Grand Prix of Germany 1936

Auto Union C , winning car from Bernd Rosemeyer

Alfa Romeo 12C-36

The IX. German Grand Prix took place on July 26, 1936 on the Nordschleife of the Nürburgring . As Grande Épreuve , he was a member of the European Grand Prix Championship in 1936 and was over 22 under 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) Rounds of 22.810 km were held, which corresponded to a total distance of 501.82 km.

The winner was Bernd Rosemeyer in an Auto Union Type C , which was the first success of his career in an official International Grand Prix .

run

Despite the recent moderate results in the spring races of the season, the Mercedes-Benz team traveled to the Nürburgring in six new Mercedes-Benz W 25 Ks with a significantly shortened wheelbase, plus a previous year's model as a training vehicle. With the reigning European champion Rudolf Caracciola , who had already won the season opener in Monaco , vice-champion Luigi Fagioli , the multiple Grand Prix winner Louis Chiron , as well as Manfred von Brauchitsch and junior driver Hermann Lang , the team had registered five participants. A defeat like last year against Tazio Nuvolari for Alfa Romeo should definitely be avoided.

The effort for the second German team was hardly less. Four Auto Union racing cars were registered for Achille Varzi , Hans Stuck and Bernd Rosemeyer , who had risen to become a regular driver after just one year , reinforced by the newly added "junior driver" Ernst von Delius . Varzi, whose star was already sinking as a result of internal squabbles, the beginning of drug use and the mental after-effects of his serious accident in the previous race in Tunis , had reported sick, so reserve driver Rudolf Hasse was allowed to take over the cockpit.

Also in the team of the Scuderia Ferrari , which continues for the operations of the factory cars of Alfa Romeo was responsible, there were personnel reshuffles. The young driver Giuseppe Farina was still suffering from the consequences of the accident a week earlier at the race in Deauville , in which the Frenchman Marcel Lehoux was killed. In his place, René Dreyfus came back to the team after Mussolini's ban against French racing drivers on Italian teams had meanwhile been lifted. Together with team captain Tazio Nuvolari , he even got one of the two Alfa Romeo 12C-36s with the new V12-cylinder engine for the race , while Antonio Brivio and Francesco Severi started with older Alfa Romeo 8C-35s .

Bugatti was now a long way from such large-scale operations and Jean-Pierre Wimille , as the only representative of the French manufacturer, had to be content with the older two-seater Bugatti Type 59 , because the newly developed monoposto still showed such disappointing performance that it had not even been taken. More interesting, however, was the appearance of Maserati , officially represented at the races this season by Scuderia Torino , where the young Briton Richard Seaman , who had already attracted attention at Voiturette races, for his first Grand Prix outing with the The still problematic Maserati V8-RI came because regular driver Omobono Tenni could not compete due to an injury. The team also came up with an interesting combination of a Maserati 4CM Voiturette model with a four-cylinder engine enlarged to 2.5 liters for Antonio Brivio , which was hoped for a weight advantage on the winding course.

In the end, the small group of four private drivers, among whom at most the experienced Raymond Sommer with his older Alfa Romeo Tipo B, could figure out an outsider chance against the overwhelming power of the factory teams, was in a completely lost position. The New Zealander Thomas Pitt Cholmondeley-Tapper , the Chilean Juan Zanelli and the Dutchman Johannes “Jan” Rens were able to bring a few splashes of color into the field with their race cars, which were painted in the respective national colors but were all outdated.

On the day of the race, the weather in the Eifel stayed dry for once and in front of a backdrop of allegedly 350,000 spectators, the 20 racing cars gathered for the starting grid, which was still drawn at the German Grand Prix. Von Brauchitsch started from the second row, but accelerated those standing next to and in front of him and turned first into the south bend in front of his team mate Lang, the two Auto Union from Stuck and Rosemeyer and the two other Mercedes Silver Arrows from Caracciola and Fagioli .

After the first lap, the field had arranged itself so far that Rosemeyer had moved up past Lang to second and both were chasing after the leader, while Stuck had fallen back to fifth behind Caracciola a little bit behind. On the next lap, von Brauchitsch apparently had contact with an obstacle, because he had to stop briefly in the carousel to check the steering and came to the pits at the end of the lap. Rosemeyer, now in the lead, was able to increase the lead over Lang, who in turn was getting closer and closer to his team-mate Caracciola. But the Caracciola had to park his Mercedes a little later due to a technical defect, so that Nuvolari, the best Alfa Romeo driver, was in third position, albeit a bit behind.

When Rosemeyer stopped for the scheduled fuel and tire stop on lap eight, Mercedes junior Hermann Lang found himself in the leading position at a Grand Prix for the first time in his career, even though he broke his little finger while changing gear. However, Rosemeyer was able to restore the previous order within one lap and when Lang came to his stop, he handed the car over to his team captain Caracciola. After a short medical treatment, Lang finally continued the race in von Brauchitsch's car.

