The Maserati 250 F: Discussion and Review

Text by the Editor

We shall not bemoan progress nor ignore change nor think that things were better in the past.

But wasn’t the Maserati 250F the greatest car of the greatest period in Grand Prix racing?

We think so. With 37 Grand Prix victories* credited to the 250 F (37 to Ferrari as well but with three different models), raced by every champion and would be champion, the 250 F was at once primitive, perilous, passionate, powerful, prolific, and praiseworthy, not to mention beautiful.

(Since this is part of a series on this subject, it would be nice to know if readers agree or disagree with our opinion, and send a quick email to that effect to pete@velocetoday.com.)

On the shoulders of giants

The 250 F is surely worthy of the magnum opus accorded to it by authors Walter Bäumer and François Blachette. Upfront and throughout the two volume set, the authors credit the ones who paved the way; Denis Jenkinson, Anthony Pritchard, David McKinney and above all, Barrie Hobkirk.

Walter Bäumer explains his connection with the late Barrie Hobkirk (who died in 2019) in a post in the Autosport Forum https://forums.autosport.com/topic/229740-maserati-tipo-250f/

“Barrie was very interested in the 300S, and we exchanged a lot of information about the 250F and the 300S. In 2012, Barrie expressed great interest in collaborating on a new book about the 250F, as he found the visual aspect of the David McKinney book too outdated (referring to the book Maserati 250F published in 2003). Unfortunately, this didn’t come to fruition due to Barrie’s worsening illness. In 2014, Barrie sent me all his documents and research results on the 250F. When Jeff Blachette and I were planning the 250F book, we knew that the vast majority would be based on the work of Barrie and David. However, since David’s book, there were also some new details and aspects that we incorporated into our new book. For example, an old photograph of the missing #2519, which even Barrie didn’t have.”

Barrie was widely respected as a historian, and was on hand to help Graham Gauld track the confusing past of the Temple Buell 250F in 2014 for a piece in VeloceToday. Writes Gauld:

“In 1958, I saw this Maserati for the first time at the Modena Autodrome. By that time Maserati were in real financial trouble. They had ditched the factory racing team at the end of the previous season and so when American enthusiast Temple Buell arrived in Modena in 1958 looking for a couple of cars to race Maserati were more than willing to sell them to him.

“When I originally drafted this piece I decided to check out my photos with the man I consider the world expert on 250F Maseratis, Barrie Hobkirk in Canada. Believe it or not, I found that had confused the two Buell cars even back in 1958, part of the reason being that apart from Denis Jenkinson, few journalists ever looked for chassis numbers. Hobkirk has made an exhaustive study of these cars and supplied a lot of information to the late David McKinney who wrote the so-far definitive book on the 250F. Thank goodness I did, because he was able to sort out which car was which and not end up in the do-do.”

A word about the 2.5 Liter Formula: The glorious and romantic era of the 2.5 Liter Formula began with the 250 F and ended in a sudden revolution that changed simply everything (aside from the driver’s talent and bravery) about the sport….

On January 14, 1954, just days into the new 2.5 Liter Formula, Stirling Moss purchased Maserati 250 F sn 2508, with which he won 10 Grand Prix* races including a Monza drive which got him a chance to join the Mercedes Benz team for 1955.

On January 19, 1958, exactly four years and 5 days later, Moss brilliantly drove the rear engined Rob Walker Cooper T39 to victory at the Argentina Grand Prix. It was the first time a Cooper had won a Grand Prix, and the first time a rear engined car had won a Grand Prix since 1939. The revolution had begun and the days of the classic front engined race cars were numbered.

All photos courtesy Hugues Vanhoolandt, Jonathan Sharp and Alessandro Gerelli and do not appear in the book

*Grand Prix victories list by the late Clyde P. Berryman in “QPRS F1 Grand Prix Racing by the Numbers” and include the much fewer in number grand épreuves,(great challenge) counting toward the world championship