Belgian Grand Prix 1934

Race winner René Dreyfus

The 5th Belgian Grand Prix took place on July 29, 1934 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps . It belonged to the category of the Grandes Épreuves and was held according to the provisions of the International Grand Prix Formula (racing car up to a maximum of 750 kg empty weight; 85 cm minimum width; racing distance at least 500 km) over 40 laps of 14.864 km, resulting in a total distance of 594, 6 km corresponded.

The winner was René Dreyfus in a Bugatti Type 59 . It was the last success for the Bugatti brand at an official Grand Prix.

run

Although the original idea as a competition between the world's automobile companies had already led Grand Prix racing to a dead end from the mid-1920s, the arch-conservative Belgian automobile club Royal Automobile Club de Belgique (RACB) continued to adhere to this traditional idea. In order not to have to indulge himself in the lowlands of "ordinary" racing events with his Grand Prix, he continued to pursue an extremely restrictive policy, especially towards private drivers, when inviting him to the race, even if it meant that he was in favor in the past had to accept extremely small starting fields several times. When two company racing teams, Daimler-Benz and Auto Union, withdrew their reports at short notice in 1934, another low point was reached with only seven remaining participants. The official reasons for the withdrawal were given by both companies as a pretext for a lack of time to prepare for the race and the overloading of the drivers due to the tight schedule, but rumor has it that the exorbitantly high Belgian import duties on the racing fuel - after the events of the World War I still unloved - German teams with its high alcohol content were responsible, which the Belgian authorities allegedly demanded upon entry.

However, this increased the chances of success of the other racing teams, among which the French Bugatti brand with its drivers Robert Benoist , René Dreyfus and Antonio Brivio met with great sympathy from the Belgian public. The current Grand Prix model Bugatti Type 59 , which was the only one still designed as a two-seater, largely corresponded to the technical status of the 1920s and was the two Alfa Romeo Tipo B from Scuderia Ferrari , which were driven by the driver pairing Louis Chiron and Achille Varzi officially competed as a works team for Alfa Romeo , clearly inferior. In addition to the individual Maserati 8CM from Raymond Sommer , the field was finally completed by Charles Montier with his self-made racing car based on Ford .

From the start, which Chiron had best hit, as usual, the race initially took its expected course. One after the other, the three Bugatti drivers had to go to the pits after just a few laps to change spark plugs, a problem that had already arisen massively in the French Grand Prix and which the team had apparently not got under control since then. With Sommer's old Maserati already far behind in third place, Chiron and Varzi practically only had to bring the race home safely for the remaining three hours. But while the Bugattis finally got going to some extent, albeit ten minutes behind the leaders, Chiron made a driving error on lap 21, which ended in a rollover. When Varzi also had to give up his car with a technical defect a few laps later, one of the most surprising twists and turns in Grand Prix history occurred. With the victory, which was no longer considered possible for Bugatti, Dreyfus was able to enter the name of this traditional brand into the list of winners of the international Grand Prix for the last time.

Results

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Automobiles Ettore Bugatti	02	Robert Benoist	Bugatti T59	Bugatti 3.3L I8 compressor	M.
	04th	René Dreyfus
	06th	Antonio Brivio
Auto Union AG	08th	Hans Stuck	Auto Union A	Auto Union 4.4L V16 compressor	C.
	10	August Momberger
Raymond Summers	12	Raymond Summers	Maserati 8CM	Maserati 3.0L I8 compressor	M.
Scuderia Ferrari	14th	Louis Chiron	Alfa Romeo Tipo B / P3	Alfa Romeo 2.9L I8 compressor	E.
	16	Achille Varzi
Daimler-Benz AG	18th	Rudolf Caracciola	Mercedes-Benz W 25	Mercedes-Benz M 25 A 3.4L I8 compressor	C.
	20th	Luigi Fagioli
	22nd	Manfred von Brauchitsch
Charles Montier	24	Charles Montier	Montier Speciale	Ford 3.6L V8	M.

Race result

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	René Dreyfus	Bugatti	40		4: 15: 03,800	4th	5: 52,000
02	Antonio Brivio	Bugatti	40		+1: 51,000	3	5: 45,000
03	Raymond Summers	Maserati	39		+ 1 lap	7th	6: 15,000
04th	Robert Benoist	Bugatti	37		+ 3 rounds	1	5: 50,000
05	Charles Montier	Montier	30th		+ 10 rounds	6th	8: 00,000
-	Achille Varzi	Alfa Romeo	29		DNF	5	5: 46,000	Engine failure
-	Louis Chiron	Alfa Romeo	20th		DNF	2	5: 47,000	accident

Web links

Commons : Belgian Grand Prix 1934  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• V Belgian Grand Prix. www.teamdan.com, accessed on August 3, 2014 (English). 
• Leif Snellman, Felix Muelas: V GRAND PRIX DE BELGIQUE. www.kolumbus.fi, June 13, 2019, accessed on July 25, 2019 .