German Grand Prix 1935

Tazio Nuvolari won after a masterly performance against nine Silver Arrows

The VII Grand Prix of Germany took place on July 28, 1935 on the Nordschleife of the Nürburgring. As Grande Épreuve , he was part of the European Grand Prix Championship in 1935 and, according to the provisions of the International Grand Prix Formula (racing cars up to a maximum of 750 kg without fuel, oil, cooling water and tires; 85 cm minimum width; racing distance at least 500 km), he was over 22 Rounds of 22.810 km were held, which corresponded to a total distance of 501.82 km.

The winner was Tazio Nuvolari in an Alfa Romeo Tipo B , which, according to general opinion, achieved the greatest success of his career against the superior armed forces of the Silver Arrows from Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union on their home track. Since then, the race has been considered one of the absolute highlights in motorsport history.

run

For the two German racing teams, the Grand Prix in front of a home crowd was by far the most important race of the season. Accordingly, their effort increased almost immeasurably. This was especially true for the Daimler-Benz AG team, which was spoiled for victory and had undertaken extensive test drives on the Nürburgring and did not bring seven of their racing cars to the track at the race weekend. In addition to two reserve cars, there were two cars for the two young drivers Hermann Lang , who contested the first international Grand Prix of his career here, and the somewhat more experienced Hanns Geier , who is the regular line-up with the two leaders in the European championship, Rudolf Caracciola and Luigi Fagioli , as well as Manfred von Brauchitsch reinforced. With an engine output of almost 450 hp, the Mercedes-Benz W 25s were by far the most powerful cars in the field, but also had the highest tire wear of all participants on the demanding course.

The preparation at Auto Union was hardly less intense. After the disastrous performance at the French Grand Prix , the team decided not to take part in the Belgian Grand Prix and instead rented the Nürburgring exclusively for a week in order to carry out an intensive test program to identify all weaknesses in the thoroughly revised Type B racing cars , whose performance was around 375 PS had been raised to tackle again fundamentally. In the end there was a test race over 32 laps between the experienced Hans Stuck and the ambitious Bernd Rosemeyer , in order to put the stability of the car to the test again. Another regular driver was Achille Varzi , as always . In addition, the Auto Union team fielded an additional car for the young and reserve driver Paul Pietsch for the home race .

However, modestly looked the appearance of the Scuderia Ferrari , with its three Alfa-Romeo - factory race car in the usual cast of Tazio Nuvolari , Louis Chiron and Antonio Brivio . Already during the training it became clear that the weakness of the Alfa Romeo Tipo B, which had been modernized again and again over the years, with approx. 330 hp engine power on the winding and difficult-to-drive Nürburgring, compared to the German cars, turned out to be significantly less than what was on paper.

The rest of the field of participants, on the other hand, was practically condemned to the role of extra from the start. Maserati still did not have the new Maserati V8-RI Grand Prix model ready to race for Philippe Étancelin , Bugatti competed with only one Bugatti Type 59 that had not been competitive for a long time for Piero Taruffi and the British ERA from company founders Raymond Mays and Ernst von Delius , which were used here for the first time at a major international Grand Prix, were more like Voiturette racing cars with slightly enlarged engines. There were also a few private drivers with equipment that was now completely out of date.

The organizers of the German Grand Prix had planned to determine the starting grid with a timed acceleration test from a standing start over a short section of the route. The idea behind it was to line up the participants according to their basic speed, so that they would get in each other's way as little as possible at the start. Not least because of the drivers' safety concerns, the starting positions were finally awarded again using the lottery procedure that had been customary up until then.

A real innovation was the first-time use of a start light, which did nothing to change the fact that the field was sent on its journey, although the engine of Stuck's Auto Union at the very front in the first row of the grid had died and a mechanic, contrary to the rules, had died It was a moment to get it going again when the light turned green. In the pouring rain, Varzi, who started from far behind, could no longer evade in time, so that the man had to be taken to hospital with severe, but fortunately not fatal, head injuries. It is said that Varzi stopped to ask about the victim.

