Grand Prix season 1928
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For the 1928 Grand Prix season , the World Automobile Association ( AIACR) announced another automobile world championship for which seven international Grand Prix races were to be classified. However, with the race at Indianapolis and the Italian Grand Prix at the Autodromo di Monza , considered this year Grand Prix of Europe , only two of these ran Grandes Épreuves were carried out, and only for the race in Monza the International racing formula applied came, the world title could not be awarded in the end.
In addition - mostly in Italy and France - other important races were held, including the Targa Florio in Sicily , the Coppa Montenero in Livorno , the Coppa Acerbo in Pescara , the Premio Reale di Roma and the Grand Prix of the ACF . The Grand Prix of San Sebastián and Spain at the Circuito Lasarte in San Sebastián were also of international importance. In contrast, the Grand Prix of France , Germany and Spain were only advertised as sports car races this year .
Season description
Since the mid-1920s, the traditional kind of Grand Prix sport was in rapid decline. As early as 1926 and 1927 , only a few automobile companies were willing and able to take part in the official Grand Prix races under the unfortunate 1.5-liter racing formula. When Delage and Talbot finally ceased racing for economic reasons, only Bugatti remained - apart from the newcomer Maserati , where for the time being the focus was still on the racing scene in Italy - Bugatti was the only manufacturer interested in continuing. The international automobile association AIACR , however, still clung almost convulsively to the original idea of a competition between the automobile companies and again announced that a world championship was to be held in the form of a brand evaluation for 1928. After all, when the racing formula was adopted at the end of 1926, attempts had already been made to impose few restrictions on the designs in order to encourage as many works as possible to participate. The engine dimensions were now completely free, the two-seater racing cars only had to maintain a weight range of no less than 550 kg and no more than 750 kg and be at least 80 cm wide in the cockpit area. In addition, a distance of at least 600 km was prescribed for the world championship runs.
Nevertheless, the manufacturer's approval was devastating. As early as December 1927, following a meeting with representatives of the French automotive industry , the French automobile club ACF was forced to cancel its traditional Grand Prix for 1928, and the automobile clubs of Germany, Great Britain, Spain and Belgium followed immediately. In America, the decision was made for Indianapolis to keep the previous engine capacity limit of 1.5 liters, so that this race was no longer an option for the World Championship. Only the Italian automobile club stuck to the staging of its Grande Épreuve , which was scheduled for the end of the season and which was also awarded the title of the European Grand Prix - originally intended for the British Grand Prix . However, the world association had to take the situation into account here too and now opened the race to participants who were not registered as official members of a works team .
With this, the AIACR had taken up the basic idea of the so-called “formula-free” races (also “free formula”, “formula-free” races or Formula Libre races), which, in contrast to the classic Grand Prix races, are mainly in Italy, but increasingly also in France enjoyed great popularity from the participants as well as the audience. The recipe for success was that practically anyone who owned a reasonably usable racing car could start at such events, so that it was no problem to get a handsome and attractive field of participants. In this way, for example, the Targa Florio , which had practically been held according to this principle since the early 1920s, actually became the most important international race of the year. It was also, together with 12 other formula-free races (and two hill climbs ), a valuation run for the Italian championship, which had been organized since 1927 at the instigation of the fascist Mussolini regime in order to also exploit motorsport for propaganda purposes.
The importance of the Targa Florio can also be measured by the fact that in 1928 it was the only race in which the works teams from three automobile companies - Maserati, Bugatti and Alfa Romeo - met each other. For the last two companies this season it was actually the only time that they competed with their official works teams. However, the Bugattis, who otherwise entered the other races “privately”, were run by Louis Chiron , Ferdinando Minoia , Gastone Brilli-Peri and the under the pseudonym “W. Williams "started Brit William Grover-Williams in the other important races (the Grand Prix of Rome , San Sebastián , as well as the Coupe de la Commission Sportive in St. Gaudens, which was held as a sports car race - the latter as a replacement for the failed Grand Prix de l ' ACF ) unofficially supervised by mechanics from the Bugatti plant under the leadership of race director Bartolomeo Costantini on the track. With a total of seven victories - including the international Grand Prix of Rome, San Sebastián and Spain , as well as the only Grande Épreuve of the season with the Grand Prix of Italy / Europe - Louis Chiron was not only by far the most successful driver of the year, but was thus also one of the first private drivers to successfully compete in foreign races. In addition, were Albert Divo at the Targa Florio and "W. Williams ”in St. Gaudens. Pietro Bordino , who should have headed the Bugatti team after the final withdrawal from Fiat , had a fatal accident at the beginning of the season during training for the race in Alessandria.
In general, the Bugatti brand continued to be the backbone of the formula-free races with the various variants of the Type 35 , which were freely available to private drivers and which developed into a real bestseller. The range ranged from the relatively inexpensive 1.5-liter four-cylinder Type 37 (with or without a compressor) to the 2-liter model 35C to the 35B with 2.3 liter displacement and 130 hp, which was produced by assembly of fenders, headlights, spare wheels and windshield can also be made nominally roadworthy and used as racing cars . Drivers like Tazio Nuvolari , Marcel Lehoux - a Frenchman from Algeria, whose star was just rising in the races in the North African colonies - the Swiss Edouard / Eduardo Probst , the Belgian Josef Delzaert , the French Philippe Auber , Philippe Étancelin and Pierre Blacque -Belair and the French Janine Jennky were able to enter the winners' lists of numerous less important races with their privately used Bugattis. Out of disappointment at the failed world championship, Bugatti finally held the Grand Prix Bugatti on the Le Mans race track , one of the first “one-make cup ” races in motorsport history, in which only private Bugatti owners were allowed to take part.
