Vitaphone take unlikely second in season openerMaserati powers onto podium from 15th on grid
So near, yet so far... the Vitaphone Racing team came within four seconds of winning the opening race of the FIA GT Championship season for the third year in succession, finishing second at Silverstone. Racing the superlative Maserati MC12 supercar, Michael Bartels and Andrea Bertolini had to settle for second place – and missed out on securing the prestigious Tourist Trophy.
The MC12 has long been the class of the field, securing seven out of ten titles in the three years it has been competing; this is despite the performance of the car being limited by a narrower rear wing and extra weight than its competitors. But the 2008 season did not get off to an ideal start; a wet track, heavy traffic and an unexpected red flag saw Bartels and Bertolini qualify down in fifteenth place, with team mates Miguel Ramos and Alexander Negrão managing to avoid traffic, but could do no better than eighth as they struggled to keep their tires at optimum temperature.
When the race got under way, a heavy mist lay on the circuit – TV long shots showed no cars, only headlights piercing the gray blanket. Bertolini wasn’t going to let the conditions slow him down – he made a charging start, overtaking six cars on the opening lap alone. Making the most of the powerful Maserati V12 engine and the MC12’s great handling, he continued to make progress. Meanwhile Ramos, in the sister car, had held on to eighth until the team brought him in on lap 19. With the track conditions improving the decision was made to fit intermediate tires – and when Ramos immediately went 2s a lap faster, the team knew it was time to bring Bertolini in.
The combination of intermediates and their rivals heading for the pits saw the two Vitaphone Maserati cars climbing up the order; circulating in close company, they were up to 2 seconds a lap faster than the leaders. By lap 39, both cars had made it into the top five; on the next lap it was time for the second pit-stops, with Negrão taking over from Ramos, Bartels from Bertolini.
They each lost only one place during the pit-stops; it was immediately clear that Bartels was on a charge, getting past Negrão on lap 42 to get back into the top five. By lap 46 the two Maseratis had closed on the pack in front of them; Bartels was still fifth, but only 3.2s away from second place! On lap 48 he found a way past the Corvette in front of him to take fourth – and then, on lap 50, the safety car was called into action, to allow a wheel which had become detached from another car to be retrieved. The result was that Bartels found himself less than six seconds away from the lead, a remarkable feat from the eighth row of the grid.
The safety car set up a grandstand finish: five cars within seven seconds of each other, and only 15 minutes of the two-hour race remaining. On lap 54 Bartels made it into the top three; unfortunately Negrão had slipped down the order after making contact with a Corvette going into Copse corner. The battle at the front raged on, with Bartels setting the race’s fastest lap, a 1:47.231, on lap 55. Next time around, he was up to second, going side-by-side with an Aston Martin through Luffield and powering by down the straight.
Only three laps remained, which proved insufficient to allow Bartels to mount an attack on the leader. The Vitaphone team had to settle for second – and Bartels and Bertolini looked delighted with the achievement on the podium. Eight points is a good start to the long, ten-race season, and with Ramos and Negrão picking up two more points for seventh, the team has also begun its title defense with a solid score.
After the race, Bartels and Bertolini were understandably upbeat. “Coming back to score eight points, after our poor qualifying session, was a result we didn’t expect,” Michael said. “It’s a good start to the season. Of course, there are always things to improve, and we’ll be working on them.” Andrea was similarly pleased. “The beginning of the race was quite hard, starting so far back, but we managed to improve, and we scored some important points at the start of the championship. It’s good for the team, because they have been working really hard.”
The next outing for Vitaphone Racing will be on 18th May, at Monza – the ‘cathedral of speed’. The race is on home turf for the Maserati MC12 supercar, so the Italian fans will be out in force, cheering on Vitaphone and Maserati.
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So near, yet so far... the Vitaphone Racing team came within four seconds of winning the opening race of the FIA GT Championship season for the third year in succession, finishing second at Silverstone. Racing the superlative Maserati MC12 supercar, Michael Bartels and Andrea Bertolini had to settle for second place – and missed out on securing the prestigious Tourist Trophy.
The MC12 has long been the class of the field, securing seven out of ten titles in the three years it has been competing; this is despite the performance of the car being limited by a narrower rear wing and extra weight than its competitors. But the 2008 season did not get off to an ideal start; a wet track, heavy traffic and an unexpected red flag saw Bartels and Bertolini qualify down in fifteenth place, with team mates Miguel Ramos and Alexander Negrão managing to avoid traffic, but could do no better than eighth as they struggled to keep their tires at optimum temperature.
When the race got under way, a heavy mist lay on the circuit – TV long shots showed no cars, only headlights piercing the gray blanket. Bertolini wasn’t going to let the conditions slow him down – he made a charging start, overtaking six cars on the opening lap alone. Making the most of the powerful Maserati V12 engine and the MC12’s great handling, he continued to make progress. Meanwhile Ramos, in the sister car, had held on to eighth until the team brought him in on lap 19. With the track conditions improving the decision was made to fit intermediate tires – and when Ramos immediately went 2s a lap faster, the team knew it was time to bring Bertolini in.
