Eugenio Siena

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Eugenio Siena in 1932 in an Alfa Romeo 8C 2300
Eugenio Siena as Enzo Ferrari's co-driver at the Coppa Acerbo 1924

Eugenio Siena (born April 1, 1905 in Milan , † May 15, 1938 in Tripoli , Italian Libya ) was an Italian racing car driver .

Career

Siena was a cousin of the racing driver Giuseppe Campari , who was successful in the 1920s, and with his help began as a mechanic and test driver alongside Enzo Ferrari at Alfa Romeo . With the young Ferrari he won the first edition of the Coppa Acerbo near Pescara in an Alfa Romeo RL in 1924 . Later on, Siena was the co-driver of other successful Italian pilots among them Baconin Borzacchini , Mario Tadini , Piero Taruffi , Emilio Villoresi and Tazio Nuvolari .

From 1930 to 1934 he worked for the Scuderia Ferrari and won, among others, as a driver in 1932 to Alfa Romeo 8C 2300mm along with Antonio Brivio the Spa 24 Hours and 1933 the VI. Coppa Principe di Piemonte . At the 1934 Mille Miglia , he was second as co-driver for Tazio Nuvolari in an Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza.

Eugenio Siena later became a private driver and founded the Scuderia Siena , with which he mainly competed in Voiturette races from 1934 to 1936 . At the Monaco Grand Prix in 1934 he finished eighth in a Maserati 8C-3000 , and in 1937 he won the Circuito di Milano race in Parco Sempione in a Maserati 4CM .

After the end of the 1937 season, Siena received the offer to become a works driver for Alfa Romeo. His first race for the Milanese was the Gran Premio di Tripoli in 1938 at the Autodromo della Mellaha in what was then the Italian colony of Libya , where he drove a Tipo 312 for Alfa Corse alongside Giuseppe Farina , Clemente Biondetti and Raymond Sommer .

Deadly accident

The race for the Gran Premio di Tripoli took place on Sunday, May 15, 1938. Shortly after the start, a number of the Maserati Voiturettes starting behind the big Grand Prix cars joined the field. Some factory drivers, including Hermann Lang , Rudolf Caracciola and Carlo Felice Trossi , got stuck behind these cars and only gradually managed to overtake them. Eugenio Siena, who qualified ninth, was tenth behind the Maseratis of Luigi Villoresi and Franco Cortese , who led the Voiturette class. At the beginning of the eighth lap, Siena tried to overtake Cortese's car as it approached the first corner. During the hard braking maneuver, he lost control of his Alfa Romeo and went off the track. He ran over a piece of sand and some trees and hit a wall. The Italian was thrown out of the car several meters through the air and died on impact.

Just minutes later there was another tragic accident when László Hartmann collided with Giuseppe Farina's Alfa Romeo in his Maserati. The Hungarian broke his spine and died the following day in the Italian hospital in Tripoli.

Web links

Commons : Eugenio Siena  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ VI. Coppa Principe di Piemonte 1933. (No longer available online.) Mitorosso.com, April 23, 2013, archived from the original on December 14, 2013 ; accessed on December 14, 2013 .
  2. ↑ Leif Snellman, Felix Muelas: VI Monaco Grand Prix. www.kolumbus.fi, April 16, 2013, accessed December 14, 2013 .
  3. ↑ Leif Snellman, Felix Muelas: II ° CIRCUITO DI MILANO. www.kolumbus.fi, August 26, 2011, accessed December 14, 2013 .
  4. ↑ Leif Snellman, Felix Muelas: XII ° GRAN PREMIO DI TRIPOLI. www.kolumbus.fi, April 27, 2013, accessed December 14, 2013 .
  5. ^ László Hartmann. www.motorsportmemorial.org, accessed on December 14, 2013 (English).
personal data
SURNAME Siena, Eugenio
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian racing car driver
DATE OF BIRTH April 1, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Milan , Italy
DATE OF DEATH May 15, 1938
Place of death Tripoli , Italian Libya