The Maserati 250F was a racing car made by

Maserati Maserati S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury vehicle manufacturer. Established on 1 December 1914, in Bologna, Italy, the company's headquarters are now in Modena, and its emblem is a trident. The company has been owned by Stellantis since 2021. Ma ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

used in '2.5 litre'

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

racing between January 1954 and November 1960. Twenty-six examples were made.

Mechanical details

The 250F principally used the SSG 220 bhp (@ 7400 rpm) 2.5-litre

Maserati A6 Maserati A6 were a series of grand tourers, racing sports cars and single seaters made by Maserati of Italy between 1947 and 1956. They were named for Alfieri Maserati (one of the Maserati brothers, founders of Maserati) and for their straight-six ...

straight-six The straight-six engine (also referred to as an inline-six engine; abbreviated I6 or L6) is a piston engine with six cylinders arranged in a straight line along the crankshaft. A straight-six engine has perfect primary and secondary engine balan ...

engine, ribbed 13.4"

drum brake A drum brake is a brake that uses friction caused by a set of shoes or pads that press outward against a rotating cylinder-shaped part called a brake drum. The term ''drum brake'' usually means a brake in which shoes press on the inner surfac ...

s, wishbone independent front suspension, a

De Dion tube De Dion rear axle A de Dion tube is a form of non-independent automobile suspension. It is a considerable improvement over the swing axle, Hotchkiss drive, or live axle. Because it plays no part in transmitting power to the drive wheels, it is ...

axle, Borrani 16" & 17" wheels and Pirelli Stella Bianca tyres. It was built by

Gioacchino Colombo Gioachino Colombo (1903–1988) was an Italian automobile engine designer. Colombo was born in Legnano. He began work as an apprentice to Vittorio Jano at Alfa Romeo. In 1937, Colombo designed the 158 engine for the Alfetta and caught the attentio ...

Vittorio Bellentani Vittorio Bellentani (March 11, 1906 – March 26, 1968) was an Italian automobile engineer and racing driver. Biography Born in Modena, he studied in Germany at University of Freiburg before joining Enzo Ferrari in 1940, where he first worked o ...

and

Alberto Massimino Alberto Massimino (5 January 1895 – 27 November 1975) was an Italian automotive engineer. Biography Born in Turin, he studied mechanical engineering in Switzerland and worked for FIAT (1924–28), where he followed Vittorio Jano who had left fo ...

; the tubular work was by

Valerio Colotti Valerio Colotti (19 April 1925 – 19 January 2008) was an Italian automotive engineer, known for his early work with Ferrari and Maserati chassis and transmission systems. Born in Modena, Colotti joined Ferrari in 1948, working under Aurelio Lam ...

. A streamlined version with bodywork which partially enclosed the wheels (similar to the 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196 "Typ Monza") was used in the

1956 French Grand Prix The 1956 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 1 July 1956 at Reims. It was race 5 of 8 in the 1956 World Championship of Drivers. Bugatti made a one-off appearance in this race with their Type 251 driven by Maurice Trintignant. ...

.Grand Prix Data Book, David Hayhoe & David Holland, 2006

Racing history

Maserati works team Aintree 1957.jpg, Works team at Aintree, 1957 Fangio & Maserati 250F.jpg, Fangio and 250F Maserati 250F Monoposto Competizione - 52029916773.jpg, Maserati 250F at the Umberto Panini museum The 250F first raced in the

1954 Argentine Grand Prix The 1954 Argentine Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Autódromo 17 de Octubre in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 17 January 1954. It was race 1 of 9 in the 1954 World Championship of Drivers. Giuseppe Farina scored the pole position at ...

where

Juan Manuel Fangio Juan Manuel Fangio (American Spanish: , ; 24 June 1911 – 17 July 1995), nicknamed ''El Chueco'' ("the bowlegged" or "bandy legged one") or ''El Maestro'' ("The Master" or "The Teacher"), was an Argentine racing car driver. He dominated t ...

won the first of his two victories before he left for the new

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...

team. Fangio won the 1954 Drivers' World Championship, with points gained with both Maserati and Mercedes-Benz;

Stirling Moss Sir Stirling Craufurd Moss (17 September 1929 – 12 April 2020) was a British Formula One racing driver. An inductee into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, he won 212 of the 529 races he entered across several categories of comp ...

raced his own privately owned 250F for the full 1954 season.