The company Maserati , which was only founded in 1926 , now pursued a similar company policy and offered two eight-cylinder racing cars with a capacity of 1.5 and 2 liters, the Tipo 26 and 26B , with the option of booking support from the works team at the same time . With the Tipo 26R with a displacement of 1.7 liters, Maserati also brought out the only Grand Prix model of the season that was specially developed for the international racing formula and had a slightly lighter chassis. However, none of these early Maserati models were fast or stable enough to endanger the Bugatti. So it was just enough for a single win of the season for works driver Baconin Borzacchini in the relatively insignificant race in Catania , while his teammates Luigi Fagioli and Ernesto Maserati , as well as the various independent Maserati drivers, went largely empty-handed.
In addition, some companies that had left Grand Prix racing entirely had put their discarded racing cars up for sale, so that independent drivers had a number of other options besides Bugatti and Maserati. The well-bred Talbot, Delage and Alfa Romeo were fast, but required a correspondingly intensive technical support that could hardly be provided by individuals. So it is no coincidence that in 1928 a new type of (factory) independent racing team appeared for the first time. The pioneer was the Ecurie Italienne or Scuderia Materassi , as it was also called after its founder, the then top driver Emilio Materassi . In addition to some older formula-free racing cars, the team took over the entire inventory of the Talbot plant, which was dissolved in 1927, including the two engineers from Italy, Vincenzo Bertariore and Walter Becchia , who completely revised the racing cars, especially with regard to their stability. In addition to Materassi, who won the races in Mugello and Livorno, the team also repeatedly made cars available to other drivers. With Luigi Arcangeli's victory in Cremona, Scuderia Materassi was even the second most successful team of the season behind Bugatti, but its future was suddenly called into question at the end of the season by the tragic death of Materassi in the Monza disaster.
Giulio Aymini , on the other hand, operated significantly less successfully , who, like Materassi at Talbot, took over the Type 2 LCV from Delage from the 2-liter formula of 1925 , but did not get the complex technology of the V12 cylinders under control. Giuseppe Campari , on the other hand, took a better approach , who, as a former factory driver for Alfa Romeo , continued to enjoy technical support from the factory for his Alfa Romeo P2 , which was now used privately - the 1925 world champion car. Campari only appeared with the car at the two races in Cremona and Pescara , where the P2 was the undisputed fastest car on both occasions. However, it was only enough to win once, because Campari was thrown back hopelessly by tire problems in the first race. At the Targa Florio, Campari also came in second with an Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 six-cylinder that was provided to him by the factory , which was better suited as a sports model for such a long-distance race than the sophisticated Grand Prix car.
Finally, with the Scuderia Nuvolari founded by Tazio Nuvolari together with Cesare Pastore and Achille Varzi , there was also another successful private racing team. Instead of the risk of failing due to the complex technology of former Grand Prix racing cars, the team had ordered proven 35C models from Bugatti, which were also used by the works team itself. Nuvolari - whose engagement as a Bugatti works driver for the Targa Florio had failed at short notice due to a dispute with race director Bartolomeo Costantini - was able to win the races in Tripoli (in the North African colony of Libya), Verona and Alessandria right at the start of the season. However, in the further course of the season a certain lack of maintenance became noticeable on these cars, especially since Nuvolari's partners left the team in the middle of the season. Varzi in particular had recognized that he could not achieve his own ambitious goals in a team under Nuvolari's leadership, so that the two drivers, whose rivalry was to shape the next ten years of Grand Prix racing, always avoided it to start for the same team.
Instead, Varzi took over Camparis Alfa Romeo and started with him as a substitute driver at the Italian Grand Prix, where his competitors initially fought an exciting battle for the lead in one of the typical Monza slipstream battles before the race took its tragic turn. Materassi had skidded with his Talbot while attempting to lap an opponent and, at full speed, raced into the spectator stands, which were only rudimentarily secured. In the accident, 22 spectators were killed in addition to the unfortunate driver, and 36 others were injured. It is thus the worst disaster in Grand Prix racing to date and, after the accident at the Le Mans 24-hour race in 1955, the second worst ever in motorsport. In order to avoid a mass panic, the organizers let the race continue. Varzi, who was temporarily relieved at the wheel by Campari, ended up second behind Chiron on Bugatti, who, due to this victory in the European Grand Prix and the only Grande Épreuve of the year, was sometimes incorrectly referred to in literature as European or even world champion has been.
Racing calendar
Grandes Épreuves
| date | run | route | winner | statistics | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 05/30 |
 Indianapolis 500
|
Indianapolis Motor Speedway |
Louis Meyer ( Miller ) |
statistics |
| 2 | 09.09. |
 Grand Prix of Italy( Grand Prix of Europe ) |
Autodromo di Monza |
 Louis Chiron ( Bugatti ) |
statistics |
More races
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Web links
- Hans Etzrodt: GRAND PRIX WINNERS 1895-1949. www.kolumbus.fi, January 5, 2014, accessed April 11, 2015 .
- 1928 Grand Prix. www.teamdan.com, accessed April 11, 2015 .
- Hans Etzrodt: The 1928 Automobile World Championship. www.kolumbus.fi, May 9, 2013, accessed April 11, 2015 .
Notes / references
- ↑ next to possibly the Roman and the Italian Grand Prix, here the sources differ (Sheldon vs. Etzrodt)