The 250F first raced in the
1954 Argentine Grand Prix where
Juan Manuel Fangio won the first of his two victories before he left for the new
Mercedes-Benz team. Fangio won the 1954 Drivers' World Championship, with points gained with both Maserati and Mercedes-Benz;
Stirling Moss raced his own privately owned 250F for the full 1954 season.
Prince Bira was another driver favouring the 250F. In 1955 a 5-speed
gearbox; SU
fuel injection (240 bhp) and
Dunlop disc brakes were introduced.
Jean Behra drove this in a five-member works team which included
Luigi Musso. In 1956
Stirling Moss won the
Monaco and
Italian Grands Prix, both in a works car. In 1956 three
250F T2 cars first appeared for the works drivers. Developed by
Giulio Alfieri using lighter steel tubes they sported a slimmer, stiffer body and sometimes the new
V12 engine of capacity , although it offered little or no real advantage over the older straight 6. It was later developed into the 3 litre V12 that won two races powering the
Cooper T81 and
T86 from 1966 to 1969, the final "Tipo 10" variant of the engine having three valves and two spark plugs per cylinder. In
1957 Juan Manuel Fangio drove to four more championship victories, including his final win at
German Grand Prix at the
Nürburgring (Aug. 4, 1957), where he overcame a 48-second deficit in 22 laps, passing the race leader,
Mike Hawthorn, on the final lap to take the win. In doing so he broke the lap record at the Nürburgring, 10 times. By the 1958 season, the 250F was totally outclassed by the new rear engined F1 cars. However, the car remained a favourite with the privateers, including
Maria Teresa de Filippis, and was used by back markers through the 1960 F1 season, the last for the 2.5 litre formula. In total, the 250F competed in 46 Formula One championship races with 277 entries, leading to eight wins. Success was not limited to World Championship events with 250F drivers winning many non-championship races around the world. Stirling Moss later said that the 250F was the best front-engined F1 car he drove.
World Championship wins Non-World Championship wins ==References==