Albert Divo

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Albert Divo, 1924
Divo at the French Grand Prix in 1924
Albert Divo at the Targa Florio 1929

Albert Eugène Divo (actually Albert Eugène Diwo , born January 24, 1895 in Paris , † September 19, 1966 in Morsang-sur-Orge , Essonne department ) was a French racing driver .

Career

Albert Divo was a mechanic by profession. At the age of 13 he began an apprenticeship as a ship mechanic. During the First World War he was a pilot , then initially a mechanic and then from 1919 to 1939 a racing car driver. In the 1920s and 1930s, he was a six-time Grand Prix winner as a driver for Sunbeam , Delage , Bugatti , Talbot and Delahaye .

In 1922 he took part in the RAC Tourist Trophy on the Snaefell Mountain Course on the Isle of Man . Divo scored his first Grand Prix victory for Sunbeam in 1923 at the Spanish Grand Prix at the Autódromo de Sitges-Terramar about 40 kilometers outside of Barcelona in Spain . As a driver for Delage, he finished second behind Giuseppe Campari in the European Grand Prix in Lyon in 1924 .

In 1925 Albert Divo won two Grands Prix for Delage. In July he won the French Grand Prix at the Autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry after his car was eliminated and he had taken over the racing car of his teammate Robert Benoist . In September he shared the victory with his team-mate André Morel at the San Sebastian Grand Prix at the Circuito Lasarte . On August 22, 1925, the first big racing duel took place at the Klausen race on the Klausenpassstrasse , which the Italian Count Giulio Masetti won in his Sunbeam Grand Prix car with a two-liter engine against the French with his Delage with a five-liter engine. From 1922 to 1934, the Klausen race was considered the most difficult and prestigious hill climb in Europe.

With a Talbot-Darracq 700 Divo won the Coupe du Salon in Montlhéry in 1926 . In 1927, also with a Talbot-Darracq 700, he was third at the RAC Grand Prix in Brooklands and first in the formula-free race car in Montlhéry.

Following the withdrawal of brands Talbot-Darracq and Delage from racing Divo was initially unemployed and came in 1928 instead of the fatally injured Pietro Bordino in the Bugatti - factory team , he remained in until the 1933rd In 1928 and 1929 he drove to victory in the Targa Florio in a Bugatti T35 .

He contested many races in England and Ireland . Allegedly because of the easier pronunciation in these countries, he had the spelling of his name changed to Divo in 1928 . In Morsang-sur-Orge he was elected to the city council in 1935. Bugatti racing driver Janine Jennky was at times his partner. After the Second World War , Albert Divo worked as a racing manager at Castrol . In 1962 Albert Divo was in Villars-sur-Ollon ( Switzerland ) and was a founding member of the Club International des Anciens Pilotes de Grand Prix F1 .

Divo was awarded a Knight of the Legion of Honor. He died of a heart attack in 1966 and was buried in the Morsang-sur-Orge cemetery.

The Bugatti Divo , presented in 2018 as part of the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance , is named after the racing driver.

statistics

Grand Prix victories

Le Mans results

year team vehicle Teammate placement Failure reason
1931 FranceFrance Bugatti team Bugatti T50S FranceFrance Guy Bouriat failure withdrawn
1938 FranceFrance Ecurie Bleue Delahaye 145 ItalyItaly Gianfranco Comotti failure Gearbox damage

literature

Web links

Commons : Albert Divo  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Divo, Albert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Diwo, Albert Eugène (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French racing car driver
DATE OF BIRTH January 24, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH September 19, 1966
Place of death Morsang-sur-Orge , Essonne department