Maserati
One of the most famous names in motor sport was born in 1914 when Alfieri Maserati, along with brothers Ernesto and Ettore, founded a garage business in Bologna. It would be 12 years before the company built its first racing car, the Tipo 26, which sported an 8-cylinder, 1.5-litre supercharged engine. It made its debut at the 1926 Targa Florio, with Alfieri himself at the wheel. He finished ninth overall in what was a Formula Libre event, winning the 1500cc class. This race also saw the famous trident badge, a design inspired by a statue of Neptune in the main square at Bologna, adorn a Maserati for the first time.
Alfieri Maserati died in 1932, aged 44. This was a decade in which the marque scored a number of Grand Prix victories, with the likes of Nuvolari and Varzi at the wheel, though the era was dominated by Alfa Romeo, Mercedes and Auto Union.
"OSCA founded by Maserati family"
Financial pressures caused the remaining brothers to sell out to the Orsi family in 1937, though they secured a contract to continue working for the company for the next decade. The company relocated to Modena and focused its attention on building road cars, though Maseratis did win the Indianapolis 500 in 1939 and 1940. When the contract expired, the brothers were keen to return to racing in their own right and a new company, OSCA, was formed in 1947.
The Maserati 4CLT won on its first outing, the 1948 San Remo GP, with Alberto Ascari at the wheel. Ascari and Luigi Villoresi were the works drivers, and they dominated that year's British GP, despite arriving late and having to start from the back of the grid. Maserati suffered a huge blow when Enzo Ferrari signed both drivers for 1949. That year Baron Emmanuel de Graffenried won at Silverstone with a privately entered Maserati, and in the early years of the world championship Maseratis would be the popular choice for privateers keen to slug it out with the works teams. Stirling Moss was among those who took this route.
"Fangio scores maiden win"
Ferrari dominated the 1952 and 1953 championship races, which were run to an F2 formula, but by the back end of the latter season Fangio, Gonzalez and Marimon were pushing hard for Maserati. The marque finally scored its maiden victory at Monza, Fangio coming out on top after a thrilling duel with Ascari, though the latter already had his second title in the bag.
Fangio won the first two rounds of the 1954 championship in the famous 250F, one of the most successful cars of the 2.5-litre era, but he was merely biding his time until his new employers, Mercedes, were ready with their new hardware.
For the 1957 season Maserati managed to re-sign the four-times world champion. It would be a glorious F1 swansong for both driver and manufacturer. Fangio won four of the seven European races to relegate Stirling Moss to second place in the title race for the third year running. But within a year a funding crisis led Maserati to withdraw from F1 and concentrate on its road car operation.
