Swiss Grand Prix 1934
The 1st Swiss Grand Prix took place on August 26, 1934 on the Bremgarten circuit in Bremgarten near Bern . This year, the race only belonged to the Épreuves a priority category , but was nevertheless carried out over 70 laps of 7.280 each in accordance with the provisions of the International Grand Prix racing formula (racing cars up to a maximum of 750 kg empty weight; 85 cm minimum width; race distance at least 500 km) km, which corresponded to a total distance of 509.60 km.
The winner was Hans Stuck on a Auto Union Type A . The race in the Voiturette category, which was held on the same day as a supporting program, was won by Richard Seaman on a MG K3 "Magnette" used by Whitney Straight . The event was overshadowed by the fatal accident of Briton Hugh Caulfield Hamilton on a Maserati 8CM also entered by Whitney Straight in the main race.
run
Although initially not yet in the status of a Grandes Épreuves , he immediately succeeded in establishing himself among the Grand Prix nations in Switzerland by hosting its first official Grand Prix on the demanding and dangerous circuit in the Bernese Bremgartenwald . In order to emphasize the ambitions , an independent race for so-called Voiturette racing cars (a predecessor category of the later Formula 2 ) was held on the same day under the title Prix de Berne , which in the following years also became a permanent institution and a real one Season highlight for this racing category.
Although the Grand Prix du Comminges in St. Gaudens was scheduled in France on the same day - the Swiss Grand Prix was not yet entitled to an exclusively reserved date in the annual racing calendar as the Épreuve a priority , the teams from Daimler-Benz had dealt with it , Auto Union , Alfa Romeo (officially represented by Scuderia Ferrari ), Bugatti and Maserati , the entire Grand Prix elite gathered in Bern. An extraordinary element was the awarding of the best starting position to the fastest in training, Hans Stuck with Auto Union, while the other starting positions continued to be determined by lottery in the usual way.
Other favorites besides Stuck were Mercedes drivers Rudolf Caracciola and Luigi Fagioli , as well as Louis Chiron and Achille Varzi for Alfa Romeo Scuderia Ferrari. Tazio Nuvolari , who as well greatest driver applies his time, was after his falling out with Ferrari in the preseason with his already obsolete Maserati 8CM at a disadvantage and was the bargain of his at the race in Alessandria hampered supported thereby leg injuries.
When it started to rain, which made the track with its numerous pavement changes even more dangerous, Stuck obviously had an advantage thanks to the better traction of his rear-engined racing car and came back with a considerable lead of ten seconds on his pursuers from the first lap. Behind them, Nuvolari and Chiron fought a round-long fight in which the Italian with his actually defeated Maserati still had the upper hand for most of the time. At least as astonishing was the advance of René Dreyfus in his old-fashioned looking, still two-seater Bugatti Type 59 , which was able to move past Caracciola (Mercedes) and Varzi (Alfa Romeo) into fourth place. Caracciola, who was also still suffering from the injuries caused by his accident in Monaco in 1933 , then handed the wheel of his racing car over to reserve driver Hanns Geier .
While Stuck continued to expand his lead over the rest of the field even on the drying road, which also did not change much when his scheduled refueling stop at halfway through the race, there were some postponements behind it. At first Nuvolari fell behind with technical problems and finally had to give up the race completely and Dreyfus finally even managed to displace the less motivated Chiron from second place. The Mercedes-Benz racing cars were once again a disappointment and their progress was increasingly hampered by technical problems. So the second Auto-Union driver August Momberger , who started at the very end of the field, was able to make up space after space, even though Stuck had already lapped it at this point, and finally even moved up to second place a few laps before the end because Dreyfus had the pits had to go to refill cooling water.
On the last lap of the race, there was a particularly tragic incident when the Maserati 8CM of the Briton Hugh Hamilton , who had already been lapped several times, got off the track at high speed and crashed into a tree. The driver succumbed to his injuries on site.
Results
Registration list
Race result
Item | driver | constructor | Round | Stops | time | begin | Fastest lap | Failure reason |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Hans Stuck | Auto Union | 70 | 3: 37: 51,600 | 1 | |||
2 | August Momberger | Auto Union | 69 | + 1 lap | 16 | 2: 53,000 | ||
3 | René Dreyfus | Bugatti | 69 | + 1 lap | 14th | |||
4th | Achille Varzi | Alfa Romeo | 69 | + 1 lap | 2 | |||
5 | Louis Chiron | Alfa Romeo | 69 | + 1 lap | 5 | |||
6th | Luigi Fagioli | Mercedes Benz | 68 | + 2 rounds | 15th | |||
7th | Pietro Ghersi | Alfa Romeo | 66 | + 4 rounds | 10 | |||
8th | Clemente Biondetti | Maserati | 66 | + 4 rounds | 3 | |||
- | Earl Howe | Maserati | 63 | NC | 17th | |||
- |
Rudolf Caracciola Hanns Geier |
Mercedes Benz | 62 | NC | 9 | |||
- | Hugh Caulfield Hamilton | Maserati | 64 | DNF | 12 | deadly accident | ||
- | Manfred von Brauchitsch | Mercedes Benz | 52 | DNF | 11 | defective oil pump | ||
- | Renato Balestrero | Alfa Romeo | 47 | DNF | 8th | Gearbox damage | ||
- | Tazio Nuvolari | Maserati | 35 | DNF | 7th | Engine failure | ||
- | Hermann zu Leiningen | Auto Union | 18th | DNF | 13 | Gearbox damage | ||
- | László Hartmann | Bugatti | 13 | DNF | 6th | mechanics | ||
- | Hans Ruesch | Maserati | DNS | 4th |
Web links
- I Grand Prix of Switzerland. www.teamdan.com, accessed September 3, 2014 .
- Leif Snellman, Felix Muelas: I SWITZERLAND'S GRAND PRICE. www.kolumbus.fi, April 9, 2013, accessed September 3, 2014 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ The type designation of the Auto Union racing cars was only introduced later by specialist authors to differentiate between the individual models