Ferrari vs Maserati at Indy
Ferrari and Maserati battled for decades at circuits around the world, usually with Ferrari having the upper hand. Not necessarily having better designed cars, Ferrari did have backers with deeper pockets than the Orsi family and generally handled business affairs better than they could manage.
One place where Maserati did excel was at the Indianapolis 500. Though never competing directly, Ferrari appeared a decade later, Maserati enjoyed great success, while Ferrari achieved very little.
Wilbur Shaw had consecutive wins in 1939-40 with the 8CTF, and was leading handily in 41 when a wheel broke. This same car claimed two 3rds in 46-47 and 4th in 48 with Ted Horn. Two sister cars also ran well at Indy during the period, Maseratis were competitive here 10 years after first appearing.
Ferrari sold 3 of his redundant F1 racers American racers in 1952 and prepared one for a serious works entry in the 500 for Alberto Ascari. The cars were heavy with useless 5 speed transmissions where the hot setup was a 2 speed. The engines were powerful enough, but lacked the torque which was required here. Observers warned them about the small hubs on the cars, and Ted Halibrand even offered a set of his magnesium wheels to try, but Ferrari wasn't interested. One of the customer cars did switch to the Halibrands, as the Maserati wheel problem was still fresh in everyone's mind. Ascari did qualify with the help of a 3 carb manifold air lifted from Italy, but the customer cars failed to make the show.
On race day Ascari circulated smoothly just outside the top 10 until lap 40 when the inevitable wheel collapsed. This put an end to the day and to any further serious attempts by Ferrari at Indy. The customer cars quickly faded into obscurity.
Could a return visit to the speedway have been successful? With a special off-set chassis, a torquey 4 cyl motor, American wheels and tires and especially local input into strategy, possibly yes. After all, Cooper and even Lotus were handicapped by the peculiar rules and habits of the place, and they had no language barrier. Perhaps the Offy domination was just too great to overcome, they won every race but one between 1941 and 64.
Indy was apparently one race which Ferrari did want to win, especially since Maserati had gone so well, maybe after 1952 he was reluctant to try and fail again.
Re: Ferrari vs Maserati at Indy
They did try a Ferrari engine in a Kurtis roadster chassis in 1956 driven by Farina. It failed to qualify.
The full story is here: http://forix.autosport.com/8w/ferrar...olis-1956.html
Re: Ferrari vs Maserati at Indy
I knew Farina attempted to qualify but didn't realize it included factory backing. The link is a great site for accounts of both 1952 and 56 500s.
While Ferrari failed to impress many railbirds in 52, the same cannot be said of Ascari. His 4 qualifying laps differed by only .08 seconds and 2 were identical, a record at the time for the brickyard. Everyone was enthused by his smooth, precise approach, they hoped for a return visit.