Formula 1 Wiki
Register
Advertisement

Maserati was formed by the brothers Alfieri and Ettore as a tuning business in 1914, the brothers then served in the 1st World War and resumed tuning and racing cars upon their return.


The company went into partnership with Diatto, designing a Grand Prix racing car in 1925, it was never raced but Maserati decided they should make there own car and this launched their career as a GP Manufacturer.

The cars were sold to many constructors and enjoyed success on all continents.

Their greatest success came in sportscars, but their Formula One legacy was ensured with the Maserati 250F, a beautiful car that took Stirling Moss to prominence and a factory drive for Mercedes and Juan Manuel Fangio who won the World Drivers Championship at the wheel of one of these cars.

Background[]

1926 Maserati T26

1926 Maserati Tipo 26

Maserati was formed by the brothers Alfieri and Ettore as a tuning business in 1914, the brothers then served in the 1st World War the company was left in the hands of 16 year old Ernesto Maserati.

When the brothers returned from war they began to tune cars and Alfieri raced them. This led to an alliance with the Diatto company and in 1925 the Maserati Brothers designed a Grand Prix car for Diatto. It was never built and the Maseratis decided to build their own instead. The car was debuted on the Targa Florio in 1926 and won its class. They began building customer cars to help fund their own racing.

Prior to Formula One World Championship[]

1946 Sommer

1946 Raymond Sommer - Maserati

In March 1932, Alfieri died of kidney problems and Bindo Maserati joined Ettore and Ernesto and they continued the work begun by their brother.

Winning races became harder with the advances made by Alfa Romeo and the emergence of the German cars in the mid to late 1930s, and the company faced financial trouble and Adolfo Orsi, an industrialist from Modena joined the team.

1948 Viloresi

Villoresi in 1948 driving for Maserati

The Maserati's left the business side of the company to be run by the savvy Orsi whilst they concentrated on engineering and enjoyed a string of Indianapolis 500 wins, although the war came and the Orsi Family gradually edged them out. As the war progressed, Maserati had to move into the production of trucks.

In 1946, the Maserati Brothers left the company and set up OSCA while the Orsi's began building roadgoing cars. Racing activities were overseen by Scuderia Milan amougst others and wins were achieved by drivers like Raymond Sommer, Luigi Villoresi and Alberto Ascari. The cars were largely modified pre-war models but new cars were commissioned by the team and by Scuderia Ambrosiana and so the firm enjoyed considerable success in the immediate postwar era.

Formula One World Championship[]

1950[]

Maserati were heavily represented on the grid in 1950, represented by many private entries and professional racing teams and with a selection of cars:

Entrant Driver
Officine Alfieri Maserati - 

Maserati 4CLT/48

Louis Chiron

Franco Rol

Scuderia Ambrosiana - 

Maserati 4CLT/48

Reg Parnell

David Hampshire


David Murray

Joe Fry - 

Maserati 4CL

Joe Fry

Brian Shawe-Taylor

Enrico Plate - 

Maserati 4CLT/48

Toulo de Graffenried

Prince Bira

Scuderia Milano - 

Maserati 4CLT/50

Felice Bonetto

Franco Comotti

Scuderia Achille Varzi

Maserati 4CLT/48

José Froilán González

Nello Pagani


Antonio Branca

Paul Pietsch

Maserati 4CLT/48

Paul Pietsch

Antonio Branca -

Maserati 4CL

Antonio Branca
1950 Chiron

Chiron took a podium in his Maserati

1950 brought mixed success for Maserati drivers against the dominant Alfa Romeo, the factory Talbot-Lago and the ever improving Ferrari cars points were hard to come by.

Prince Bira was the marques most successful driver in 1950, picking up points in 5th Monaco and 4th Switzerland finishing 8th in the championship. In Switzerland Maserati drivers finished 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th, the other Maserati scorer was Italian Felice Bonetto.

A podium finish from Louis Chiron at his home Grand Prix in Monaco was a highlight for the Maserati team, but represented the only other points scoring position for the Italian cars in the World Championship competition.

