Grand Prix season 1929
For the 1929 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, since only two of these Grandes Épreuves were held with the race in Indianapolis and the French Grand Prix at the Circuit de la Sarthe at Le Mans and the international racing formula was only used for the race in Le Mans , the world championship title was possible for the second time subsequently not be awarded.
Despite its status as Grande Épreuve , the French Grand Prix was mainly based on tradition and attracted almost only French drivers. For the Targa Florio and the Grand Prix of Rome and Monza , which were advertised as Formula Libre races , significantly more international drivers and factories had each named than for the French Grand Prix.
Above all in Italy and France - and also in their North African colonies - numerous other races were also held, although mostly only the Italian races took place with significant international participation. The fascist regime had recognized the suitability of motor sport for mass entertainment and the successes of Italian manufacturers as a propaganda instrument and promoted the organizers to the best of their ability.
With the trend-setting Monaco Grand Prix in Monte Carlo , an internationally important race took place on a street circuit for the first time and has since been a permanent fixture in the annual racing calendar.
The season was marked by the duel between the Bugatti and Alfa Romeo brands . Bugatti won the more important races with "W. Williams in Monaco and the French Grand Prix, Albert Divo at the Targa Florio and Louis Chiron in San Sebastián , but Alfa Romeo won with Achille Varzi in Alessandria , Rome, Livorno and Monza, and Gastone Brilli-Peri in Cremona and Tunis have more successes in internationally important races.
Regulations
After only one year, the AIACR said goodbye to the weight limit introduced in 1928 . Instead, the old idea of a consumption formula was taken up again, according to which the French automobile club ACF had last held races again in 1927 and 1928. For 1929, the International Grand Prix racing formula limited consumption to a maximum of 14 kg of fuel and oil per 100 km. The minimum displacement was 1100 cm³, the minimum weight 900 kg. The racing cars had to have two seats and a chassis width of at least 100 cm, and a maximum of two mechanics were allowed to work on the car with the driver during pit stops . The minimum race distance for the Grande Épreuves was 600 km.
It was precisely the success of the numerous formula-free races that meant that hardly any manufacturer was willing to go into the expense of designing racing cars specifically for the Grand Prix formula, which would then not really have been usable in the "normal" races while at the same time, the races according to the consumption formula - if they were carried out at all - could not offer the audience nearly the usual entertainment because of the restrained driving style.
Season description
The 1929 racing season was largely similar to the previous year. The few automobile companies involved continued to hold back and, with the exception of a few important races, mostly limited themselves to starts in their home countries. This again gave the countless private drivers good opportunities, who continued to make up the bulk of the field. As long as the manufacturers refrained from a renewed arms race, the available designs were reasonably balanced, so that the lack of a practicable racing formula had little effect on equal opportunities and in 1929 again produced a number of very exciting races.
Bugatti in particular still set the standard with the tried and tested versions of the Bugatti Type 35 with 2.3 and 2 liters displacement. The work itself took its only sporadic official missions to the services of William Grover-Williams (under the pseudonym "W. Williams"), Albert Divo , Ferdinando Minoia and veteran Louis Wagner , who already in the very first Grand Prix of 1906 to the start had gone. Other drivers such as Louis Chiron , Guy Bouriat or "Georges Philippe" ( Baron Philippe de Rothschild hid behind this pseudonym ) were probably looked after by mechanics from the works team with their privately registered cars . With the victories of “Williams” in the French and Monaco Grand Prix as well as Divo at the Targa Florio - his personally second and fifth successive success for the plant in this race - Bugatti also won the highest-ranking races of the year However, there was only significant competition from the Italian teams at the race in Sicily. Chiron was also able to win the race in San Sebastián - which, apart from a single Alfa Romeo racing car, was a pure Bugatti affair.