The combination of intermediates and their rivals heading for the pits saw the two Vitaphone Maserati cars climbing up the order; circulating in close company, they were up to 2 seconds a lap faster than the leaders. By lap 39, both cars had made it into the top five; on the next lap it was time for the second pit-stops, with Negrão taking over from Ramos, Bartels from Bertolini.
They each lost only one place during the pit-stops; it was immediately clear that Bartels was on a charge, getting past Negrão on lap 42 to get back into the top five. By lap 46 the two Maseratis had closed on the pack in front of them; Bartels was still fifth, but only 3.2s away from second place! On lap 48 he found a way past the Corvette in front of him to take fourth – and then, on lap 50, the safety car was called into action, to allow a wheel which had become detached from another car to be retrieved. The result was that Bartels found himself less than six seconds away from the lead, a remarkable feat from the eighth row of the grid.
The safety car set up a grandstand finish: five cars within seven seconds of each other, and only 15 minutes of the two-hour race remaining. On lap 54 Bartels made it into the top three; unfortunately Negrão had slipped down the order after making contact with a Corvette going into Copse corner. The battle at the front raged on, with Bartels setting the race’s fastest lap, a 1:47.231, on lap 55. Next time around, he was up to second, going side-by-side with an Aston Martin through Luffield and powering by down the straight.
Only three laps remained, which proved insufficient to allow Bartels to mount an attack on the leader. The Vitaphone team had to settle for second – and Bartels and Bertolini looked delighted with the achievement on the podium. Eight points is a good start to the long, ten-race season, and with Ramos and Negrão picking up two more points for seventh, the team has also begun its title defense with a solid score.
After the race, Bartels and Bertolini were understandably upbeat. “Coming back to score eight points, after our poor qualifying session, was a result we didn’t expect,” Michael said. “It’s a good start to the season. Of course, there are always things to improve, and we’ll be working on them.” Andrea was similarly pleased. “The beginning of the race was quite hard, starting so far back, but we managed to improve, and we scored some important points at the start of the championship. It’s good for the team, because they have been working really hard.”
The next outing for Vitaphone Racing will be on 18th May, at Monza – the ‘cathedral of speed’. The race is on home turf for the Maserati MC12 supercar, so the Italian fans will be out in force, cheering on Vitaphone and Maserati.
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Maserati and Moss – the Perfect PairingA legend’s views on classic Maserati racers
In previous issues of Maserati Monthly, we’ve looked back at some of the famous cars in Maserati’s history, both road cars such as the Quattroporte and Ghibli, and the racing cars for which the Trident is justifiably renowned. This month, instead of profiling one car, we thought we would take a look at several cars, from the viewpoint of a driver who drove all of them. Sir Stirling Moss has been described as ‘the world’s greatest all-rounder’, someone who drove every kind of car on every kind of circuit, including almost every racing Maserati during the 1950s.
He also maintained a comprehensive diary, which recorded everything from his racing exploits to the night life – one entry ends “John took Pat & I to Milan and we checked into the Palace. Had a good meal at the B. Napoli & then went to the Jazz Club VG. Bed at 2:30am”. The diaries were used as the basis of the fantastic book “Stirling Moss – My Cars, My Career”, written with noted auto historian Doug Nye. It's a must-have for any racing fan, and any Maseratisti. An indication of the status that Moss achieved during his dazzling career is that the foreword was written by no less a man than Juan Manuel Fangio, who won the Formula One World Championship no fewer than five times, his final title coming at the wheel of the Maserati 250F. Fangio, of course, is often regarded as the finest driver in history, winning about half of the races he contested. And Fangio regarded Moss as his equal and successor.
The book has separate chapters for each car Moss drove – some getting just a page or two, others being covered in great detail. It is hardly surprising that his two stints with the Maserati 250F grand prix car take up eleven pages – the car propelled Moss onto the world stage in 1954, and took him to the runner-up spot in 1956.
Another version of events is contained in the authorized biography of Moss, by Robert Edwards. This has more flowing narrative, taking events in chronological order rather than splitting them up according to the cars being driven. We have looked at both books, and together they give a very complete overview of Moss’ racing exploits in Maseratis.
The incomparable 250F was Moss’ first significant encounter with Maserati. He had been campaigning a succession of British cars, such as HWM, Cooper-Atlas and ERA, with little success; his family ordered a new ‘customer’ 250F for the 1954 season – at a cost of £5,500! At first, relations with the factory were somewhat strained – Moss insisted on a right-side throttle pedal instead of the traditional Italian arrangement of the throttle being the center pedal, and to get the seating position Moss preferred his mechanic, Alf Francis, actually crept into the factory at night and altered the chassis tubes.
From the first time Stirling drove ‘his’ car, chassis 2508, in its first test at the Autodrome of Modena in April 1954, he loved the car. To quote Edwards, “And it was the most amazing fun. As Stirling started to explore both his own limits and those of the car he realized that he had found, potentially, the ideal dancing partner. If he did not step on the Maserati’s toes, then it would treat him gently in return, but being Stirling, his first steps were far from tentative ones.” Indeed, according to Edwards the 250F did much to shape Moss’ approach to the cars he drove later in his career. “The great thing about the Maserati was that it handled so well, the years of experience that had fed into the design were evident. Stirling was always happiest in a machine that had evolved, as opposed to one which had been designed from scratch. Simply sitting in the cockpit, he could tell that at least a generation of know-how had gone into it; it made every single-seater he had driven up to that point (apart from the brief outing in the Alfa 159) seem crude by comparison.”
