Belgian Grand Prix 1949
The XI. Belgian Grand Prix was a Formula 1 race and took place on June 19, 1949 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps . The race belonged to the category of Grandes Épreuves and was over 35 according to the regulations of the International Formula 1 (racing cars up to 1.5 liters displacement with a compressor or up to 4.5 liters displacement without a compressor; race distance at least 300 km or at least three hours of racing) Laps of 14.771 km were held, which corresponded to a total distance of 517 km.
The winner was Louis Rosier on a Lago-Talbot T26C , which was the only success of his career at an official International Grand Prix .
The race is the last Grande Épreuve in Grand Prix sport, in which the starting grid was not specified based on the lap times achieved in training, but according to criteria specified by the organizer and no longer comprehensible.
The race
The Belgian Royal Automobile Club de Belgique (RACB) stuck to its traditional principles in 1949 as the last European automobile club. The race distance was still set at 500 km, while the international racing formula for the Grandes Épreuves only required a minimum distance of 300 km. The field of participants was selected by the organizer and the invitations were still mainly only sent to the manufacturers of Grand Prix racing cars. In practice, however, companies like Lago-Talbot and Maserati , whose business model was geared towards supporting customer vehicles, passed the starting places directly on to independent drivers. After all, for the last time in Grand Prix sport, the positions on the starting grid were not assigned on the basis of the lap times achieved in training, but determined by the organizer himself, whereby the criteria for this can no longer be understood.
Among the total of 14 participants, the still young Ferrari racing team already assumed a certain role as favorites, especially since shortly before the race it had managed to clarify the driver's question by signing the two top drivers Luigi Villoresi and Alberto Ascari . Both had previously driven for Maserati and were close friends, so they only ever signed together with one team. Ferrari's first Formula 1 model, the Ferrari 125 GPC , had a revised rear axle construction over the winter, which significantly improved the initially problematic driving behavior. The British Ferrari customer Peter Whitehead , however, had to be content with his unchanged predecessor model.
The two numerically strongest teams, on the other hand, were Maserati and Lago-Talbot, each with five participants. After the departure of Villoresi and Ascari, Giuseppe Farina was the only real top driver to remain in the Maserati camp . The Argentine automobile club ACA had also financed two more Grand Prix cars of the type Maserati 4CLT / 48 in order to offer the two promising Argentine drivers Juan Manuel Fangio and Benedicto Campos a springboard for entry into the Grand Prix circus. Fangio in particular had already attracted a lot of attention at the beginning of the season with three victories in a row at international races, but the team's two Maserati had urgently needed a technical overhaul. Two more Maseratis were also reported by the Italian Scuderia Ambrosiana for the British Reginald Parnell and Fred Ashmore , who in this way circumvented the high British import duties on automobiles - including racing cars.
The exact opposite of the fast, but also mostly poorly maintained and extremely unreliable San Remo Maseratis were the French Lago Talbot. The factory in Suresnes near Paris had a solid, naturally aspirated Talbot T26C with a 4.5 liter engine. Released an easy-to-maintain Grand Prix model that was significantly weaker and slower than its compressor-equipped competitors from Italy, but its main advantage was that, unlike these, it could cover a full Grand Prix distance without refueling. During the 1948 season , a total of eight copies of this type were built and sold to private drivers. In addition to Grand Prix veteran Philippe Étancelin , only Louis Rosier had a long racing experience at the Belgian Grand Prix, while Pierre Levegh , Guy Mairesse and the Belgian Johnny Claes, who lives in Great Britain, were still largely unknown.
Finally , the sole representative of Great Britain was Geoffrey Crossley , who with his Alta racing car had practically the only modern Grand Prix construction available in his country.
After the start, the race initially took its expected course. Villoresi took the immediate lead with the Ferrari, followed by Fangio, whose Maserati, however, fell victim to a technical defect on the first lap. Farina (Maserati) was able to take over from Villoresi at the front for two laps, but after that the Ferrari driver was back in front and was now able to break away from his pursuer, who in turn was getting closer to Ascari in the second Ferrari. Behind them were Étancelin (Lago-Talbot) and Whitehead (Ferrari) already a little further behind.
On the eighth lap, when trying to catch up with Villoresi, Farina went off the track in the hairpin of La Source , so that after Parnell had also been eliminated, the majority of the Maseratis were already out of the race. Ferrari now enjoyed what was believed to be a double lead with Villoresi and Ascari, but the Belgian Englebert tires used for marketing reasons surprisingly showed the first signs of disintegration shortly afterwards, so that, as a result of the due pit stops, Étancelin and his Talbot unexpectedly took the lead on the eleventh lap found again. Three laps later, Villoresi had regained the top position, but when he had to stop for fuel shortly after the middle of the race, he lost the lead again, this time to Étancelin's brand companion Rosier. With half a minute ahead, he now had his unique chance of a Grand Prix success in front of his eyes and once again got everything out of his Talbot, especially since Villoresi had to change tires again a little later.
Since then, Rosier's victory with the Talbot has been considered one of the biggest surprises in Grand Prix racing and the decisive reason why Enzo Ferrari decided to also run a naturally aspirated engine in 1950 .
Remarks
- ↑ value calculated
- ↑ www.gilcodesign.com (accessed January 21, 2020)
- ↑ As with the previous model , the official type designation was still 4CL , the designation as 4CLT / 48 was only introduced later in the literature for better differentiation, but has since become generally accepted.