The battle to be Italy's No1 driver: Musso and Castellotti's 1950s Ferrari rivalry

Now things began to happen. Luigi finished a creditable 11th in the Targa Florio and scored a hat-trick of road-race wins, which brought him to the attention of Maserati, and in the Italian GP he shared a works car with Sergio Mantovani. They finished seventh. Two more victories in his own car won him the 2-litre Italian Sportscar Championship that year and Maserati promptly signed him up for 1954.

He and Giletti drove their 2-litre A6GCS to sixth overall in the Buenos Aires 1000Km. Back home he was fourth in the Tour of Sicily, a remarkable third in his very first Mille Miglia, won the Naples sportscars GP and finished second overall in the Targa Florio. Then he scored his first F1 win at Pescara, in a 250F. He finished the season with a fine third in the Tourist Trophy in a 2-litre Maserati and an even better second in the Spanish GP, behind Mike Hawthorn’s Ferrari.

In 1955 he was third in the Tour of Sicily; second at Naples, Bordeaux and Syracuse and then won the Supercortemaggiore 1000km at Monza, sharing a Maserati with Jean Behra.

The next year, Musso joined Scuderia Ferrari, as did Juan Fangio, Peter Collins and Eugenio Castellotti. In practice for their first race as team-mates the Argentine GP Luigi and Eugenio recorded exactly the same time in their Lancia-Ferraris. Musso did slightly better in the race, however, for Castellotti retired, whereas Fangio took over Luigi’s car and drove on to win. Thus Luigi was co-credited with what was to be his one and only championship victory.

In May he rolled his Ferrari on the third lap of the Nürburgring 1000Km, broke his arm, and was hors de combat until the Italian GP. This was annoying, but gave him plenty of time for gambling. “Musso loved racing, but even more he loved to gamble,” recalls Tavoni.

Musso’s enforced layoff gives us a convenient break in which to look at the career of his great rival. Proud and provincial, Eugenio Castellotti was swarthily handsome and also rather short, frequently wearing shoes with built-up heels.

“He was a very nice young man,” Tavoni says, “interested only in cars, racing and girls. He was born in 1930 in Lodi, near Milan, and his father was a rich landowner who died when he was 12 years old.”

In fact his father was not married to his mother, Angela, but he left her a large sum of money in his will, so when in 1951 Eugenio decided to go motor racing, he was able to buy a 2-litre Ferrari 166. In the Tour of Sicily he retired, but then finished sixth in class in the Mille Miglia. How easy it was in those days! Castellotti was not yet 21, had zero racing experience, yet began his career in two of the world’s greatest road races.

Next season he acquired a 2.7-litre 225S Ferrari and took fifth place in the Tour of Sicily. He then won the Pescara Gold Cup with the 166. The Monaco GP was for sportscars that year and Eugenio finished a fine second in the 225S, then won the Portuguese GP.

In 1953 success in road races brought him a Lancia contract, but the team failed dismally in the Nürburgring 1000Km and he did not get a drive. However, he made Lancia’s D23 perform impressively on the hills, and became Italian Mountain Champion. Finally, he went to Mexico for the Carrera PanAmericana, where Lancia swept to a tremendous 1,2,3 victory (Fangio, Taruffi, Castellotti).

Early in 1954 Lancia announced that it was going into Formula One. Ascari and Villoresi were signed to lead the team, with Castellotti as the junior driver. Unfortunately, the D50 GP car wasn’t ready until the very end of the season and Eugenio did not race it. He had a pretty disappointing year in Lancia’s sportscars, too, retiring at Sebring and in the Mille Miglia and Targa Florio. He won five climbs, though, and was Mountain Champion for the second year running.

He finally got his hands on the D50 Lancia in the 1955 Argentine GP. He retired there, but finished fourth in Turin and second at Pau, as he did in the Monaco GP, when while catching the Ferrari of the ultimate winner, Maurice Trintignant, he spun his chance away in the final laps.

Lancia then decided to withdraw from sportscar racing to concentrate on F1, so Eugenio raced Ferraris in endurance events. He put up bravura performances in the Mille Miglia and at Le Mans with the 4.4-litre 121LM, leading both races from the outset, but overtaxing his car in the process.

