Belgian Grand Prix 1933
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 For the 1933 season, Alfa Romeo had withdrawn from Grand Prix racing at the factory, leaving Scuderia Ferrari only with older Alfa Romeo "Monza" models .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
Race result
Item | driver | constructor | Round | Stops | time | begin | Fastest lap | Failure reason |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Tazio Nuvolari | Maserati | 40 | 4: 09: 11.099 | 10 | 13: 06.010 | ||
2 | Achille Varzi | Bugatti | 40 | + 3: 45,000 | 7th | |||
3 | René Dreyfus | Bugatti | 40 | + 3: 48,000 | 9 | |||
4th | Marcel Lehoux | Bugatti | 40 | + 4: 17,000 | 2 | |||
5 | Eugenio Siena | Alfa Romeo | 40 | + 7: 59,000 | 6th | |||
6th | William Grover-Williams | Bugatti | 40 | + 1 lap | 8th | |||
7th | Raymond Summers | Alfa Romeo | 35 | + 5 rounds | 4th | |||
- | Baconin Borzacchini | Alfa Romeo | 22nd | DNF | 5 | broken connecting rod | ||
- | Guy minor | Alfa Romeo | 20th | DNF | 3 | Clutch and transmission damage | ||
- | Louis Chiron | Alfa Romeo | 20th | DNF | 1 | Differential damage | ||
- | Edgard Markiewicz | Bugatti | 20th | DNF | 12 | accident | ||
- | Goffredo Zehender | Maserati | 11 | DNF | 11 | defective power transmission |
Web links
- IV Belgian Grand Prix. www.teamdan.com, accessed on August 3, 2014 (English).
- Leif Snellman, Felix Muelas: IV GRAND PRIX DE BELGIQUE. www.kolumbus.fi, April 4, 2013, accessed on August 3, 2014 .