F1 Summary[]

As constructor[]

Year Cars Engines Tires Drivers Rounds WCC Points WCC Pos. Report
1950 4CLT/48 4CL 1.5 L4s P Monaco Louis Chiron 1-2, 4, 6-7 N/A N/A Report
Italy Franco Rol 2, 6-7
1952 A6GCM A6 2.0 L6 P Italy Felice Bonetto 6, 8 N/A N/A Report
Italy Franco Rol 8
Argentina José Froilán González 8
1953 A6GCM
A6GCM/53
A6 2.0 L6 P Argentina Juan Manuel Fangio 1, 3-9 N/A N/A Report
Argentina José Froilán González 1, 3-9
Italy Felice Bonetto 1, 3, 5-9
Argentina Oscar Gálvez 1
Belgium Johnny Claes 4
Argentina Onofre Marimón 4-9
West Germany Hermann Lang 8
Italy Sergio Mantovani 9
Italy Luigi Musso 9
1954 A6GCM
250F
A6 2.0 L6
250F 2.5 L6
P Argentina Juan Manuel Fangio 1, 3 N/A N/A Report
Argentina Onofre Marimón 1, 3-6
Italy Luigi Musso 1, 8-9
Thailand Prince Bira 1
Italy Sergio Mantovani 3-4, 6-9
Italy Alberto Ascari 4-5
Italy Luigi Villoresi 4-6, 8
Argentina Roberto Mieres 7-9
United Kingdom Stirling Moss 7, 9
France Louis Rosier 8
Spain Paco Godia 9
1955 A6GCM
250F
A6 2.0 L6
250F 2.5 L6
P France Jean Behra 1-2, 4-7 N/A N/A Report
Argentina Roberto Mieres 1-2, 4-7
Italy Luigi Musso 1-2, 4-7
Italy Sergio Mantovani 1
Argentina Clemar Bucci 1
United States Harry Schell 1
Argentina Carlos Menditeguy 1, 7
Italy Cesare Perdisa 2, 4
France André Simon 6
United Kingdom Peter Collins 7
United Kingdom Horace Gould 7

Private entreats[]

Year Entreat Cars Engines Tires Drivers Rounds

As engine supplier[]

Year Entreat Cars Engines Tires Drivers Rounds WCC Points WCC Pos. Report
1955 Scuderia Volpini Arzani-Volpini F1 4CLT 2.5 L4 P Italy Luigi Piotti 7 N/A N/A Report
1959 High Efficiency Motors Cooper T45 250S 2.5 L4 D United Kingdom Roy Salvadori 1, 4, 9 0 NC Report
United Kingdom Jack Fairman 8
Scuderia Centro Sud Cooper T51 250S 2.5 L4 D United Kingdom Ian Burgess 4-6, 8
United Kingdom Colin Davis 4, 8
West Germany Hans Herrmann 5
Portugal Mário de Araújo Cabral 7
J.B. Naylor JBW 59 250S 2.5 L4 D United Kingdom Brian Naylor 5 0 NC
Camoradi USA Tec-Mec F415 250F1 2.5 L6 D Brazil Fritz d'Orey 9 0 NC

List of race wins[]

No. Race Driver
1933 French Grand Prix Italy Giuseppe Campari
1933 Belgian Grand Prix Italy Tazio Nuvolari
1948 Monaco Grand Prix Italy Giuseppe Farina
1948 British Grand Prix Italy Luigi Villoresi
1949 British Grand Prix Switzerland Emmanuel de Graffenried
1 1953 Italian Grand Prix Argentina Juan Manuel Fangio
2 1954 Argentine Grand Prix Argentina Juan Manuel Fangio
3 1954 Belgian Grand Prix Argentina Juan Manuel Fangio
4 1956 Monaco Grand Prix United Kingdom Stirling Moss
5 1956 Italian Grand Prix United Kingdom Stirling Moss
6 1957 Argentine Grand Prix Argentina Juan Manuel Fangio
7 1957 Monaco Grand Prix Argentina Juan Manuel Fangio
8 1957 French Grand Prix Argentina Juan Manuel Fangio
9 1957 German Grand Prix Argentina Juan Manuel Fangio

Statistics[]

Entries 169
Starts 70
Pole Positions 8
Sprint Poles 0
Front Row Starts 21
Race Wins 9
Sprint Wins 0
Podiums 37
Sprint Podiums 0
Fastest Laps 13
Sprint Fastest Laps 0
Points 6
Laps Raced 16312
Distance Raced 104421
Races Led
Laps Led 826
Distance Led 4721
Doubles
Hat-Tricks
Grand Chelems

Complete Formula One Results[]

Main article: Maserati/Results

Notes[]

V T E Maserati Maserati
Founders
Alfieri Maserati · Bindo Maserati · Carlo Maserati · Ettore Maserati · Ernesto Maserati
Personnel
Gioacchino Colombo · Valerio Colotti
Drivers
Argentina Juan Manuel Fangio · United Kingdom Stirling Moss
Formula One Cars
4CL · 4CLT/48 · 4CLT/50 · A6GCM · 250F
Indianapolis 500 Cars
8CL · 8CTF · V8RI · 420M/58
Advertisement