The Ferrari 246F1 Dino at Silverstone, June 1958
In this beautifully detailed overhead image taken before the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on July 19, 1958, Mike Hawthorn sits in his Ferrari Dino 246F1 in the paddock behind the pits as final race preparations are carried out. Hawthorn has opted for his preferred adjustable small aero screen instead of the wrap-around perspex screen more usual for these Dino V6 2.5 liter Grand Prix cars.
Ferrari must have done something impressive overnight because in practice the Dinos of Hawthorn, Peter Collins and Wolfgang von Trips were all slower than the Vanwall of Stirling Moss, Harry Schell's BRM 25 and even Roy Salvadori's 2.2 liter Cooper 45, an otherwise F2 car. Collins was also slower than the Lewis-Evans Vanwall and Trips was behind even Cliff Allison's Lotus 16. At the start Collins shot through from the second row to lead Moss and Hawthorn.
These three led for the first 25 laps until Moss pulled off with a blown motor. No one else could keep up with the now two leading Ferrari Dinos and Collins finished about 24 seconds ahead of Hawthorn (seen at the left) with Salvadori's Cooper third about the same distance behind Collins.
These 1958 mid-season races were actually a terrible time for the Scuderia Ferrari. In effect it illustrated the axiom that in these years you got a drive when someone else got killed. At Reims for the French Grand Prix two weeks before Silverstone Luigi Musso died after crashing in his Dino at the sweeping right hand corner after the pits, which boosted Collins at Silverstone from being assigned his temporary F2 duty and gave Phil Hill an F2 drive in Germany. Two more weeks and Collins would perish at the Nürburgring trying to keep up with the Vanwall of Tony Brooks which gave Phil Hill, then in a F2 Dino 156, his first full works F1 ride at Monza.
Photos by Edward Eves and Louis Klemantaski ©The Klemantaski Collection – http://www.klemcoll.com
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