Ferrari had a new team manager in 1957. Nello Ugolini had done the unthinkable and left to join Maserati. His replacement, EraIdo Sculati, neglected to keep his boss informed of his team’s progress in South America and so, in February, Enzo appointed his trusted secretary, Ramolo Tavoni, to the job.

“I had a very hard start as team manager,” he recalls. “Early in March I arrived at Modena by train; Mr Ferrari was waiting for me at the station, very upset. Just an hour earlier Castellotti had crashed at the Autodrome and he told me to go to the hospital, find out how Castellotti was and then phone him. At the hospital I met Eugenio’s mother and, of course, he was dead.”

Enzo Ferrari later claimed that Castellotti’s fatal crash (in a Lancia-Ferrari) was due to his volatile love life. He was passionately involved with Delia Scala, a professional singer, but he wanted her to give up her career. Delia was at least as successful in her business as Eugenio was in his, if not more so, and she suggested that perhaps he should be the one to retire.

On top of that, Signora Angela Castellotti did not approve of her son’s involvement with a mere singer, as Tavoni recalls: “Castellotti took Delia home to meet his mother. She took Delia’s arm and said, ‘You look like a waitress; the kitchen is this way.’ There was a terrible row.”

Ferrari was right in that Eugenio had emotional problems at the time of his crash, but he failed to mention that it was he who had summoned his driver to Modena after Jean Behra had broken the Ferrari-held lap record in a 250F Maserati. Castellotti died in a totally unnecessary attempt to regain a meaningless record in order to appease Enzo Ferrari’s ego.

This tragedy meant that Luigi Musso was now Italy’s undisputed number one. But he wasn’t Ferrari’s number one. As usual, Enzo refused to nominate anyone and the British ‘Mon Ami Mates’ Hawthorn and Collins took it upon themselves to dominate the Ferrari team with a marked lack of success, it must be said. Luigi beat them both in the championship, finishing third behind Fangio and Moss with second places in the British and French GPs. He won the non-championship Reims GP and was second at Syracuse and Modena and third at Naples. In sportscars he won the Buenos Aires 1000Km with Castellotti and Masten Gregory and was second at Caracas with Mike Hawthorn.

Once Fangio had made it clear that he was going to retire, the 1958 World Championship was up for grabs, and Musso saw his chance to win the title. He made a good start, with second places in Argentina and Monaco, but he could only finish seventh in Holland and suffered a big accident (without injury) in Belgium. This left him in third place with 12 points behind Moss (17) and Hawthorn (14).

He did not get on well with Hawthorn or Collins, and Tavoni recalls that shortly before the French GP he complained to Enzo Ferrari that he, an Italian with a chance of winning the championship, was being given a hard time by his English team-mates.

“Ferrari said, ‘Musso, at Reims you will have no problem.’ He then asked Collins, who was nowhere in the championship, to do only the F2 race, but for the same money as F1, saying, ‘You are not just a driver, you are part of my family. This is protection for Musso.’

“Peter was not happy as he was fourth fastest in practice and he said, ‘Romolo, if I finish the F2 race in a good position, ask Ferrari if I can do the Grand Prix also.’ So I asked Ferrari and he told me to make the decision at the time. Peter finished second in F2 and we agreed that he deserved to drive in the Grand Prix as well.”

This surely unsettled Musso, who was already in a poor state of mind after making a deal to sell Pontiac’s road cars in Italy. “It was a disaster and he and his partner lost a lot of money,” says Tavoni. “There was very big prize money at the French Grand Prix and the day before the race Musso received a telegram from his partner saying, ‘You must win to pay off your debt.”

Luigi now not only wanted to win the race in his bid for the World Championship, but also for the large sum of money that victory would bring. Mike Hawthorn led from the start, followed closely by Harry Schell (BRM), and Musso. By the end of lap two Musso was second and trying desperately to stay with Hawthorn and ahead of Peter Collins, who had charged up to third. The Ferraris stayed 1-2-3 until lap 10, when Musso, trying too hard, lost control on the 155mph right-hander after the pits. The car rolled into a cornfield and, after one gamble too many, Luigi Musso was dead.