After all pit stops had been completed on lap twelve, the order was Rosemeyer (Auto Union), already over a minute ahead of Nuvolari (Alfa Romeo), followed by Caracciola (Mercedes) and Stuck (Auto Union), not too far behind. Chiron, who was another minute behind in fifth place, went off the track on the next lap on the long straight at high speed, but luckily survived the subsequent rollover without serious injuries. Nevertheless, after the second serious accident within a year - at the Swiss Grand Prix in 1935 , he had already survived an accident halfway lightly - he was no longer ready and able to contest further races with the Mercedes, which viewed its problematic driving behavior as the cause of the accident has been.

That was not the end of the debacle at Mercedes-Benz, because Caracciola had to give up one of the cars with a technical defect for the second time in this race, and because Nuvolari's Alfa Romeo had also fallen by the wayside, Rosemeyer was able to do so given his lead He made his second scheduled stop over three minutes without losing the lead. In the end, it was the young German's first big success that finally became a crowd favorite. The Auto Union team was also completely satisfied with the one-two result and all four cars that had started in the top six, while the crisis at Mercedes was obvious.

Rosemeyer won the race with an average speed of 131.7 km / h. In addition, with his fastest lap of 9: 56.6 minutes, he was the first to lap the Nordschleife of the Nürburgsring in less than 10 minutes.

Results

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Auto Union AG	02	Hans Stuck	Auto Union C	Auto Union 3.0L V16 compressor	C.
	04th	Bernd Rosemeyer
	06th	Rudolf Hasse
	08th	Ernst von Delius
Thomas Pitt Cholmondeley Tapper	10	Thomas Pitt Cholmondeley Tapper	Maserati 8CM	Maserati 3.0L I8 compressor	D.
Daimler-Benz AG	12	Rudolf Caracciola	Mercedes-Benz W 25C	Mercedes-Benz M 25 C 4.7L I8 compressor	C.
	14th	Manfred von Brauchitsch
	16	Luigi Fagioli
	18th	Louis Chiron
	20th	Hermann Lang
		Goffredo Zehender
Scuderia Ferrari	22nd	Tazio Nuvolari	Alfa Romeo 12C-36	Alfa Romeo 4.1L V12 compressor	E.
	26th	René Dreyfus
	24	Antonio Brivio	Alfa Romeo 8C-35	Alfa Romeo 3.8L I8 compressor
	28	Francesco Severi
Scuderia Torino	30th	Richard Seaman	Maserati V8-RI	Maserati 4.8L V8 supercharger
	32	Carlo Felice Trossi	Maserati 4CM	Maserati 2.5L I4
Johannes Rens	34	Johannes Rens	Bugatti T51	Bugatti 2.3L I8 compressor
Automobiles Ettore Bugatti	36	Jean-Pierre Wimille	Bugatti T59 / 50B	Bugatti 4.7L I8 compressor	M.
Scuderia Villapadierna	38	Juan Zanelli	Maserati 8CM	Maserati 3.0L I8 compressor	P
Raymond Summers	40	Raymond Summers	Alfa Romeo Tipo B / P3	Alfa Romeo 3.2L I8 compressor	M.

Race result

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Bernd Rosemeyer	Auto Union	22nd	2	3: 48: 39,300	6th	9: 56,600
02	Hans Stuck	Auto Union	22nd	2	+ 3: 56.900	2
03	Antonio Brivio	Alfa Romeo	22nd	2	+ 8: 25.700	11
04th	Rudolf Hasse	Auto Union	22nd	2	+ 10: 33.800	17th
05	Luigi Fagioli Rudolf Caracciola	Mercedes Benz	21st		+ 1 lap	13
06th	Ernst von Delius	Auto Union	21st		+ 1 lap	16
07th	Manfred von Brauchitsch Hermann Lang	Mercedes Benz	21st		+ 1 lap	4th
08th	Carlo Felice Trossi Richard Seaman	Maserati	21st		+ 1 lap	7th
09	Raymond Summers	Alfa Romeo	19th		+ 3 rounds	20th
10	Thomas Pitt Cholmondeley Tapper	Maserati	18th		+ 4 rounds	18th
-	Francesco Severi René Dreyfus	Alfa Romeo	17th		DNF	15th		defective oil pump
-	Tazio Nuvolari	Alfa Romeo	13		DNF	3		Axle break
-	Hermann Lang Rudolf Caracciola	Mercedes Benz	12		DNF	9		Compressor damage
-	Louis Chiron	Mercedes Benz	12		DNF	14th		accident
-	René Dreyfus	Alfa Romeo	7th		DNF	8th		defective spark plugs
-	Johannes Rens	Bugatti	7th		DNF	12		defective connecting rod
-	Rudolf Caracciola	Mercedes Benz	3		DNF	5		defective fuel pump
-	Richard Seaman	Maserati	2		DNF	10		cracked brake line
-	Jean-Pierre Wimille	Bugatti	2		DNF	1		Gearbox damage
-	Juan Zanelli	Maserati	1		DNF	19th		clogged fuel supply

Web links

• IX Grand Prix of Germany. www.teamdan.com, accessed on August 2, 2014 . 
• Leif Snellman, Felix Muelas: IX GERMAN GRAND PRIZE. www.kolumbus.fi, July 11, 2014, accessed on August 2, 2014 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The type designation of the Auto Union racing cars was only introduced later by specialist authors to differentiate between the individual models