Damien Smith
Arousing Jerusalem, belted out by a full-house congregation in glorious Westminster Abbey, all in honour of our beloved and much-missed Sir Stirling Moss. It has to be the most English moment I will ever experience. What an occasion the service of thanksgiving for The Boy, held on a sunny London morning this month, turned out to be.
Moss died aged 90 in April 2020 while the pandemic still held us all in its cold grip, which meant he didn’t get the send-off he deserved. Moss would have been nonplussed by the fuss, of course. But as is the case on such occasions, it wasn’t really for him – it was for us, to show our love and appreciation for a man who exists in the same immortal realm as England’s 1966 World Cup heroes. A joyous day.
JEWEL IN THE CROWN
From Westminster Abbey it was on to Monaco – or Mon-arr-co, as Moss always pronounced the jewel on the calendar, where he won three times. Two weeks before the contemporary Formula 1 race, the 14th Grand Prix de Monaco Historique featured a staggering array of cars from pre-war up to the last Cosworth DFV-powered beasts of the 1980s. It was a reminder of when F1 cars looked at home at Monaco, in proportion with its “riding a bicycle around your living room” proportions. Today’s long, heavyweight hybrids have simply outgrown the place.
Visitors included Miami GP winner Lando Norris, who turned up to watch (and rinse) his McLaren boss Zak Brown in an ex-Alan Jones Williams FW07B, Fernando Alonso and Charles Leclerc, while Stefan Johansson, Eddie Irvine and Thierry Boutsen joined a 30th-anniversary tribute to Ayrton Senna.
Boutsen drove the triple champion’s 1985 Lotus 97T in the demo. “He was my best friend, not only in F1 but in life as well,” the three-time GP winner told me. “He should have been godfather to my son, but he died just before he was born. To drive his first victory car and one in which he took pole position in Monaco was a great honour. I was crying in the car.”
OFF-DUTY NEWEY
Among those racing was Adrian Newey, the F1 design great around whom so much speculation swirls right now. He was in the race for 1966-1971 cars, driving the Gold Leaf Lotus 49B that he owns. Colin Chapman was his first inspiration.
For a while on Saturday afternoon, it looked briefly like Newey would be benched by the officials. There were terse conversations with Paul Lanzante, who runs his cars, as they checked the profile
