He was immediately successful at Ferrari, taking his maiden wins at the Belgian and French Grands Prix amongst several podiums, and finishing third in the World Drivers' Championship.

Those small vehicles, powered by Norton motorcycle engines, were also the proving ground of many of Collins's F1 contemporaries, including Stirling Moss.

His breakthrough came, away from the track, when at a party hosted by the great pre-war lady racer, Kay Petre, Collins managed to inveigle himself with John Wyer, the team principal at Aston Martin, earning his test drive at Silverstone.

[2][self-published source] At HWM Collins he became part of a three-car team with Lance Macklin and Moss, and they competed in most of the F2 races in Britain and in Europe.

Not known for his technical knowledge, Collins was happy to have his mechanics set up his car, and he simply drove it with his consummate natural skill.

Throughout the first half of the 1950s, Collins was a stalwart performer for the Aston Martin team, scoring a sensational victory at the 1952 Goodwood Nine Hours race.

For the 1956 season, Collins joined Ferrari on the strength of a superb drive in the previous year's Targa Florio, in which he partnered Moss to victory in a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR.

[11] Collins was on the verge of becoming Britain's first F1 World Champion when he handed his Lancia-Ferrari D50 over to team leader Juan Manuel Fangio after the latter suffered a steering-arm failure toward the end of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

[12] Collins's selfless act gained him respect from Enzo Ferrari and high praise from Fangio: "I was moved almost to tears by the gesture... Peter was one of the finest and greatest gentlemen I ever met in my racing career.

Also in 1956, Collins moved to Monaco to avoid compulsory military service in the British Army and thus continue his racing career.

[19] In January 1957, Collins married American actress Louise King, daughter of the executive assistant to UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld,[20] and the couple took up residence on a yacht in Monaco harbour.

[1] The two became very close friends, even arranging to split their winnings between each other, and together engaged in a fierce rivalry with fellow Ferrari driver Luigi Musso.

[21] However, despite a third-place finish at the German Grand Prix,[22] Ferrari were disadvantaged for much of the season as the 801 model (an evolution of the 1954 Lancia D50) was overweight and underpowered.

Although achieving few results in the first half of the season, Collins improved and won the non-championship BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone,[25] then finished third at the Monaco Grand Prix.

The Monaco yacht where he lived was considered a perpetual party by Ferrari, who thought Collins was distracted and no longer focused on driving and developing sports cars.

Under team orders and desiring to help his friend Hawthorn win the Championship, Collins led from the start, running flat out in an effort to beat the Vanwall of Moss.

After pushing hard to keep pace, Collins went into the Pflanzgarten section of the circuit too quickly, which caused his Ferrari to run wide and encounter a ditch.

Teammate Mike Hawthorn was so disturbed by Collins's death that he retired from racing immediately after winning the 1958 Drivers' Championship.