Baconin Borzacchini , Luigi Fagioli and Ernesto Maserati started again for Maserati . The plant had had enough of underpowered cars and, in addition to the previous year's Tipo 26B and 26R models with a displacement of 2 and 1.7 liters, brought out the Maserati V4, the first monster racing car specially designed for high-speed tracks with few bends , with two 2-liter blocks of the Tipo 26B arranged in parallel were connected via a common crankshaft housing to a 300 hp 16-cylinder twin engine with a displacement of 4 liters. However, the team was still limited to participating in the Italian races for the season, as almost all racing cars were sold to domestic private drivers. It was not until the end of the season that the team dared to take a cautious leap across national borders for the first time at the start of the Tunis Grand Prix.
After the success of Giuseppe Campari with his nominally privately used 1925 Alfa Romeo P2 Grand Prix racing car - which, however, had been looked after by factory employees - a sister model was reactivated in 1929. Gastone Brilli-Peri and Achille Varzi , who in the meantime had taken over the car from Campari, also limited themselves mainly to the Italian races, but were always among the fastest there. Despite the numerical superiority of Bugatti, they achieved a total of six victories, including the success of Varzi at the Monza Grand Prix.
After Emilio Materassi's fatal accident at the Italian Grand Prix last year, the future of his Scuderia - the first ever successful independent racing team - initially looked bad. Ultimately, Brilli-Peri took over the team, which was continued under its previous name by team manager Scaletti. In addition to his success with the Alfa Romeo, the new team owner was able to win the two races of Tripoli and Mugello on one of the former Grand Prix Talbots from 1926 , while his teammates Luigi Arcangeli , Clemente Biondetti and, in the end, Tazio Nuvolari over some front placements didn't come out. Although the displacement of one of the racing cars was even increased from 1.5 to 1.7 liters during the season, the Talbot slowly but steadily lost ground to the more powerfully motorized competition.
The most important innovation of the year was without a doubt the first Monaco Grand Prix right at the start of the season . In the principality on the French Riviera, the first internationally important race on an inner-city street circuit took place. Above all, the sophisticated flair, the exotic backdrop and the exclusive line-up with selected participants from six nations - only drivers invited by the Monaco Automobile Club were eligible - made the event even in the absence of the strongest Italians such as the local hero Louis Chiron right at the start of a great success. Of course, Bugatti again provided the bulk of the field and "Williams" on the factory-supported car was the clear favorite. Amazingly, the German Rudolf Caracciola, of all people, with his gigantic-looking Mercedes SSK six-cylinder with 7.1 liter supercharged engine, which looked completely out of place on such a winding course, was the only one able to fight the Bugatti driver in the first half of the race to stand up to the top. The decision was finally made during the refueling stops, during which Caracciola lost a whole lap to “Williams” due to the enormous consumption and tire wear of the Mercedes.
At the Targa Florio, too, Bugatti was victorious at the first encounter with the Alfa Romeo and Maserati factory teams. The Italians had no chance against the experienced drivers Albert Divo and Ferdinando Minoia in their tried and tested Bugatti 35C, especially since Varzi, Campari and Brilli-Peri had to be content with Alfa Romeo's sports car model with a 1.75 liter six-cylinder, as in the previous year , because they had to make do with the P2 did not trust the necessary stability in the Sicilian mountains. The two Maseratis from Borzacchini and Ernesto Maserati, however, did not survive the race.
Exactly the opposite picture was presented at the Royal Prize of Rome on the fast triangular course of Tre Fontane . Here the Alfa Romeo P2s from Varzi and Brilli-Peri were in their element, while the Bugatti team had already been reduced by half during training due to an accident by "Williams". The lonely Divo then had no chance against the Alfa Romeo and finished third with a full 10 minutes behind the leading duo.
At the Grand Prix de l'ACF, however , the French were again among themselves. The race on the Circuit de la Sarthe near Le Mans was the only Grande Épreuve of the year to be carried out according to the official consumption formula, for which the cars were provided with sealed standard tanks and a spare wheel behind the driver's seats instead of the usual boat stern, so that their appearance was also a little bit seemed like a throwback to the old days. There had already been a few similar competitions in France in previous years, and since it was not just the driving performance that mattered under the terms of the event, the Peugeot plant , which returned to Grand Prix racing after a 15-year absence , also paid off for the Use of his older sports car model from 1925 for the drivers André Boillot - younger brother of the famous pre-war star Georges Boillot - and Guy Bouriat still run out of opportunities. Nevertheless, it was a surprise that Boillot was able to keep up with the Bugatti works drivers "Williams", Divo and Conelli from the start and was even in the lead twice in the beginning. The race developed into a procession for a long time, in which the drivers mainly wanted to save fuel for the finale. At the end it got exciting again when the second-placed Boillot was able to make up ground on “Williams”, but was almost caught by Conelli himself.
