Swiss Grand Prix 1937

The Bremgarten circuit in its most traveled version

Location in the city area

The 4th Swiss Grand Prix took place on August 22, 1937 on the Bremgarten circuit in Bremgarten near Bern . As Grande Épreuve he was part of the European Grand Prix Championship in 1937 , but deviating from the provisions of the International Grand Prix Formula (racing cars up to a maximum of 750 kg empty weight; 85 cm minimum width; race distance at least 500 km) was only over 50 laps of 7.280 km held, which corresponds to a total distance of 364.0 km.

The winner was Rudolf Caracciola in a Mercedes-Benz W125 , who together with Hermann Lang and Manfred von Brauchitsch achieved a triple victory for Mercedes-Benz .

run

The sensation in Bern was undoubtedly the appearance of the great Tazio Nuvolari at the wheel of an Auto Union racing car . Actually under contract with Scuderia Ferrari , Alfa Romeo's official works team , the new Grand Prix model Alfa Romeo 12C-37 was withdrawn immediately after its disastrous debut at the Coppa Acerbo in Pescara . After this disappointment, the Italian took advantage of the offer to compete in this race for Auto Union, where until then the entire responsibility had practically rested on the shoulders of the crowd's favorite, Bernd Rosemeyer . However, there was hardly time for Nuvolari to get used to the driving behavior of the rear-engined racing car, which was unfamiliar to him, so that he could only play a rather subordinate role in the race. With the two experienced Grand Prix warriors Luigi Fagioli and Hans Stuck on two other Auto Union "Type C" cars , the team was nominally stronger than ever before. However, Fagioli suffered from severe rheumatism throughout the season, which is why he had already had to skip a few races, and the team believed that Stuck had already passed the zenith of his career.

The role of favorites was therefore still given to the Mercdes-Benz team, where the Mercedes-Benz W125 was by far the most powerful Grand Prix racing car of its time and the three regular drivers Rudolf Caracciola , Manfred von Brauchitsch and Hermann Lang were all in it Season had already been successful. Accordingly, von Brauchitsch also led the European championship standings by some margin over Caracciola - who had skipped the opening race of the Belgian Grand Prix in order to take part in the Vanderbilt Cup in New York - while Lang was successful in the non-championship races in Tripoli and on the Avus had been. As a result, there was a strong competitive situation between the three drivers, in which Lang, who had just moved up to the regular line-up, was seen by the two established teammates as a disruptive factor and they demanded the right to be given priority in the selection of the material. In Bern, Lang also suffered from the consequences of an infection, so that he could only do a few laps in training, but still decided to take part in the race. A fourth car was finally registered for the young driver Christian Kautz .

After the jump from Nuvolari, the rump team of Giuseppe Farina and Raymond Sommer , who had remained with Alfa Romeo and had to make do with the old Alfa Romeo 12C-36 , had practically no chance against the overwhelming phalanx of the German Silver Arrows . Only the ranks of private drivers had even less chance of success, among whom only the Swiss Hans Ruesch with his Alfa Romeo 8C-35 Tipo C and the former Auto Union reserve driver Paul Pietsch with his Maserati 6C-34 owned vehicles that could be described as somewhat modern .

On the day of the race, the track was soaked by a rain shower when Stuck catapulted himself from his position on the front row into the first lap and from there with his Auto Union in front of Caracciola (Mercedes), Rosemeyer (Auto Union) as well as Lang and von Brauchitsch ( both Mercedes) came back to the start and finish as the leader. Rosemeyer came off the track on the second lap with the brakes locked and could only be freed from the soft ground with the help of a few spectators. In order to forestall the inevitable disqualification, Rosemeyer drove straight to the pits and gave up the race.

Soon Stuck also came under increasing pressure and was passed through to fourth position by Caracciola, Lang and von Brauchitsch one after the other up to the 15th lap, while in the meantime Rosemeyer had taken over the Nuvolaris car, which with the unfamiliar rear-engined racing car was not at all under the wet track conditions had coped. Later on, Fagioli was unable to continue due to his illness, so Nuvolari was able to start the race again in his car, only to achieve an unsatisfactory seventh place in the end.

In the meantime, on the occasion of the pit stops due in the middle of the race, Stuck had once again passed von Brauchitsch to third place because he - like Caracciola - hadn't changed the tires after refueling. The Mercedes driver did not give up, however, and after a long struggle he was finally able to restore the old order eight laps before the end, while Lang at the front received instructions from the pits to stop his attack on the leading Caracciola. The race ended with another one-two-three for Mercedes-Benz ahead of the two Auto Union von Stuck and Rosemeyer, who was rewarded with fifth place for his race to catch up with Nuolari's car.

