Luigi
Musso

Luigi Musso was born in Rome on 28 July 1924. He began in sportscar racing and made his Formula One debut with Maserati in 1953. He stayed with Maserati through 1955. In 1954 he finished second at the Spanish Grand Prix for his first podium, and in 1955 he took third in the Netherlands. Outside the World Championship, he won the 1954 Coppa Acerbo.

Musso moved to Ferrari in 1956. In his first race for the team, the Argentine Grand Prix, he won the race in a shared drive with Juan Manuel Fangio, completing 30 of the 98 laps. His season was cut short by a crash in a sportscar race at the Nürburgring. In 1957 he finished third in the World Championship, ahead of his Ferrari team-mates Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins, with whom he had a fierce rivalry. That year he also won the Grand Prix de la Marne, a non-championship event. In sportscars he won the 1000 km of Buenos Aires in 1957 and, with Olivier Gendebien, the 1958 Targa Florio.

Musso made 24 starts in the Formula One World Championship, with one win and seven podium finishes. At the 1958 French Grand Prix at Reims he crashed on the tenth lap and died on 6 July 1958, aged 33. Hawthorn went on to win the race.

Source: Wikipedia, “Luigi Musso”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.