In September of that year, a Grand Prix of Italy should have been held again - at the same time as the Grand Prix of Europe - as part of the automobile world championship. In view of the low popularity of the new Grand Prix formula, Vincenzo Florio , who as a successful initiator of the Targa Florio had meanwhile risen to the position of sports president of the Italian Automobile Club, immediately abandoned this plan. Instead, he followed his tried and tested recipe for success and announced a formula-free race with the Monza Grand Prix, which resulted in one of the best-filled fields of participants of the year.
Similar to the Grand Prix of Milan in the previous year, the race was held in a format consisting of several heats separated by displacement classes (up to 1.5 liters, up to 3 liters and above) and a joint final of 100 km each. This year, only the high-speed section of the route with the two steep curves of 4.5 km in length was used, so that engine power and top speed seemed to be decisive as for no other race of the year. While the Bugatti team shone with its absence after its earlier successes in the season, this was reason enough for Maserati to finally bring the long-awaited V4 with a sixteen-cylinder twin engine to the start. But Varzi and Brilli-Peri with their so far so successful Alfa Romeos and even the Materassi team with their comparatively small, but high-revving and streamlined 1.5-liter Talbots felt well equipped. A delegation from the Mercedes works also came from Germany with August Momberger and Adolf Rosenberger , one with a powerful 7.1-liter SSK model that had been stripped of its headlights and fenders, the other with a modified racing car that was used at the Targa in 1922 Florio had run. Finally, the organizers had also succeeded in attracting participants from overseas again. The two fast Miller single-seaters of the US American George Stewart, who started under the pseudonym Leon Duray , were predestined for routes like Indianapolis with their two-stage supercharger, front-wheel drive and their small frontal area and had previously scored on this route in training until then speeds that were not achieved, but ultimately proved to be insufficiently stable in the race because Duray allegedly could not procure the special oil required for the engines in Italy. Nevertheless, their performance was impressive enough that Bugatti bought the two cars in order to use them as a template and study object with a view to developing its own new racing engine. In Monza, however, they did not play a major role and, despite encouragement from the Italian crowd, were already out of the race with bearing damage before the final. For the top teams, on the other hand, the preliminary runs were purely a matter of form. As expected, Maserati in the 16-cylinder first took the lead in the finale, but with Varzis Alfa Romeo behind in the slipstream. At halftime, the duel was abruptly ended by a pit stop by the Maserati and Varzi was able to take home victory with one lap ahead of the rest of the field.
With another victory for Alfa Romeo by Brilli-Peri, who was able to successfully fight off a whole horde of French drivers in private Bugattis in Tunis in another highly exciting race after the early retirement of Borzacchini in the mighty 4-liter Maserati, the long went but interesting season finally ended in November.
Grandes Épreuves
| date | run | route | winner | statistics | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 05/30 |
 Indianapolis 500
|
Indianapolis Motor Speedway |
Ray Keech ( Miller ) |
statistics |
| 2 | 30.06. |
 ACF Grand Prix
|
Circuit de la Sarthe |
 W. Williams ( Bugatti ) |
statistics |
The Indianapolis 500 was also part of the 1929 AAA National Championship season .
More races
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References
literature
- Peter Higham: The Guinness Guide to International Motor Racing . Guinness Publishing, 1995, ISBN 0-85112-642-1 , pp. 194-208.
Web links
- Leif Snellman, Felix Muelas: Detailed history of the 1929 Grand Prix season. Www.kolumbus.fi, July 13, 2014, accessed on April 6, 2015 .
- 1929 Grand Prix. www.teamdan.com, accessed April 6, 2015 .
Explanations
- ↑ Ivanovsky was a native Russian, but had been in exile in France since the October Revolution .