Achille Varzi

Achille Varzi in Monza in 1930

Pit stop by Achille Varzi and Louis Chiron at the 1931 French Grand Prix

Achille Varzi (born August 8, 1904 in Galliate ; † July 1, 1948 in Bern , Switzerland ) was an Italian motorcycle and automobile racer .

Career

Achille Varzi was one of the best drivers of the early 1930s, but it was his destiny to be the loser in a duel with Tazio Nuvolari . The Varzi – Nuvolari duels mobilized the masses. Unlike Nuvolari, whose career was sown with accidents and broken bones, Varzi, whose driving style was cool, calculating, and perfectionist, had only two accidents in his career; in the second he died.

In the 1920s, Achille Varzi began his career like many other racing drivers with motorcycle races. In 1923 he won eight races in a row on a Garelli and was Italian 350 cc champion , in 1926 he won the Italian championship in the half-liter class on Sunbeam . In 1929 he was ex-aequo with Terzo Bandini behind Mario Colombo runner-up in the 500 category, in 1930 he had to let Bandini go first.

From 1928 on, Varzi took part in motorcycling alongside motorcycling, and in 1929 he won three Grands Prix in an Alfa Romeo P2 . In 1930 he won the Targa Florio in an Alfa Romeo and won the Coppa Acerbo in Pescara , the Monza Grand Prix and San Sebastián in Spain on a Maserati . Varzi worked for the Bugatti team from 1931 to 1933 . His greatest successes were victories at the Grand Prix of France in 1931 and at the Grand Prix of Monaco and Tripoli in 1933. Again in an Alfa Romeo, he won several other races in 1934, including the Mille Miglia .

For the 1935 season, Achille Varzi was signed by Auto Union , which meant a kink in his career. Reset by stall orders because the German politicians would rather see a German driver win, he sought consolation in drugs and women’s stories. Nevertheless, he was able to prove several times that he was one of the few drivers who perfectly mastered the difficult-to-drive Auto Union Grand Prix cars . In 1935 Varzi won the Grand Prix of Tunisia and the Coppa Acerbo in Pescara. 1936 he won ahead of team-mate Hans Stuck at the Grand Prix of Tripoli . From 1937 onwards, Varzi only competed sporadically. After Auto Union initially failed to renew his contract, he was given one last opportunity at the Italian Grand Prix in September 1937 . In practice, Varzi was faster than Bernd Rosemeyer in the same car, and in the race he finished sixth.

1946 Achille Varzi celebrated a great comeback for the Alfa-Romeo - factory team , he won the Gran Premio di Torino , reaching some more places in the top three.

During training for the Swiss Grand Prix , Varzi had a fatal accident on July 1, 1948 on the Bremgarten circuit on a wet track.

gallery

• 

  Achille Varzi 1931

• 

  In the Bugatti at the 1931 French Grand Prix

• 

  In the Alfa Romeo at the Targa Florio 1930

• 

  At the Targa Florio 1930

• 

  In the Maserati 1930 in San Sebastian

• 

  At the 1932 Tunis Grand Prix

• 

  1935 in Auto Union

statistics

Motorcycling

title

• 1923 - Italian 350cc champion on Garelli
• 1926 - Italian 500cc champion on Sunbeam

Automobile sport

Pre-war grands prix results

season	team	dare	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	Points	position
1931	Automobiles Ettore Bugatti	Bugatti T51								13	6. 1
			Ret	1	Ret
1932	Automobiles Ettore Bugatti	Bugatti T54 / Bugatti T51								21st	16.
			Ret	Ret	DNS
1933	Automobiles Ettore Bugatti	Bugatti T59 / Bugatti T51								-
			1	DNA	2	DNA	4th
1934	Scuderia Ferrari	Alfa Romeo Tipo B / P3								-
			6th	2	DNF	DNF	DNF	5
1935	Auto Union AG	Auto Union Type B								39	8th.
				5		8th	4th	DNF	DNF
1936	Auto Union AG	Auto Union Type C								19th	4th
			2		2	DNF
1937	Auto Union AG	Auto Union Type C								36	20th
							6th
1938	Officine A. Maserati	Maserati 8CTF								-
			DNA

Legend
colour	meaning		EM points
gold	victory		1
silver	2nd place		2
bronze	3rd place		3
green	Classified, covered more than 75% of the race distance		4th
blue	not entitled to points, covered between 50% and 75% of the race distance		5
violet	not eligible for points, covered between 25% and 50% of the race distance		6th
red	not eligible for points, covered less than 25% of the race distance		7th
colour	abbreviation	meaning	EM points
black	DSQ	disqualified	8th
White	DNS	did not start
	DNA	did not arrive
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)

¹Varzi teamed up with Louis Chiron . The two always shared a car due to the race lengths of over 1200 km each and therefore came together in the ranking.

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1931	Bugatti team	Bugatti T50S	Louis Chiron	failure	withdrawn

literature

• Daniele Agrati, Roberto Patrignani: Agrati Garelli - 80 anni di storia (1999) ISBN 8879112031
• Peter Kirchberg, Grand Prix Report AUTO UNION 1934 to 1939 (1982) ISBN 3879438765

Web links

Commons : Achille Varzi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Leif Snellman: Achille Varzi (I). www.kolumbus.fi, November 24, 2019, accessed on March 28, 2020 (English). 
• Official Homepage (Italian)
• Achille Varzi in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Motorsport Memorial