Grand Prix season 1923

Indianapolis winner: Tommy Milton .

First in France: Henry Segrave , here at the 1922 French Grand Prix .

Enzo Ferrari won the race in Ravenna.

The three main races of the 1923 Grand Prix season were the 500-mile race in Indianapolis in the USA , the French Grand Prix , officially the Grand Prix de l ' ACF , at the Circuit de Tours in Tours and the Italian Grand Prix on the Autodromo di Monza north of Milan .

In addition - mostly in Italy  - other races were held, including in particular the Targa Florio in Sicily and the Coppa Montenero in Livorno . The two races in Spain , the Grand Prix of San Sebastián and Spain were also important international events.

Season description

With the establishment of the Italian Grand Prix , which has been held annually since 1921 , the French automobile club ACF was no longer the sole organizer of Grand Prix races. The international automobile association AIACR had already taken this into account in December 1922 and founded the Commission Sportive Internationale ( CSI ), an institution that now deals with regulatory issues, such as the adoption of the international Grand Prix racing formula ( Formule Internationale ) or the establishment of the racing calendar across countries regulated. One of the first decisions of the CSI was to introduce a European Grand Prix . Under this title, one of the Grand Prix races was to be designated as the season highlight in the future, with the idea behind - in keeping with the zeitgeist of the time - a kind of European or even world championship . The organization of international Grand Prix races was of course still reserved for the big "automobile nations" that had a well-known automobile industry. For the first European Grand Prix in 1923 the III. Gran Premio d'Italia determined. At the same time, the CSI made the decision  to extend the current International Formula - capacity limitation to 2 liters, minimum car weight 650 kg and minimum race distance of 800 km - up to and including 1925 and thus for the first time a Grand Prix formula longer than just to maintain a season. In this way, the aim was to continue to meet the needs of the automotive companies so that they did not have to replace their Grand Prix models, which had meanwhile been developed with enormous financial and technological effort, with new designs every year.

Nevertheless, the technical arms race continued unchecked in 1923 and some of the manufacturers came up with extremely creative and unconventional solutions, especially in the field of aerodynamics and chassis construction. However, the introduction of supercharging at Fiat to increase engine performance proved to be a decisive success factor . This technology was particularly popular in aircraft engine construction during the war in order to enable higher altitudes to be reached with thin air, and now, as with other developments, it was also applied to racing car construction. Last year, Mercedes had already competed in the Targa Florio with two supercharged cars , even if a car with a naturally aspirated engine won the race in the end. In contrast, Fiat achieved the first success of a supercharged racing car in June 1923 at the Voiturette race in Brescia, and the turbocharged eight-cylinder engine in the new Fiat 805-405 Grand Prix model also achieved output values of 130 hp in this way, which is a lead of around 30 PS meant to the non-supercharged competition. However, the Italian plant initially still uses “Vane” loaders , which turned out to be the wrong decision when it was first used on the occasion of the French Grand Prix , because too much dust was sucked into the unprotected air inlets on the not yet fully paved race track near Tours , and then all three of the team's cars failed with engine failure. The victory in this race coincided with the Sunbeam of Henry Segrave  - essentially a copy of the previous model Fiat 804 , by the poached by Fiat engineers Vincenzo Bert Arione and Walter Becchia had been constructed - one more time and for more than two decades for the last time in a Grand Prix races on a naturally aspirated car. At the same time, it was the first and, until 1955, the only victory of a British driver in a Grand Prix or Formula 1 racing car built in Great Britain.

On the other hand, the performance of the French cars in this race was quite disappointing. Neither Bugatti's “Tank” with its extremely short wheelbase and streamlined pontoon body made of aluminum, which also covers the wheels, nor Voisin's “Laboratoire” model , whose likewise streamlined wooden body uses monocoque for the first time in Grand Prix racing was used, prove to be competitive due to poor road holding or lack of engine power. Also the only ready-to-use Delage Type 2 LCV , the first Grand Prix racing car with a V12 engine developed by Charles Planchon with the assistance of Albert Lory , which, due to its complexity, was regarded as a masterpiece of technology and even came close to the performance values ​​of the supercharged engines Fiat came up, was not yet fully developed and had to struggle with overheating problems before it finally failed due to a technical defect.

