Car: Lore’s BRM P25
Skins/helmet: @Mr. Malarkey
Following on from the Moroccan skins, and in a somewhat befuddled order, I present to you two skins for the BRM P25 as entered in the XVI Grand Prix Automobile de Monaco, driven by Jean Behra (6) and Harry Schell (8). Curiously, some sources record Ron Flockhart as having entered in the race driving the #10 BRM, but that he also drove the #22 Cooper T43 in qualifying. Either way, he didn’t qualify, and I haven’t found any photos of the car, so – for the time being – Flockhart’s #10 has been omitted.
Following on from the barren first round in Argentina, the 1958 campaign began in anger around the snaking streets of Europe’s playground. With the British teams absent from the first round, BRM, Cooper, Connaught, Lotus, and Vanwall all turned up to the second round in Monaco with the intention of proving the mettle of their new and improved designs over the course of a near three-hour endeavour of human and mechanical fortitude. Their efforts paid off, with all but one of the top 8 grid places being taken by a British design. This race was also a landmark for F1 in that Maria Teresa de Filippis became the first woman to enter a World Championship Grand Prix, failing to qualify in a privately entered Maserati 250f.
To say BRM came into this race with low expectations would be an understatement. Now in its third year of competition, the P25 - its potential anchored by notoriously poor handling and reliability - had so far finished none of the championship races it was entered in (0 finishes out of 8 starts). Hoping for a change in their fortunes, Owen Racing Organisation enlisted the services of veterans Harry Schell Jean Behra to exploit the full potential of their updated challenger. Again, the British team’s efforts were immediately impactful, with Behra qualifying an impressive second place – trailing Brooks’ Vanwall, but ahead of the nimble Coopers – with teammate Schell struggling, three seconds behind in eleventh (Schell was potentially using a less powerful engine).
As mentioned, this was an extremely attritional race. Behra, having passed Brooks at the start, was able to lead for 27 laps – finally proving the speed of the P25 – until the reliability woes of the car eventually overcame its speed and his brakes failed. The next 10 laps saw a close and prophetic battle between Mike Hawthorn and Stirling Moss, swapping positions until Moss retired with engine difficulties. Hawthorn would lead for another ten laps until also retiring due to a faulty fuel pump, his only consolation being a single point for fastest lap, which would later mean even less when accounting for drop races. Maurice Trintingnant would lead the remaining 52 laps and claim a surprise victory in the underpowered yet nimble rear-engined Cooper T45, officially evincing the potency of mid/rear-engined Grand Prix cars 20 years after the success of Ferdinand Porsche’s Auto Union cars. Schell would hold on for 5th position 9 laps behind Trintignant, giving the P25 its first finish and points score.
Skins/helmet: @Mr. Malarkey
Following on from the Moroccan skins, and in a somewhat befuddled order, I present to you two skins for the BRM P25 as entered in the XVI Grand Prix Automobile de Monaco, driven by Jean Behra (6) and Harry Schell (8). Curiously, some sources record Ron Flockhart as having entered in the race driving the #10 BRM, but that he also drove the #22 Cooper T43 in qualifying. Either way, he didn’t qualify, and I haven’t found any photos of the car, so – for the time being – Flockhart’s #10 has been omitted.
Following on from the barren first round in Argentina, the 1958 campaign began in anger around the snaking streets of Europe’s playground. With the British teams absent from the first round, BRM, Cooper, Connaught, Lotus, and Vanwall all turned up to the second round in Monaco with the intention of proving the mettle of their new and improved designs over the course of a near three-hour endeavour of human and mechanical fortitude. Their efforts paid off, with all but one of the top 8 grid places being taken by a British design. This race was also a landmark for F1 in that Maria Teresa de Filippis became the first woman to enter a World Championship Grand Prix, failing to qualify in a privately entered Maserati 250f.
To say BRM came into this race with low expectations would be an understatement. Now in its third year of competition, the P25 - its potential anchored by notoriously poor handling and reliability - had so far finished none of the championship races it was entered in (0 finishes out of 8 starts). Hoping for a change in their fortunes, Owen Racing Organisation enlisted the services of veterans Harry Schell Jean Behra to exploit the full potential of their updated challenger. Again, the British team’s efforts were immediately impactful, with Behra qualifying an impressive second place – trailing Brooks’ Vanwall, but ahead of the nimble Coopers – with teammate Schell struggling, three seconds behind in eleventh (Schell was potentially using a less powerful engine).
As mentioned, this was an extremely attritional race. Behra, having passed Brooks at the start, was able to lead for 27 laps – finally proving the speed of the P25 – until the reliability woes of the car eventually overcame its speed and his brakes failed. The next 10 laps saw a close and prophetic battle between Mike Hawthorn and Stirling Moss, swapping positions until Moss retired with engine difficulties. Hawthorn would lead for another ten laps until also retiring due to a faulty fuel pump, his only consolation being a single point for fastest lap, which would later mean even less when accounting for drop races. Maurice Trintingnant would lead the remaining 52 laps and claim a surprise victory in the underpowered yet nimble rear-engined Cooper T45, officially evincing the potency of mid/rear-engined Grand Prix cars 20 years after the success of Ferdinand Porsche’s Auto Union cars. Schell would hold on for 5th position 9 laps behind Trintignant, giving the P25 its first finish and points score.