The combination of Stirling Moss and Maserati 250F proved to be quick right from the start, and the first race win came within a month, in a Formula Libre event in Britain. Unfortunately, victories were few and far between in 1954; in too many races he was forced to retire by niggling problems, some caused by the team’s unfamiliarity with the car. At other events the team’s ‘customer’ status held them back – in particular, Moss used fewer revs (and thus got less power) than the factory team, because he would have to foot the bill for any engine damage!
A cutaway drawing of the 250F six-cylinder engine fitted with carburettors and a longitudinal section through the same unit.
Yet the potential was clear; in his first grand prix in the Maserati, the Belgian GP held on the daunting Spa-Francorchamps circuit, he finished third, behind Fangio – who won the race in a ‘works’ 250F, and the Ferrari of Trintignant. ”I really had taken to the Maserati… above all, it was just a lovely car to drive. It steered beautifully, and inclined towards stable oversteer which one could exploit by balancing it against power and steering in long sustained drifts through corners,” is how he described it.
Despite being a customer team, Moss and Alf Francis became accepted by the factory – to the point where Alf was accorded the singular honor of having his own workbench within the racing workshop. The Managing Director of Maserati, Omer Orsi, also encouraged Moss to use more revs, offering to pay for any engine failure that ensued. Paradoxically, the success of Moss in the 250F meant that the car saw less use; he was snapped up by Mercedes-Benz for the 1955 season, so the Maserati was used only for non-grand prix races.
Mercedes withdrew from motorsport at the end of 1955, in the wake of the infamous crash at that year's Le Mans 24 Hours. Moss joined the Maserati works team for 1956, as team leader; he won the Monaco and Italian grands prix, and finished on the podium in Belgium and Germany. At the end of the season he was second in the championship, just three points behind Fangio.
As a result of his good performances in the 250F, Moss also raced numerous Maserati sports cars. One example was the 300S, a car which Moss adored. Hardly surprising: in sixteen races, he won nine and took another four podium finishes. “With a record like that, can you see why I have such fond memories of these beautiful cars?... No doubt about it, apart from the ‘Birdcage’ this was my favourite front-engined sports Maserati… one of the easiest, nicest, best-handling sports-racing cars ever made,” was his verdict.
The combination proved successful right from the start, with Moss and Carlos Menditeguy winning the Buenos Aires 1,000km race, then taking victory in the 1,000km race at the Nürburgring with Jean Behra. More victories followed; his final race in the car was in Denmark in 1958, where he finished second. “That was the last time I raced any 300S. It really was one of the nicest of all Maseratis. I remember them and the team, the Orsis, Alfieri, Bertocchi and the other mechanics, with affection. I had found my feet at top level driving their cars, and for three seasons enjoyed a lot of success with them.”
Edwards agreed – in his assessment: “Maserati’s sports cars were very good indeed. Aside from his Aston Martin commitments, Stirling was free to use the new Maserati 300S which was an inspiring car to drive as well as being utterly beautiful. It had the usual Maserati characteristics; neutral handling spiced with a slight natural oversteer and an F1-derived engine which seemed unburstable. The transmission by Valerio Colotti was well-night perfect and it was to be years before it was surpassed, from Stirling’s point of view.”
And the car that surpassed it was, naturally, a Maserati; the Tipo 60, first in a series which became universally known as ‘Birdcage’ due to the intricate latticework of tubes which made up the chassis. Edwards again: “It was as different from previous offerings as it could be; and a quick trip around the Modena test track revealed that it was faster (and more agile) than any 250F, despite its tiny 2-liter engine. Stirling found it enchanting, and after marvelling at the ingenuity of its space-frame construction which provided huge strength as well as being light, asked to see it again later in the season.”
Moss only completed five races in the Birdcage, and scored three victories. The combination won first time out at Rouen, and again in the Cuban GP in Havana. The finest race came in the 1960 1,000 Kms at the Nürburgring, where he shared the car with Dan Gurney. The pair lost half a lap fixing a broken oil pipe during a pit-stop before Dan took over the car. “This was the kind of driving the ‘Birdcage’ allowed. On lap 24 he was 1 min 35 secs behind Phil Hill’s Ferrari. Next lap the gap had shrunk to 47 secs, the lap after that 15 secs and on lap 28 he came hammering past the pits in the lead.”
Stirling’s verdict on the ‘Birdcage’ was simple: “A fabulous car – light, very nimble, fantastic brakes, super steering, enormous torque and good power.” He had no way of knowing that the ‘Birdcage’ would be the last Maserati he would drive during his career as a racing driver; in 1962 he barely survived an enormous accident at Goodwood, an accident which left him in a coma for over a month. He never raced again as a professional driver, but his name and personality remain synonymous with the phrase 'driving legend'.
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