Results

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Paul Pietsch	02	Paul Pietsch	Maserati 6C-34	Maserati 3.7L I6 compressor
Auto Union AG	04th	Luigi Fagioli	Auto Union C	Auto Union 6.0L V16 compressor	C.
	06th	Tazio Nuvolari
	08th	Bernd Rosemeyer
	10	Hans Stuck
Daimler-Benz AG	12	Manfred von Brauchitsch	Mercedes-Benz W 125	Mercedes-Benz M 125 F 5.7L I8 compressor	C.
	14th	Rudolf Caracciola
	16	Christian Kautz
	18th	Hermann Lang
Giovanni Minozzi	20th	Giovanni Minozzi	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 "Monza"	Alfa Romeo 2.3L I8 compressor	P
Scuderia Ferrari	22nd	Raymond Summers	Alfa Romeo 12C-36	Alfa Romeo 4.1L V12 compressor	E.
	24	Giuseppe Farina
Scuderia Subauda	26th	Luigi Soffietti	Maserati 8CM	Maserati 3.0L I8 compressor
	28	Edoardo Teagno
Max Christians	30th	Max Christians	Maserati Tipo 26	Maserati 2.0L I8
Henri Simonet	32	Henri Simonet	Alfa Romeo Tipo B / P3	Alfa Romeo 2.9L I8 compressor
Martin Walther	34	Martin Walther	Bugatti T35B	Bugatti 2.3L I8 compressor
Ecurie Genevoise	36	Adolfo Mandirola	Maserati 8CM	Maserati 3.0L I8 compressor
László Hartmann	38	László Hartmann	Maserati 6CM	Maserati 2.5L I6 compressor
Hans Ruesch	40	Hans Ruesch	Alfa Romeo 8C-35 Tipo C.	Alfa Romeo 3.8L I8 compressor

Qualifying

Item	driver	constructor	Qualification training		begin
			time	Ø speed
01	Rudolf Caracciola	Mercedes Benz	2: 32.0 min	172.420 km / h	01
02	Bernd Rosemeyer	Auto Union	2: 32.5 min	171.860 km / h	02
03	Hans Stuck	Auto Union	2: 34.3 min	169.850 km / h	03
04th	Manfred von Brauchitsch	Mercedes Benz	2: 36.3 min	167.780 km / h	04th
05	Hermann Lang	Mercedes Benz	2: 37.3 min	166.610 km / h	05
06th	Giuseppe Farina	Alfa Romeo	2: 42.8 min	160.980 km / h	06th
07th	Tazio Nuvolari	Auto Union	2: 43.0 min	160.790 km / h	07th
08th	Luigi Fagioli	Auto Union	2: 43.2 min	160.590 km / h	08th
09	Christian Kautz	Mercedes Benz	2: 44.3 min	159.510 km / h	09
10	Raymond Summers	Alfa Romeo	2: 44.4 min	159.420 km / h	10
11	Hans Ruesch	Alfa Romeo	2: 53.0 min	151.490 km / h	11
12	Paul Pietsch	Maserati	3: 08.4 min	139.110 km / h	12
13	László Hartmann	Maserati	3: 12.5 min	136.510 km / h	13
14th	Giovanni Minozzi	Alfa Romeo	3: 37.1 min	120.720 km / h	14th
15th	Adolfo Mandirola	Maserati	4: 05.6 min	106.710 km / h	17th
16	Max Christians	Maserati	no time		15th
17th	Henri Simonet	Alfa Romeo	no time		16

Race result

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Rudolf Caracciola	Mercedes Benz	50		2: 17: 39.3 h	1
02	Hermann Lang	Mercedes Benz	50		+ 49.4 s	5
03	Manfred von Brauchitsch	Mercedes Benz	50		+1: 06.4 min	4th
04th	Hans Stuck	Auto Union	50		+1: 11.5 min	3
05	Tazio Nuvolari Bernd Rosemeyer	Auto Union	50		+1: 21.2 min	7th	2: 36.1 min 1
06th	Christian Kautz	Mercedes Benz	49		+ 1 lap	9
07th	Luigi Fagioli Tazio Nuvolari	Auto Union	49		+ 1 lap	8th
08th	Raymond Summers	Alfa Romeo	47		+ 3 rounds	10
09	László Hartmann	Maserati	42		+ 8 rounds	13
10	Paul Pietsch	Maserati	41		+ 9 rounds	12
-	Henri Simonet	Alfa Romeo	35		DNF	16		failure
-	Adolfo Mandirola	Maserati	28		DNF	17th		technical error
-	Giovanni Minozzi	Alfa Romeo	26th		DNF	14th		technical error
-	Giuseppe Farina	Alfa Romeo	22nd		DNF	6th		Axle break
-	Hans Ruesch	Alfa Romeo	8th		DNF	11		Crack in the cylinder block
-	Max Christians	Maserati	4th		DNF	15th		technical error
-	Bernd Rosemeyer	Auto Union	1		DNF	2		Task after using outside help

¹ Bernd Rosemeyer

Web links

• IV Swiss Grand Prix. www.teamdan.com, accessed September 3, 2014 . 
• Leif Snellman, Felix Muelas: IV SWISS GRAND PRICE. www.kolumbus.fi, May 4, 2014, accessed September 3, 2014 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The type designation of the Auto Union racing cars was only introduced later by specialist authors to differentiate between the individual models