FANGIO AND MOSS: A Revelation

This is just one of the many surprising revelations uncovered when applying the Rating System.

Statistically in percentage terms, Fangio achieved the best figures of any Formula One driver, Senna and Michael Schumacher included. The Argentinian won almost every second race and started from pole in 54 % of them. This in a F1 career lasting from 1950 to 1958, when he was aged 39 to 47. He won five Drivers Championships, for four different manufacturers: Alfa Romeo in 1951, Mercedes-Benz in 1954-55, Lancia-Ferrari in 1956, and finally for Maserati in 1957 at age 46. He is considered by many to have been the greatest driver of all time.

This opinion has been bolstered by Stirling Moss, Juan Manuel Fangio’s  team-mate  in 1955,and from 1956 his greatest rival. Moss stated that “Fangio was virtually unbeatable in grand prix cars”.

It was in late-1954 when for the first time, driving for Maserati at Monza, Moss had a car that was able to challenge the best drivers of the time, Fangio and Ascari. He’d have won had his Maserati 250F/54 not fractured an oil pipe when leading near the end. For 1956 Moss managed two wins for Maserati against Fangio’s three for Lancia-Ferrari. In 1957, the year of Fangio’s fifth Title, Stirling won three times for Vanwall to Fangio’s four for Maserati. Juan remained the acknowledged master. Especially after his phenomenal 1957 German victory on the Nurburgring, when after a delayed pitstop, he chased down the Lancia-Ferraris of Hawthorn and Collins, to win his greatest race. Fangio said “I will never drive like that again!”

My Ratings however, revealed a different slant on those seasons. By separating driver from car, the Ratings showed that Moss was actually the fastest driver of all from 1956 onwards! Fangio had the advantage of the fastest cars:  the 1956 Lancia-Ferrari and the 1957 Maserati 250F/57.  Moss was hampered by his Maserati 250F/56 and the Vanwall/57, which were up to 0.7% off the pace of Fangio’s cars. That is 0.7 seconds per 100.0-second lap. Not even Moss’ brilliance or late-twenties youthfulness could overcome this penalty.

Which is why Fangio in his mid-forties was able to take two more titles. Package  speeds  are determined by adding the Driver Rating to that of his Car Rating. Arithmetically then, Moss-and-his-car packages in those two seasons were just too far off-pace.

Unpopular as this exposition may be, it is further validated by one race in early 1957, the Argentinian Grand Prix. This was the unique opportunity to compare Fangio and Moss directly in same-cars. Vanwall’s not being ready, Moss had been released to drive for his old team, Maserati, where the new number one was Fangio! Fireworks expected.

In qualifying Moss’s pole time was a phenomenal 1.1 seconds faster than Fangio’s and 1.4 seconds up on the other Maserati team driver, Behra! Unfortunately Stirling’s accelerator linkage broke at the start. After a 9-lap pitstop for repairs, he typically charged out and made up a whole lap on winner Fangio, set fastest lap, but only managed an eighth place finish. What a convincing showing.

For the rest of the seven-race 1957 season, Moss was number one for the fast- improving and well-funded Vanwall Team. However for Maserati, Fangio won the first three events in-a-row before scoring a fourth win in the epic German GP. Moss shared the British GP win with Brooks, and then won the last two events at Pescara and Monza, where Fangio placed second each time to clinch his fifth Title.

Almost all commentators and posterity attribute Fangio’s fifth title to his superior driving genius.

The Ratings however, show that it was his car that was superior in 1956 and 1957. Fangio’s Lancia-Ferrari of 1956 was between 0.3 and 0.8 better than the three versions of Maserati 250F used by Moss. For 1957 the completely re-designed Maserati 250F/57 driven by Fangio was by far the fastest car of the season. And Fangio had the skills and vast experience to exploit it, despite being a ‘slower’ driver than Moss by this stage. Slower does not mean less skilful; Fangio was the grand-master of car-control, racing finesse, psychology and tactics.

The Driver Ratings tables for the two men:

Season 1 Season 2 Season 3 Season 4 Season 5 Season 6 Season 7

1950 1951 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957

Fangio Fangio Fangio Fangio Fangio Fangio Fangio

100.0 100.0 100.0 100.1 100.2 100.3 100.4

1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957

Moss Moss Moss Moss Moss Moss Moss

100.0 100.8 100.7 100.4 100.3 100.0 100.0

Moss went on to race at the ultimate level (his six seasons, matching Senna), until his unfortunate, career-ending crash in 1962. Fangio raced just twice in 1958 gaining two fourth places for Maserati, before retiring. This last season had him racing at a Driver Rating of 100.5, about the same gap from the front as were Fittipaldi or Graham Hill in their Championship-winning seasons. Certainly one of the greatest drivers of all time, but finally the baton passed to his greatest rival, fan and friend Stirling Moss.

© Patrick O’Brien 2011. Nothing from this page can be used without the permission of Patrick E. O’Brien.

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