Belgian Grand Prix 1933

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Start of the Belgian Grand Prix
Race winner Tazio Nuvolari

The 4th Belgian Grand Prix took place on July 9, 1933 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps . The race was one of the Grandes Épreuves and was held according to the applicable regulations (minimum distance 500 km) over 40 laps of 14.915 km, which corresponded to a total distance of 596.6 km.

The winner was Tazio Nuvolari on a Maserati 8CM .

run

The biggest stir around the Belgian Grand Prix in 1933 was undoubtedly generated by Tazio Nuvolari's change from Alfa Romeo to Maserati . The small Italian racing car maker had been involved in Grand Prix racing since 1926, but since then had mostly been in the shadow of Alfa Romeo and Bugatti . For the 1933 season, Alfa Romeo had withdrawn from Grand Prix racing at the factory, leaving Scuderia Ferrari only with older Alfa Romeo "Monza" models . Likewise, due to economic and technical stagnation, Bugatti had so far not been able to bring out a new, competitive Grand Prix model, so that mostly older Bugatti Type 51s were used here , mostly by private owners.

Maserati, on the other hand, had built its first monoposto , the Maserati 8CM . The road holding turned out to be problematic at the beginning of the season because the extremely narrow chassis was not designed to be torsion-resistant enough, as experience with the new type of vehicle was still lacking. The 3-liter in-line eight-cylinder engine, however, had a clear performance advantage over its competitors. This had become clear with Maserati's first Grand Prix victory by Giuseppe Campari at the previous French Grand Prix , where the engine, however, was installed in an older two-seater model from last year.

Ferrari's top driver Tazio Nuvolari had suffered a disaster at this very race . Because during training and the race he was left lying down three times with overstrained equipment. In addition, there had been an argument between him and racing team owner Enzo Ferrari for a while, because Nuvolari, as a mere employee, should not have a say in the team. When Nuvolari had to park his Alfa Romeo prematurely at the race in Reims - a week before the Belgian Grand Prix - with failed power transmission, he immediately contacted Ernesto Maserati , who ran the family business at Maserati after his brother's death Alfieri had taken over. Maserati had a free cockpit for the upcoming race in Belgium after Campari's eye was injured in Reims. However, Nuvolari was contractually bound to Ferrari, who did not want to let his top driver migrate to the competition so easily. During a conversation between Nuvolari, Ferrari and Maserati it was finally agreed that Nuvolari would be allowed to drive both cars during training in Spa-Francorchamps - in addition to the Maserati and his ancestral "Monza" - in order to decide which race between them. In order to meet the contractual and reporting formalities, the Maserati should run nominally under the application of Ferrari, but be looked after by Maserati mechanics.

When the decision was finally made in favor of the Maserati, it was a certain sensation in view of the model's known deficits. However, Nuvorlari recognized the weak point after just a few laps in training and took the car himself to a workshop at the Imperia factory in Liège , where he and his mechanic and an employee of the factory installed extensive stiffeners on the chassis overnight.

In addition to these incidents, there were other things to talk about before the training. After Bugatti even skipped its home race with the French Grand Prix, the troubled factory had apparently managed to get at least one new Bugatti Type 59 with a 2.8-liter engine ready to drive. In fact, Achille Varzi appeared for a few slow laps at the beginning of practice, after which the car was immediately packed away because the driver had found neither the roadholding nor the brakes to be suitable for racing. Like his teammates René Dreyfus and William Grover-Williams (as always competing under the pseudonym “W. Williams”) he had to make do with the old Type 51 for the race .

As turbulent as the events leading up to the Grand Prix had been, the course of the race itself was clear. Although Nuvolari had had bad luck when the starting positions were drawn and had to start the race from the very back, he worked his way through to the end of the race with the Maserati on the first lap through the entire field and subsequently increased his lead continuously. Behind them only Nuvolari's friend and still nominal teammate Mario Umberto Borzacchini and Louis Chiron, who drove on his own account with their two Alfa Romeo "Monza", were able to keep up with them, while the rest of the participants were so far behind after a short time that none of them could have something to do with the outcome of the race. Shortly before halfway through the race, Nuvolari had to pits to change tires and refuel, which meant that Chiron, Borzacchini and temporarily Varzi passed. However, the Bugatti driver was soon passed again by Nuvolari. After Chiron gave up with differential damage and shortly afterwards Borzacchini with an engine failure, Nuvolari only had to bring the Maserati over the remaining laps in one piece to win the race, which he apparently managed to do without much effort.

