Christian Werner (racing driver)

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Christian Werner at the Targa Florio 1922 .
Christian Werner on the track at the Targa Florio 1922.

Christian Werner (born May 19, 1892 in Stuttgart ; † June 17, 1932 in Stuttgart-Cannstatt ) was a German racing driver .

Career

On April 27, 1924, Werner won both the Targa Florio and the Coppa Florio with a Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car , which were considered the most difficult European road races at the time.

After training as a mechanic, Werner began his professional career at Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft in 1911 . After the master’s examination, as a test driver, he was primarily responsible for setting up racing cars. His first race was the Targa Florio in Sicily in 1922 , which he finished in second place in the 4.5 liter class. With the victory of the Romanian Touring Tour he won his first major title in the same year.

In 1923 Werner reached eleventh place overall at the Indy 500 in Indianapolis. His DMG teammates Max Sailer and Christian Friedrich Lautenschlager finished eighth and 23rd respectively.

In 1924 Werner drove the first four laps on the Medio circuito delle Madonie , each 108 km in 6:32:37 hours, and thus won the Targa Florio. To win the Coppa Florio , which was carried out together with the Targa, he had to complete another round. He finally crossed the finish line with a finishing time of 8:17:01 hours. He also drove the fastest race lap with 1:35 hours .

In 1928 Christian Werner won the German Grand Prix together with Rudolf Caracciola at the Nürburgring . Caracciola had suffered heat stroke , whereupon Werner replaced him despite an injury to his arm and finished the race over 508.752 km after 4: 54: 24.0 hours or with an average of 103.80 km / h.

Due to the global economic crisis , Mercedes-Benz finally withdrew more and more from motorsport and Werner received generous offers from abroad. Nevertheless, he decided to stay with Mercedes. In 1930 he drove his last race in a Mercedes-Benz SS at the Le Mans 24-hour race, in which he temporarily led with Caracciola but had to give up prematurely.

On June 17, 1932 Werner died of cardiac paralysis in Cannstatt .

statistics

Le Mans results

year team vehicle Teammate placement Failure reason
1930 German EmpireGerman Empire Rudolf Caracciola Mercedes-Benz SSK German EmpireGerman Empire Rudolf Caracciola failure battery

Web links

Commons : Christian Werner  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Behnrdt / Födisch / Behrndt: German racing drivers. Heel Verlag, Königswinter 2008, ISBN 978-3-86852-042-2 , p. 26.
  2. ↑ a b Triple Mercedes triumph at Targa Florio and Coppa Florio in 1924
  3. ^ Jörg-Thomas Födisch: Nürburgring. Moewig, Rastatt 1991, ISBN 3-8118-3065-1 , p. 12.
  4. ↑ Thora Hornung: 50 years Nürburgring. Görres-Verlag, Koblenz, p. 31 u. 178.
  5. ↑ http://www.zvw.de/aktuell/1999/11/27/jhk/news3.htm ( Memento from January 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Werner, Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German automobile racing driver
DATE OF BIRTH May 19, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Stuttgart
DATE OF DEATH June 17, 1932
Place of death Stuttgart-Cannstatt