Grand Prix season 1922

Winner of the French Grand Prix: Felice Nazzaro , here in 1907.

First in Italy: Pietro Bordino , here in a Fiat 804 at the 1922 French Grand Prix.

In the 1922 Grand Prix season , the French Grand Prix , officially Grand Prix de l ' ACF , at the Circuit de Strasbourg around Duppigheim near Strasbourg and the Italian Grand Prix at the Autodromo di Monza north of Milan were two international grands Prix held.

In addition - mostly in Italy  - other important races were held, including the Targa Florio in Sicily and the Coppa Montenero in Livorno . The prestigious Indianapolis 500 in the USA also took place.

Season course

With the new Grand Prix formula adopted by the International Automobile Association ( AIACR) for 1922, the short phase of mutual starting opportunities in Europe and the United States was ended after just one year. While the previous 3-liter formula continued to apply for the races in Indianapolis , the displacement for Grand Prix cars has now been significantly reduced to 2 liters with a minimum weight of 650 kg. In addition, a maximum overhang of the rear of the car of 150 cm from the rear axle was specified in order to prevent extremely sweeping streamlines.

For the automobile manufacturers involved in Grand Prix racing, this meant that they had to say goodbye to the long-stroke engine designs that had prevailed up until then and bring out new models for the season. The Fiat development team led by engineer Giulio Cesare Cappa proved to be by far the most successful . The in-line six-cylinder in the new 804 model , with its hemispherical shaped combustion chambers, welded cylinders and the crankshaft with seven bearings, achieved unprecedented performance values ​​of around 50 hp per liter of displacement (initially 95 hp at speeds of around 6000 revolutions per minute, which over the course of the model career could even be increased to 112 hp).

Rolland-Pilain , on the other hand, relied on eight-cylinder designs  - their engines even had desmodromic valve control at first , but which were then upgraded to conventional valves due to poor reliability - and also newcomer Bugatti . The plant, located in Molsheim in Alsace , had until then mainly appeared with lighter cars, such as B. last year when he won the Voiturette race in Brescia , and now he went to his home race - the Versailles Treaty had annexed Alsace to France, and the company was located in the immediate vicinity of the 1922 French Grand Prix circuit - with its first real Grand Prix model Type 29 , which was equipped with a streamlined body with a cylindrical cross-section and a tapering rear. The four-cylinder model 2LS by Ballot , which had already been designed for the Indianapolis mission in 1919, had a similar shape , in which the cylindrical body shape was also used to cover the spare wheels arranged in the front of the vehicle. For Sunbeam , the star designer Ernest Henry , who had been replaced by Ballot and who created the legendary pre-war Grand Prix Peugeots , had developed a four-cylinder with four-valve technology. Overall, the participation of six well-known manufacturers was a big step forward compared to the previous year, but none of these designs were far from the Fiat in terms of their engine performance. Delage was busy developing the first Grand Prix model with a V12 engine, which could have been dangerous for the Fiat, but was not used until the next season. Even Mercedes from Germany's return to the Grand Prix stage had originally intended, but ultimately entered only once, at the Targa Florio in appearance, where for the first time two cars with supercharged were used.

One of the most notable innovations of the season was the transition to the mass start, which came into effect from the Grand Prix de l'ACF . On the new 13.39 km long circuit near Strasbourg , for the first time in Grand Prix history, all participants were sent simultaneously from a starting formation drawn up beforehand to the 800 km total distance now standardized for Grand Prix races. Until then, such mass starts were at best on racetracks, such as B. Indianapolis has been common. Apart from possible laps, this made it possible for the spectators to understand the status of the race at all times and the first participant to cross the finish line was automatically the winner of the race. However, the new element of tension gained in this way could not really be exhausted in this race because the Fiat racing cars were simply too oppressively superior. Shortly before the end of the race, however, the Fiat victory was overshadowed by the fatal accident of Biagio Nazzaro , whose rear axle broke due to a design fault at high speed. His uncle Felice Nazzaro , on the other hand, was able to cross the finish line with almost an hour ahead of the last major success of his career, despite a broken axle. In the end, of the 15 participants who started, a total of three cars covered the full distance.

The subsequent Italian Grand Prix took place for the first time in 1922 on the new Monza racetrack, which had just opened a week earlier . This 10 km long combination of a racetrack with a high-speed oval was the first and oldest permanent facility of this type on which Grand Prix races took place and which - with a few exceptions and with multiple track changes - still exists today is used. The Gran Premio d'Italia of 1922 is also the first Grand Prix to be held on a racetrack with a paved road surface throughout.

Despite an impressive number of originally 39 entries from 13 different teams - including Mercedes, Austro-Daimler and Heim for the first time after the war, also manufacturers from the German Empire and Austria - this race also almost developed into a farce. After the overwhelming demonstration of force by the Fiats at the French Grand Prix, one manufacturer after the other recognized the hopelessness of the undertaking and saved the costs of traveling. When the Austro-Daimler team finally withdrew after Gregor Kuhn's fatal training accident , the only reasonably serious opponent of the three Fiat racing cars was a lone Bugatti. From a total of eight participants, only three survived the race in the end, winner Pietro Bordino in a Fiat two laps ahead of his team-mate Felice Nazzaro in front of Pierre de Vizcaya's Bugatti two laps back . It was also the first race in Grand Prix history in which, after the winner had crossed the finish line, all other participants remaining in the race were waved off immediately, even if they had not yet fully completed the specified race distance.

Racing calendar

Grandes Épreuves

	date	run	route	winner	statistics
1	July 16	ACF Grand Prix	Circuit de Strasbourg	Felice Nazzaro ( Fiat )	statistics
2	10.09.	Italian Grand Prix	Autodromo di Monza	Pietro Bordino ( Fiat )	statistics

More races

date	run	route	winner	statistics
04/02	Targa Florio	Medio circuito delle Madonie	Giulio Masetti ( Mercedes )	statistics
05/30	Indianapolis 500	Indianapolis Motor Speedway	Jimmy Murphy ( Duesenberg - Miller )	statistics
05/30	Circuito di Sardegna	Cagliari	Ernesto Ceirano ( SCAT )
06/18	Circuito del Mugello	Circuito stradale del Mugello	Alfieri Maserati ( Isotta Fraschini )
22.06.	RAC Tourist Trophy	Snaefell Mountain Course	Jean Chassagne ( Sunbeam )	statistics
08/27	Coppa Montenero	Circuito di Montenero	Carlo Masetti ( Bugatti )
15.10.	Circuito del Garda	Salò	Guido Meregalli ( Diatto )
10/22	Gran Premio d'Autunno di Monza	Autodromo di Monza	André Dubonnet ( Hispano-Suiza )	statistics
November 19	Coppa Florio	Medio circuito delle Madonie	André Boillot ( Peugeot )

Web links

Commons : Automobilsport 1922  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Hans Etzrodt: GRAND PRIX WINNERS 1895-1949. www.kolumbus.fi, January 5, 2014, accessed April 6, 2015 . 
• 1922 Grand Prix. www.teamdan.com, accessed April 6, 2015 .