In contrast, Varzi almost lost his second place shortly before the end when he had to make another tire stop in his Bugatti at the beginning of the last lap. However, he managed to change the wheel in an unbelievable 14 seconds for the time, so that he was still able to save three seconds ahead of his team-mate Dreyfus at the finish.

Results

Registration list

team No. driver chassis engine tires
MonacoMonaco Scuderia Chiron-Caracciola 02 MonacoMonaco Louis Chiron Alfa Romeo Monza Alfa Romeo 2.3L I8 compressor
Third French RepublicThird French Republic Marcel Lehoux 04th Third French RepublicThird French Republic Marcel Lehoux Bugatti T51 Bugatti 2.3L I8 compressor
AlgeriaAlgeria Guy minor 06th AlgeriaAlgeria Guy minor Alfa Romeo Monza Alfa Romeo 2.3L I8 compressor
Third French RepublicThird French Republic Raymond Summers 08th Third French RepublicThird French Republic Raymond Summers Alfa Romeo Monza Alfa Romeo 2.6L I8 compressor M.
Italy 1861Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946) Scuderia Ferrari 10 Italy 1861Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946) Baconin Borzacchini Alfa Romeo Monza Alfa Romeo 2.6L I8 compressor E.
12 Italy 1861Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946) Eugenio Siena
22nd Italy 1861Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946) Tazio Nuvolari Maserati 8CM Maserati 3.0L I8 compressor
Third French RepublicThird French Republic Automobiles Ettore Bugatti 14th Italy 1861Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946) Achille Varzi Bugatti T51 Bugatti 2.3L I8 compressor M.
16 United KingdomUnited Kingdom William Grover-Williams
18th Third French RepublicThird French Republic René Dreyfus
Italy 1861Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946) Achille Varzi Bugatti T59 Bugatti 2.8L I8 compressor
SwitzerlandSwitzerland Edgard Markiewicz 20th SwitzerlandSwitzerland Edgard Markiewicz Bugatti T35B Bugatti 2.3L I8 compressor
Italy 1861Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946) Officine Alfieri Maserati 24 Italy 1861Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946) Goffredo Zehender Maserati 8CM Maserati 3.0L I8 compressor
Italy 1861Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946) Giuseppe Campari
SwitzerlandSwitzerland Equipe Villars-Waldthausen SwitzerlandSwitzerland Horst von Waldthausen Alfa Romeo Monza Alfa Romeo 2.6L I8 compressor
SwitzerlandSwitzerland Julio Villars
SwitzerlandSwitzerland Walter Grosch
Third French RepublicThird French Republic Jean-Pierre Wimille Third French RepublicThird French Republic Jean-Pierre Wimille Alfa Romeo Monza Alfa Romeo 2.3L I8 compressor
BelgiumBelgium Willy Longueville BelgiumBelgium Willy Longueville Bugatti T35B Bugatti 2.3L I8 compressor

Race result

Item driver constructor Round Stops time begin Fastest lap Failure reason
01 Italy 1861Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946) Tazio Nuvolari Italy 1861Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946) Maserati 40 4: 09: 11.099 10 13: 06.010
02 Italy 1861Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946) Achille Varzi Third French RepublicThird French Republic Bugatti 40 + 3: 45,000 7th
03 Third French RepublicThird French Republic René Dreyfus Third French RepublicThird French Republic Bugatti 40 + 3: 48,000 9
04th Third French RepublicThird French Republic Marcel Lehoux Third French RepublicThird French Republic Bugatti 40 + 4: 17,000 2
05 Italy 1861Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946) Eugenio Siena Italy 1861Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946) Alfa Romeo 40 + 7: 59,000 6th
06th United KingdomUnited Kingdom William Grover-Williams Third French RepublicThird French Republic Bugatti 40 + 1 lap 8th
07th Third French RepublicThird French Republic Raymond Summers Italy 1861Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946) Alfa Romeo 35 + 5 rounds 4th
- Italy 1861Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946) Baconin Borzacchini Italy 1861Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946) Alfa Romeo 22nd DNF 5 broken connecting rod
- AlgeriaAlgeria Guy minor Italy 1861Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946) Alfa Romeo 20th DNF 3 Clutch and transmission damage
- MonacoMonaco Louis Chiron Italy 1861Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946) Alfa Romeo 20th DNF 1 Differential damage
- SwitzerlandSwitzerland Edgard Markiewicz Third French RepublicThird French Republic Bugatti 20th DNF 12 accident
- Italy 1861Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946) Goffredo Zehender Italy 1861Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946) Maserati 11 DNF 11 defective power transmission

Web links

Commons : Belgian Grand Prix 1933  - collection of images, videos and audio files