In the meantime, Nuvolari, who also started from the front row, had initially taken the lead in his Alfa Romeo in front of the 250,000 spectators gathered along the route, but was overtaken by Caracciola in the Mercedes during the first lap when the rain began to decrease. Behind them both were the cars from Fagioli (Mercedes-Benz), Rosemeyer (Auto Union) and von Brauchitsch (Mercedes-Benz), before the next two Alfa Romeo drivers followed with Chiron and Brivio. Stuck, who had still started and was following the field, had already worked his way up to twelfth position, but was stopped by Hans Geier while he was still catching up, which led to the disqualification of the relatively inexperienced Mercedes driver after the race.

When trying to get close to "Rain Champion" Caracciola on the wet track, Nuvolari made a driving error on the second lap that cost him five places. At the same time, Rosemeyer also passed Fagioli in the Auto Union and hunted down the leading Mercedes with the surface now drying. But in doing so, he too went off the track, so that Fagioli took the place as the first pursuer of Caracciola in front of von Brauchitsch. The triple lead for Mercedes did not last very long, however, because Nuvolari, who was the last remaining Alfa Romeo driver in the race after the early retirements of Brivio and Chiron, irresistibly moved forward again and finally came back from the tenth lap as the leader. Directly behind it a three-way battle raged between Caracciola, Rosemeyer and von Brauchitsch, which were only fractions of a second apart. It had been a long time since a Grand Prix race had had such an exciting course. One lap later, halfway through the race, all four leaders came to the pits at the same time for their scheduled stops. Again the three Germans benefited from the perfect team organization, while Nuvolari lost 2:14 minutes due to the hectic pits of his pit crew and was thrown back to sixth place.

After Fagioli and Stuck had finally completed their fuel and tire stops, the order after 13 laps was Brauchitsch (Mercedes) ahead of Rosemeyer (Auto Union), Caracciola (Mercedes) and Nuvolari (Alfa Romeo). But just one lap later, Nuvolari found himself back in third place, because Rosemeyer had to go to the pits again to repair his jammed accelerator pedal, a result of his ride out in the early stages and lost a lot of time. A little later, Nuvolari passed Caracciola again and now made up more than 10 seconds on the leading von Brauchitsch with one last drive per lap. Despite his lead of a little more than one and a half minutes at the beginning, von Brauchitsch found himself in the dilemma that his typically hard driving style caused the tires to deteriorate too quickly, but on the other hand, despite repeated requests from the pits to slow down, he did not jeopardize his lead without a fight wanted to put.

So the last seven laps of the race developed into a desperate battle against opponents and material. When von Brauchitsch went into the 22nd and final lap, his lead had already shrunk to around 45 seconds. There were already traces of the carcass on the tires and when driving through the carousel , one of the rear tires finally dissolved. One of the greatest sensations in motorsport history was thus perfect, and when Nuvolari finally crossed the finish line first in 4:08:40, the audience was shocked for a moment. The Italian had prevailed against nine of the overpowering Silver Arrows, and on their home route.

Second, 1: 38.6 minutes behind, was Hans Stuck, who, after his initial mishap, had rolled up the entire field from behind with an equally great, if under the circumstances hardly noticed, driving performance. Von Brauchitsch finished the last lap with a defective second rear tire on two rims, but was overtaken by Caracciola and Rosemeyer and was bitterly disappointed with his fifth place.

With his third place, Caracciola took the sole lead in the European Championship ranking ahead of his teammate Fagioli.