After the total breakdown at the race in Tours, the team led by Fiat chief designer Giulio Cesare Cappa immediately converted the engines to less vulnerable Roots compressors , with which Carlo Salamano and Felice Nazzaro , who was the replacement for Enrico Giaccone who had a fatal accident during training, reactivated finally achieved a double victory in the home race for the first European Grand Prix in Monza. Here had with Alfa Romeo actually another team with supercharged racing cars will compete, but the team moved to the equally fatal training accident Ugo Sivocci the other two six-cylinder P1 back from the race. On the other hand, the teams from Sunbeam - which practically could only lose after the surprise victory in the French Grand Prix - and Bugatti, where they also avoided another certain defeat in view of the disappointing performance of their racing cars, had not even come to the Italian Grand Prix . On the other hand, Miller was the first time since 1921 that an overseas team was at the start. Participation had become possible because the two-liter formula had meanwhile also been introduced for Indianapolis . However, in contrast to the European Grand Prix races - where the presence of a mechanic in the car was still required by the regulations - the transition to the monoposto had already been completed, so that they were designed for completely different track characteristics and not yet included American racing cars equipped with supercharging were structurally at a disadvantage compared to the Fiat. Also due to a lack of engine power, the cars of the German company Benz, which had returned to the Grand Prix stage for the first time since 1908, had no chance . The “teardrop car” designed by Hans Nibel had actually anticipated many later trends in racing car construction, such as mid-engine , aerodynamically shaped body with side radiator arrangement, internal brakes and independent suspension on the rear wheels by decades.

The season finally ended with another Grand Prix race on the newly built high-speed oval Sitges-Terramar course in Spain. In the absence of Fiat and in view of an otherwise weak field of mainly local racing drivers, Sunbeam achieved another success here with Albert Divo after a thrilling race against Louis Zborowski on a Miller that was excellently suited for this type of route. However, the race, which was shortened from 300 to 200 laps due to heavy rain, was overshadowed by a scandal when the entry fees of the spectators were seized due to unpaid bills for the construction of the racetrack and therefore no entry fee could be paid to the participants . For this reason, the track was henceforth completely excluded from the organization of international races, especially since many drivers had complained about the incorrect design of the steep curves.

Racing calendar

Grandes Épreuves

	date	run	route	winner	statistics
1	05/30	Indianapolis 500	Indianapolis Motor Speedway	Tommy Milton ( Miller )	statistics
2	02.07.	ACF Grand Prix	Circuit de Tours	Henry Segrave ( Sunbeam )	statistics
3	09.09.	Grand Prix of Italy ( Grand Prix of Europe )	Autodromo di Monza	Carlo Salamano ( Fiat )	statistics

More races

date	run	route	winner	statistics
April 15	Targa Florio	Medio circuito delle Madonie	Ugo Sivocci ( Alfa Romeo )	statistics
06.05.	Circuito di Cremona	Cremona	Antonio Ascari ( Alfa Romeo )
10.06.	Circuito stradale del Mugello	Circuito stradale del Mugello	Gastone Brilli-Peri ( Steyr )
07/17	Circuito del Savio	Ravenna	Enzo Ferrari ( Alfa Romeo )
07/28	Gran Premio de San Sebastian	Circuito Lasarte	Albert Guyot ( Rolland Pilain )	statistics
08/26	Coppa Montenero	Circuito di Montenero	Mario Razzauti ( Ansaldo )
28.10.	Spanish Grand Prix	Autódromo de Sitges-Terramar	Albert Divo ( Sunbeam )	statistics
25.11.	Circuito del Garda	Salò	Guido Meregalli ( Diatto )

Web links

Commons : Automobilsport 1923  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

• Hans Etzrodt: GRAND PRIX WINNERS 1895-1949. www.kolumbus.fi, January 5, 2014, accessed April 6, 2015 . 
• 1923 Grand Prix. (No longer available online.) Www.teamdan.com, archived from the original on February 7, 2019 ; accessed on June 18, 2020 (English). 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ This may also be the reason for the somewhat unclear status of the race in San Sebastian, which in the sources is often referred to as the Spanish Grand Prix
2. ↑ If supercharged engines were still forbidden in the racing formula of 1914, the post-war regulations failed to include this provision.