Maserati

Maserati were an Italian constructor that competed in the F1R series from 1950 to 1960. The constructor originally competed with two teams representing it, which were Scuderia Ambrosiana and Enrico Platé (often referred to as Enrico Plate for simplicity) before merging to be known as Maserati from 1952 onwards.

The team was founded by the Maserati Brothers before F1R began, but entered from the outset via the two aforementinoned entities. In the '50s Maserati were always one of the top teams, with de Graffenried and Gerard both coming close to the inaugural F1R title in 1950. The following year was one of two "anni horribiles" that Maserati experienced, with Gerard leaving for the resurgent Alfa Romeo outfit and de Graffenried only able to secure a single Podium in the final race of the season.

At that point, Maserati stepped in to bring the teams under their own umbrella and give competitve cars to Rol and Farina, who both managed race wins in 1962...but couldn't quite achieve the consistency to win the title. De Graffenried had left at the start of 1952 due to how poor the cars were in '51, but returned to spearhead the Maserati challenge in '53. Unfortunately no-one could match Ferrari that season, as they locked out the Top 4 places in the Championship with ex-Maserati driver Gerard leading the way.

In 1954 it was all change though, with Gerard's move to Mercedes not quite paying off and greater consistency for Hans Herrmann delivering Maserati their 1st Drivers' title in a final race showdown! Unfortunately for Maserati, their focus on the 1954 car meant they weren't putting enough resource towards the 1955 effort - and that meant they didn't score a single point until the final race of that season...something big had to happen to put that right, and in 1956 they took the bold step to coax the reluctant Gerard back to F1R and into a Maserati for that season.

That proved to be a turning point for the team, as Gerard dominated the series and won titles in '56 and '57, supported by Perdisa's valiant efforts in those seasons. 1958 saw the introduction of the Teams Championship, where Maserati brought on board the exciting new talent Joakim Bonnier to replace the fading Perdisa...but despite spending serious money, they could not quite match Ferrari, as Gerard finished runner-up in '58 and decided to hang up his racing boots after then.

In 1959 Bonnier did manage a race win early in the season, but budgetary concerns meant a stripped back development programme for the team and they fell off the pace to finish 4th in the standings, which led to some major investments for 1960 in the car early in the season...so major that they couldn't afford to pay Bonnier to compete in the 1st race of the season! With money troubles mounting, the team knew they had to win either the Drivers or Constructors Championships to survive - but despite 3 consecutive victories for Bonnier at the end of the season, it was too little too late as he finished 3 points behind eventual winner Gregory and Maserati themselves were denied by just 4 points by Ferrari - and that meant the end of the road for this impressive outfit, who will always be remembered as a founding member of the F1R series and for the iconic Gerard/Maserati dominance of the mid-late '50s.

**Complete Championship Results**

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*8th place finish in the Drivers' Championship for Taruffi in 1952 was due to points scored when driving for Frazer Nash

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