Results

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Auto Union AG	01	Hans Stuck	Auto Union B	Auto Union 5.0L V16 compressor	C.
	02	Achille Varzi
	03	Bernd Rosemeyer
	04th	Paul Pietsch
Daimler-Benz AG	05	Rudolf Caracciola	Mercedes-Benz W 25B	Mercedes-Benz M 25 B 4.0L I8 compressor	C.
	06th	Luigi Fagioli
	07th	Manfred von Brauchitsch
	08th	Hanns Geier
	09	Hermann Lang
English Racing Automobiles Ltd	10	Raymond Mays	ERA B	ERA 2.0L I6 compressor	D.
	19th	Ernst von Delius
Gruppo Genovese San Giorgio	11	Renato Balestrero	Maserati 8C 3000	Maserati 3.0L I8 compressor
Scuderia Ferrari	12	Tazio Nuvolari	Alfa Romeo Tipo B / P3	Alfa Romeo 3.2L I8 compressor	E.
	14th	Louis Chiron
	15th	René Dreyfus
		Antonio Brivio
Scuderia Subalpina	16	Goffredo Zehender	Maserati 6C-34	Maserati 3.3L I6 compressor	P
	17th	Philippe Étancelin
	18th	Eugenio Siena	Maserati 8CM	Maserati 3.0L I8 compressor
	22nd	Pietro Ghersi
László Hartmann	20th	László Hartmann	Maserati 8CM	Maserati 3.0L I8 compressor
Hans Ruesch	21st	Hans Ruesch	Maserati 8CM	Maserati 3.0L I8 compressor
Automobiles Ettore Bugatti	22nd	Piero Taruffi	Bugatti T59	Bugatti 3.3L I8 compressor	M.

Race result

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Tazio Nuvolari	Alfa Romeo	22nd		4:08:40.2 h	2	10: 43.6 min
02	Hans Stuck	Auto Union	22nd		+1: 38.6 min	1	10: 41.2 min
03	Rudolf Caracciola	Mercedes Benz	22nd		+ 2: 32.9 min	7th	10: 47.2 min
04th	Bernd Rosemeyer	Auto Union	22nd		+ 4: 10.8 min	12	10: 46.4 min
05	Manfred von Brauchitsch	Mercedes Benz	22nd		+ 5: 37.2 min	5	10: 32.2 min
06th	Luigi Fagioli	Mercedes Benz	22nd		+ 7: 18.1 min	13	11: 00.0 min
07th	Hanns Geier	Mercedes Benz	21st		+ 1 lap	19th	11: 19.8 min
08th	Achille Varzi	Auto Union	21st		+ 1 lap	11	11: 20.0 min
09	Paul Pietsch	Auto Union	20th		+ 2 rounds	15th	12: 00.2 min
10	Hans Ruesch	Maserati	20th		+ 2 rounds	9	11: 58.2 min
11	Goffredo Zehender	Maserati	20th		+ 2 rounds	4th	11: 57.0 min
12	Pietro Ghersi	Maserati	20th		+ 2 rounds	16	12: 08.8 min
-	Philippe Étancelin	Maserati	19th		DNF	6th	11: 50.2 min	Engine failure
-	Hermann Lang	Maserati	16		DNF	17th	11: 31.2 min	Engine failure
-	Raymond Mays Ernst von Delius	ERA	16		DNF	17th	13: 14.2 min	Engine overheats after a misfire
-	László Hartmann	Maserati	10		DNF	14th	12: 42.4 min	Ignition damage
-	Louis Chiron	Alfa Romeo	5		DNF	8th	11: 36.4 min	Differential damage
-	Piero Taruffi	Bugatti	4th		DNF	18th	12: 24.0 min	Engine failure
-	Antonio Brivio	Alfa Romeo	1		DNF	20th	12: 37.2 min	Differential damage
-	Renato Balestrero	Maserati	1		DNF	3		accident

Web links

Commons : Automobilsport 1935  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

• VIII Grand Prix of Germany. www.teamdan.com, accessed August 1, 2014 (English). 
• Leif Snellman, Felix Muelas: VII GRAND PRIZE OF GERMANY. www.kolumbus.fi, April 9, 2013, accessed August 1, 2014 . 

Remarks

1. ↑ The type designation of the Auto Union racing cars was only introduced later by specialist authors to differentiate between the individual models
2. ↑ The information about Nuvolari's time differ between different sources. Motorsport : 4: 08: 39.0 h, Motor & Sport , Automobil Revue : 4: 08: 40.1 h, Paul Sheldon : 4:08 : 04.1 h (misprint), Il Littoriale , Födisch / Völker / Behrdt : 4: 08: 04.2 h