooth *******" as Mike Lawrence might have it, I have found him to be charming, accommodating, eloquent and genuinely eager to share in the common motor racing experience. He has spent a half a century learning how to ensure that a public goes away with a favourable impression of him, and he is very good at it.

Certainly he charmed me the first time I met him, despite his just departing from a frustrating and trouble-filled qualifying session.

As for the 1962 St Marys crash - Sir Stirling has no recollection of it, the grainy film shows a car spearing off a track in a straight line, which suggests to me that the throttle stuck open, or (dare I say) a mistake. Classic & Sportscar magazine speculated in 1982 that Moss might have been confused by an ambiguous hand-signal that Graham Hill was seen by some to give.

We'll never know. It seems disingenuous to categorically lay the blame on one specific cause, 40 years on, when no one can conclusively prove what happened to Ayrton Senna, with infinitely more evidence to go on.

All in all, a poor show.

[Ray Bell]

Frankly it can be said that Moss trusted Francis with his life, and willingly. His various books seem to indicate that he felt Alf Francis was on the top rung when it came to dedication to getting the car properly prepared.

Maybe he wouldn't cut it today when seventy six men contribute to the rebuild between practice and race day, but when there was (one and perhaps an apprentice?) he was in big demand.

I would place little credence in the factuality of the car jumping out of gear. It is certainly a possibility, and an interesting one, but then why no attempt to turn the corner?

[Vitesse]

Originally posted by Ray Bell
I would place little credence in the factuality of the car jumping out of gear. It is certainly a possibility, and an interesting one, but then why no attempt to turn the corner?

And surely if it jumped out of gear it would decelerate naturally, rather than continuing on its way at undiminished speed? If it was a gearbox problem, which I doubt, then it would be more likely to jam in one gear and over-rev: surely Stirling's instinctive reaction would have been to brake in an attempt to slow the car.

I've just re-read Hill's description of the accident and he describes Stirling passing him on the grass and already out of control, with no attempt to brake or take avoiding action: my personal theory (FWIW) is that Stirling suffered a momentary blackout, but I'm no doctor ....

[Roger Clark]

There is no doubt that the Lotus that Moss was driving was a bit of a backyard special and certainly not the sort of car the best driver in the world should have had. I've always thought that some sort of car failure was the most likely but we will never know. somehow I believe that if Moss suddenly did remember what happend, and it happened to be the fault of the car or of Grahem Hill, he wouldn't tell.

As regards Alf Francis, I feel that mike Lawrence is a little harsh. THere seems little doubt that Moss had complete faith in him or their relationship wouldn't have lasted so long. Francis made a number of changes to Moss' cars, more than you would normally expect of a mechanic. i don't know how literally Moss' analogy of secretaries starting their own businesses is meant to be taken, but it is certainly true that a number of racing related businesses started by Francis after he left Walker were not very successful. I am thinking particularly of Gear Speed Developments and the Derrington-Francis ATS. It may be that Moss is referring to these, not to Francis' engineering abilities.

[djb]

Know nothing of the mechanic, but have seen the footage of the crash and heard of the perhaps confusing hand gesture, but all in all, I found the article to be rather undignified, sursprising, considering it was written by such an admirerer of Moss and who, as many of you have pointed out, wouldn't use the tact put down here.
Doesn't particualarly make me want to read the other articles listed at the bottem of the page after this one.