The Marrakesh ePrix on November 12 takes top-flight single-seater racing back to Morocco. That’s right, while it would make for a good answer on Pointless, Morocco has once held a world championship Formula 1 Grand Prix.
The race took place on a street track too, although the super-fast Ain-Diab circuit (average speeds of 119.6mph/192.5kmh) was a very different track to the Moulay El Hassan that will play host to the all-electric racers when Formula E comes to town.
The one and only Formula 1 World Championship Morocco Grand Prix was the season finale in 1958. It was a time of great change in Formula 1. The legendary Juan Manuel Fangio had retired early in the season, leaving the title to be fought out between three Brits. Fangio’s former team-mate Stirling Moss and Ferrari’s Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins.
Collins was killed in a terrible accident mid-season, leaving his countrymen to go head-to-head for the title in North Africa. Hawthorn led by eight points, but with only the six best scores counting, if Moss won and set fastest lap, which was worth a point back then (you scored eight for a win too), Hawthorn would have to finish second to become Britain’s first world champion.
Moss’s Vanwall was the more technically advanced machine, Hawthorn’s Ferrari Dino 246 more reliable and easier to drive. In qualifying, it was Hawthorn who took pole, out-pacing Moss by just 0.1s, while the rest of the field – headed by Moss’s team-mate Stewart Lewis-Evans – was over half a second slower.
The 7.6km (4.7miles) track was an abridged version of the Anfa track, which had hosted the Moroccan Grand Prix in the pre-war era. It included the coastal road between Casablanca and Azemmour, and as well as being incredibly quick, it was also supremely dangerous (as was commonplace at the time) featuring exposed lampposts and other street furniture.
Moss made a strong start, and led away from Ferrari’s Phil Hill, with Hawthorn back in third. A small error by Hill allowed Hawthorn and the BRM of Jo Bonnier to pass, and relieved the pressure on Moss.
Hill charged his way back into second, but Moss was comfortable out in front, and with his team-mate Tony Brooks up to third, as the race neared the halfway mark Moss recorded what would remain the fastest lap and was set for the world title.
Hawthorn caught and passed Brooks, whose engine then failed, and although he was a long way behind Hill, the Ferrari team signaled for the American to move over and let the Brit take second. Moss ultimately won the race by well over a minute, but second place ensured Hawthorn was champion.
However, there was a tragic twist in the tale. A late-race engine failure resulted in a huge accident for Lewis-Evans, who suffered horrific burns from which he later succumbed, while Hawthorn would never defend his title as he announced his retirement after the race. He was killed in a road crash just three months later.
Moss, famously, would never win the title, while Lewis-Evans’ death played a key role in Vanwall leaving F1 and a certain Bernie Ecclestone – a close friend of the Brit – taking some time away from the sport. Hawthorn’s title win was also the last for a front-engined car. A new breed of light and nimble rear-engined racers from Cooper and Lotus were waiting in the wings and were set to transform single-seater racing for ever…
Although rallying remained a staple of motorsport in Morocco, it would be over 50 years before top-level international street racing returned. In 2009, the World Touring Car Championship added a street race in Marrakesh to its calendar, and it has been a permanent fixture ever since.
The original version of the Circuit Moulay El Hassan was a 4.5km (2.8miles) blast through the streets, with two long roads packed with chicanes linked by turns at either end. For 2016, the track was shortened and substantially modified.
It’s this 2.97km version that Formula E will race on this weekend, and while F2 and AutoGP held races on the previous layout, this will mark the first time a headline FIA-sanctioned single-seater race has wowed the Morocco fans in almost three generations.
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