Swiss Grand Prix 1948
The VIII. Grand Prix of Switzerland - and at the same time IX. Grand Prix of Europe - took place on July 4th 1948 on the Bremgarten circuit in Bremgarten near Bern . The race belonged to the Grandes Épreuves category and was awarded according to the provisions of the International Grand Prix Formula or Formula 1 (racing cars with engines up to 1.5 liters displacement with compressor or 4.5 liters displacement without compressor; race distance at least 300 km or at least three hours of racing) over 40 laps of 7.280 km, which corresponded to a total distance of 291.1 km.
The winner was Carlo Felice Trossi in an Alfa Romeo Tipo 158 Alfetta . The racing weekend was overshadowed by the fatal accidents of Achille Varzi (Alfa Romeo; training accident), Christian Kautz ( Maserati ; main race) and motorcycle racer Omobono Tenni . In another serious accident in a frame race, Maurice Trintignant was seriously injured.
run
Following on from the 1920s, the FIA , the international automobile association , revived the old tradition after the war (and after the abolition of the previous European Grand Prix Championship ) of giving one of the Grandes Épreuves the honorary title of a European Grand Prix for each season . The Swiss Grand Prix was chosen for this in 1948 , with a comprehensive racing weekend composed of various nationally or internationally advertised races for Voiturette racing cars, racing cars and motorcycle races, as always, offering a worthy supporting program.
Appropriate to the event, after some hesitation, the Alfa Romeo team, spoiled for success, finally returned to the Grand Prix stage after the team had previously skipped the Monaco Grand Prix . However, the event was under an unfortunate star from the start, because on the first day of training on the Bremgarten circuit, which is particularly treacherous and dangerous in wet conditions, the well-known motorcycle ace Omobono Tenni and a little later, Achille Varzi , one of the top pilots of the Alfa Romeo Grand Prix team with its "Alfetta" fatal.
Allegedly at the insistence of Varzi's widow, the team nevertheless decided to compete with its three remaining drivers. After the death of his internal team rival, Jean-Pierre Wimille took on the undisputed role of team captain because Carlo Felice Trossi was already physically struggling with the effects of a brain tumor, while Consalvo Sanesi was accepted into the team mainly due to pressure from the workforce and never really came close to the results of his teammates in terms of driving.
Main competitor for Alfa Romeo was once again Maserati , especially since the small Italian race car wrought only just with the 48 Maserati 4CLT / a new Grand Prix model had on its wheels, the prompt already in the debut in the race from San Remo with Alberto Ascari ago Luigi Villoresi achieved a sensational double success. Here in Bern, too, the two close friends were represented again with their new racing cars used by the Scuderia Ambrosiana as a semi-official works team . The other Maserati pilots, including Giuseppe Farina, the winner of the Monaco Grand Prix and the Grand Prix veteran Luigi Fagioli , who had recovered from a long illness , had to be satisfied with the previous Maserati 4CL models .
The biggest challenge for the Italian camp was, as usual, the Lago-Talbot , which were disadvantaged in terms of engine performance, but in contrast to the compressor-loaded competition with their frugal 4.5-liter naturally aspirated engines, the races with significantly fewer, or mostly even could get through without time-consuming refueling stops. The old master Louis Chiron , who won the French Grand Prix last year with the pre-war “Monoplace Centrale” model used by Ecurie France , has now been joined by two pilots, Louis Rosier and Gianfranco Comotti , who have learned about the new Grand Prix model type Talbot T26C with DOHC engine .
The rest of the field consisted mainly of pre-war vehicles and Formula 2 racing cars, of which the significantly underpowered Simca-Gordini T15 with their 1.5-liter naturally aspirated engines still offered the strongest performance. On the morning of the race day, however, Maurice Trintignant had such a serious accident in a race in the supporting program that he had in the meantime even been declared dead and Raymond Sommer now had to compete in the Grand Prix as the sole representative of the small French racing car brand.
In the meanwhile sunny weather, Alfetta driver Wimille came back from the first lap, as expected, in the lead, but to everyone's surprise, his team-mate Trossi first had to line up behind the two Maserati drivers Farina and Villoresi in fourth place. Another tragic incident occurred on the second lap of the race when the Swiss Christian Kautz strayed off the track with his Maserati and suffered fatal injuries when he hit a mast. The race, however, continued unimpressed and by the 13th lap Trossi had finally worked his way up to second position to achieve a befitting double lead for Alfa Romeo.
Apart from Farina's retirement, the order remained largely unchanged for a long time until Wimille had to make a second, unscheduled pit stop on lap 26 to refill the cooling water, which meant that Trossi now took the lead. Although Wimille caught up again after a short time, he demonstratively refrained from attempting to overtake, be it due to stable orders or out of respect for his team-mate, who was already suffering from his illness, and finished the race a few meters behind in second place. Third was Villoresi, who in the end was the only participant not to have been lapped by the two Alfa Romeo drivers.
Individual references / comments
- ↑ The official type designation was still 4CL as with the previous model, the designation as 4CLT / 48 was only introduced later in the literature for better differentiation, but has since become generally accepted.