Prince Bira Prince Birabongse Bhanudej Bhanubandh ( th, พีรพงศ์ภาณุเดช; ; 15 July 191423 December 1985), better known as Prince Bira of Siam (now Thailand) or by his ''nom de course'' B. Bira, was a member of the Thai royal ...

was another driver favouring the 250F. In 1955 a 5-speed

gearbox Propulsion transmission is the mode of transmitting and controlling propulsion power of a machine. The term ''transmission'' properly refers to the whole drivetrain, including clutch, gearbox, prop shaft (for rear-wheel drive vehicles), differe ...

; SU

fuel injection Fuel injection is the introduction of fuel in an internal combustion engine, most commonly automotive engines, by the means of an injector. This article focuses on fuel injection in reciprocating piston and Wankel rotary engines. All comp ...

(240 bhp) and Dunlop

disc brake A disc brake is a type of brake that uses the calipers to squeeze pairs of pads against a disc or a "rotor" to create friction. This action slows the rotation of a shaft, such as a vehicle axle, either to reduce its rotational speed or to hol ...

s were introduced.

Jean Behra Jean Marie Behra (16 February 1921 – 1 August 1959) was a Formula One driver who raced for the Gordini, Maserati, BRM, Ferrari and Porsche teams. Appearance and personality Behra was small in stature, stocky, and weighed 178 pounds.''B ...

drove this in a five-member works team which included

Luigi Musso Luigi Musso (28 July 1924 – 6 July 1958) was an Italian racing driver. In 1955 he joined the Ferrari team, entering into a fierce rivalry with Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins, which boosted the performance of the team, but also encouraged ...

. In 1956

won the

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

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 Giulio Alfieri (10 July 1924 – 20 March 2002) was an Italian automobile engineer, affiliated with Maserati in Modena, Italy since 1953, where he was central to the development of racing and production cars in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Alfieri ...

using lighter steel tubes they sported a slimmer, stiffer body and sometimes the new

V12 engine A V12 engine is a twelve-cylinder piston engine where two banks of six cylinders are arranged in a V configuration around a common crankshaft. V12 engines are more common than V10 engines. However, they are less common than V8 engines. The fi ...

, 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 The Cooper T81 is a Formula One car produced by the Cooper Car Company for the 1966 Formula One season. It represented something of a comeback for Cooper's fortunes, winning two races and enabling Cooper to finish third in the Constructors' Cham ...

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 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th y ...

drove to four more championship victories, including his final win at

German Grand Prix The German Grand Prix (german: Großer Preis von Deutschland) was a motor race that took place most years since 1926, with 75 races having been held. The race has been held at only three venues throughout its history; the Nürburgring in R ...

at the

Nürburgring The is a 150,000 person capacity motorsports complex located in the town of Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It features a Formula One, Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a long "North loop" track, built in the 1920s, around t ...

(Aug. 4, 1957), where he overcame a 48-second deficit in 22 laps, passing the race leader,

Mike Hawthorn John Michael Hawthorn (10 April 1929 – 22 January 1959) was a British racing driver. He became the United Kingdom's first Formula One World Champion driver in 1958, whereupon he announced his retirement, having been profoundly affected by the ...

, 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 Maria Teresa de Filippis (11 November 1926 – 8 January 2016) was an Italian racing driver, and the first woman to race in Formula One. She participated in five World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 18 May 1958, but scored no championship ...

, 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

Notes

Bibliography

* * David McKinney, ''Maserati 250F'',

External links

250F Overview Article

Top Gear 250F review
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maserati 250f 250F Maserati Formula One cars Cars introduced in 1954 Formula One championship-winning cars