Swiss Grand Prix 1938

The Bremgarten circuit in its most traveled version.

Location in the city area

The 5th Swiss Grand Prix took place on August 21, 1938 on the Bremgarten circuit in Bremgarten near Bern . As Grande Épreuve , the race was part of the European Grand Prix Championship in 1938 , but was deviating from the provisions of the International Grand Prix Formula (mainly racing cars up to 3 liters displacement with compressor and up to 4.5 liters displacement without compressor; minimum weight 850 kg; Race distance of at least 500 km) over 50 laps of 7.280 km each, which corresponded to a total distance of 364.0 km.

The winner was Rudolf Caracciola in a Mercedes-Benz W154

The race

After winning the Grand Prix of Germany was located Mercedes - Junior Richard Seaman flying high and qualified promptly in Bern for the best starting position. Together with him, his team mates Hermann Lang and Rudolf Caracciola occupied the front row of the grid, making the Mercedes dominance clear during training, especially since the fourth driver of the team, Manfred von Brauchitsch , was the best Auto-Union driver at the same time as Hans Stuck started the race from fifth place. Behind them in sixth place was Auto Union youngster Hermann Paul Müller , ahead of the actual top driver in the team, Tazio Nuvolari , who, after moving from Alfa Romeo , still had problems dealing with the unfamiliar driving behavior of the rear-engined racing cars. Directly next to him was Jean-Pierre Wimille, the driver who, in turn, had finally taken over the vacated cockpit at Alfa Romeo after his previous employer Bugatti finally withdrew from the Grand Prix after just one disappointing appearance at the home race at the French Grand Prix -Build had passed. The field of works teams was finally completed by Auto Union junior Christian Kautz and Alfa Romeo regular driver Giuseppe Farina in the fourth row of the grid, before the ranks of private drivers with practically no chance came behind them.

On the day of the race it was pouring rain , but the still relatively inexperienced Seaman immediately took the lead in his mighty Mercedes-Benz W154 and even expanded it over the course of the following laps. Behind him, Caracciola first had to fight his way past Stuck, which had started excellently as usual, in his Auto Union "Type D" , before he was able to pursue his young team-mate as a rain specialist.

The conditions now became increasingly difficult and when Seaman had problems lapping two participants from midfield for a moment due to poor visibility, Caracciola was able to take the opportunity to pull past and take the lead, which he did not give up until the end of the race. Behind them, the Auto Union drivers ran into problems one after the other and when Müller, who was getting better and better from race to race as a young driver, lost his third place three laps before the end of the race due to an accident, it was another one-two-three Mercedes with Caracciola in front of Seaman and von Brauchitsch perfect.

Registration list

No.	driver	constructor	vehicle	team	comment
02	Christian Kautz	Auto Union	Auto Union Type D	Auto Union AG
04th	Hermann Paul Muller	Auto Union	Auto Union Type D	Auto Union AG
06th	Tazio Nuvolari	Auto Union	Auto Union Type D	Auto Union AG
08th	Hans Stuck	Auto Union	Auto Union Type D	Auto Union AG
10	Manfred von Brauchitsch	Mercedes Benz	Mercedes-Benz W 154	Daimler-Benz AG
11	Walter Bäumer	Mercedes Benz	Mercedes-Benz W 154	Daimler-Benz AG	not started (training only)
12	Rudolf Caracciola	Mercedes Benz	Mercedes-Benz W 154	Daimler-Benz AG
14th	Hermann Lang	Mercedes Benz	Mercedes-Benz W 154	Daimler-Benz AG
16	Richard Seaman	Mercedes Benz	Mercedes-Benz W 154	Daimler-Benz AG
18th	René Dreyfus	Delahaye	Delahaye 145	Ecurie Bleue
20th	"Raph"	Delahaye	Delahaye 145	Ecurie Bleue
22nd	Giovanni Minozzi	Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo Monza	G. Minozzi
24	Emilio Romano	Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo Monza	E. Romano
26th	Edoardo Teagno	Maserati	Maserati 8CM	Scuderia Subauda
28	Piero Taruffi	Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo Tipo 308	Scuderia Torino
30th	Adolfo Mandirola	Maserati	Maserati 8CM	Auto-Agence SA
32	Max Christians	Maserati	Maserati Tipo 26	M. Christians
34	István de Sztriha	Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo Monza	I. de Sztriha
36	Toulo de Graffenried	Maserati	Maserati 6C-34	Ecurie Du Puy de Graffenried	not started
38	Giuseppe Farina	Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo Tipo 312	Alfa Corse
40	Jean-Pierre Wimille	Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo Tipo 312	Alfa Corse

Starting grid

1		2		3
Seaman 2: 38.8 min		Long 2: 42.0 min		Caracciola 2: 42.2 min
	4th		5
	Piece 2: 42.9 min		von Brauchitsch 2: 42.9 min
6th		7th		8th
Müller 2: 43.5 min		Nuvolari 2: 43.9 min		Wimille 2: 44.3 min
	9		10
	Kautz 2: 45.4 min		Farina 2: 46.7 min
11		12		13
Taruffi 2: 52.6 min		Dreyfus 2: 55.9 min		Teagno 3: 03.8 min
	14th		15th
	de Graffenried (not started)		"Raph" 3: 13.3 min
16		17th		18th
Romano 3: 17.7 min		Christians 3: 27.9 min		Mandirola 3: 38.0 min
	19th		20th
	de Sztriha 3: 29.1 min		Minozzi 3: 31.1 min

Race result

Item	No.	driver	constructor	Round	time	Failure reason	EM points
1	14th	Rudolf Caracciola	Mercedes Benz	50	2: 32: 07.8 h		1
2	16	Richard Seaman	Mercedes Benz	50	+ 26.0 s		2
3	10	Manfred von Brauchitsch	Mercedes Benz	49	+ 01 lap		3
4th	08th	Hans Stuck	Auto Union	48	+ 02 rounds		4th
5	38	Giuseppe Farina	Alfa Romeo	48	+ 02 rounds		4th
6th	28	Piero Taruffi	Alfa Romeo	47	+ 03 rounds		4th
7th	40	Jean-Pierre Wimille	Alfa Romeo	47	+ 03 rounds		4th
DNF	04th	Hermann Paul Muller	Auto Union	46		accident	4th
8th	20th	René Dreyfus	Delahaye	46	+ 04 rounds		4th
9	06th	Tazio Nuvolari	Auto Union	46	+ 04 rounds		4th
10	14th	Hermann Lang / Walter Bäumer	Mercedes Benz	45	+ 05 rounds		4 / -
11	20th	"Raph"	Delahaye	43	+ 07 rounds		4th
12	24	Emilio Romano	Alfa Romeo	41	+ 09 rounds		4th
13	32	Max Christians	Maserati	40	+ 10 rounds		4th
14th	26th	Edoardo Teagno / Prince Bira	Maserati	39	+ 11 rounds		4 / -
DNF	02	Christian Kautz	Auto Union	19th		Gasoline leak / carburetor?	6th
DNF	30th	Adolfo Mandirola	Maserati	17th			6th
DNF	22nd	Giovanni Minozzi	Alfa Romeo	17th			6th
DNF	34	István de Sztriha	Alfa Romeo	5			7th

Fastest race lap : Richard Seaman ( Mercedes-Benz ), 2: 51.0 min = 153.3 km / h  

Web links

Commons : Automobilsport 1938  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

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