Sunday 19th January 1958
The crowd’s expectation for the 1958 Gran Premio de la Republica Argentina was to see local hero Juan Manuel Fangio demolish the gringo opposition, as the man from Balcarce had done so often in the past. However, victory went to one of his former teams-mates in a car that the incredulous Argentine public attending the race would only describe as ‘the thing’. The season-opener in Buenos Aires saw a rather tiny grid of just ten cars lining up for the 1958 Argentine GP. A number of teams dreaded the long trip to South America because the introduction of Avgas as the only allowed fuel by regulation had caused serious problems on some engines. Among those refusing to face the long and costly trip, fearing engine failure as the outcome, was the Vanwall works-team, so Stirling Moss made a one-off arrangement with Rob Walker to drive one of his Cooper Climax. What looked like a silly idea at first, the literally powerful opposition of Ferrari and Maserati lapping two seconds quicker in qualifying, dropping Moss down to 7th on the grid, would pay out in the end. Pole-sitter and local hero Juan Manuel Fangio led from the start with Moss already in 5th by the end of the first lap. The expected heat was causing all sorts of problems for the heavier and more powerful cars upfront and their drivers were forced to pit for new tires and to catch a drink. Moss and Walker had discussed a different strategy. Not only needed they to recover the lack of pace to the leaders, a pit stop to change tires would take far too long due to the Cooper’s four studded cast alloy wheels. So the Brit simply kept an eye on his tires, treating them gently and as the race progressed, the Cooper’s lightweight chassis helped to limit tire wear. While the front-runners went into the pits for their scheduled stops Stirling simply kept going. He moved into the lead, was way ahead of the opposition and crossed the line first in his tiny Cooper-Climax as the first driver ever to win a Formula 1 Grand Prix at the wheel of a rear engined car.
