1907 French Grand Prix

Race winner Felice Nazzaro

Otto Salzer in a Mercedes 120 hp

The pit area. In the picture the Corre-La Licorne by Joseph Collomb (# C1) and the Renault AK by Ferenc Szisz (# R1)

The second, X Grand Prix of France ( X Grand Prix de l'Automobile Club de France ) took place on July 2, 1907 on a street circuit near Dieppe . The race was held according to a consumption formula (maximum 30 l of petrol per 100 km of racing distance) over 10 laps of 76.989 km, which corresponded to a total distance of 769.889 km.

The winner was Felice Nazzaro in a Fiat .

run

Despite the French success and the widespread public attention that the Grand Prix of 1906 had attracted, criticism arose afterwards, especially about the format of the event. Overall, the race was felt to be too long and too long start intervals were responsible for the fact that there was hardly any direct fighting between the cars on the track. In particular, the outcome of the race was felt to be too dependent on the tire issue, especially since this effect was reinforced by the fact that only the driver and his mechanic were allowed to work on the car.

All of this was to be improved with the new edition in 1907, and the seaside resort of Dieppe was chosen as a venue that was much easier to reach for the public and especially for guests and participants from Great Britain and Belgium, which also offered a certain “glamor factor”. At only 6 francs entry, the place was filled with festive hustle and bustle for days.

The choice of a new racing formula was less happy. The previous maximum weight of 1000 kg was replaced by a consumption formula in which the participants of the Grand Prix were granted 30 liters of petrol per 100 km driven distance. The aim was to steer the development of racing cars more towards everyday use and thus towards more balanced and less overblown constructions. Ultimately, the intention was to make the outcome of the races less dependent on the tires. However, in the 1906 Grand Prix, almost all participants had easily stayed below this amount of fuel, including the victorious Renault von Szisz. Because of this, there was little reason for the designers to make serious changes and most of the manufacturers started again with their tried and tested “one-tonne trucks”. Due to the elimination of the weight limit, however, many made use of the option to additionally strengthen the chassis compared to the previous year.

Only a few new teams brought some diversity into the field, above all the only US manufacturer representative, John Walter Christie . His front-wheel drive car, which he developed himself, was the lightest in the field and yet had the largest engine ever used in a Grand Prix car with a four-cylinder with a capacity of almost 20 liters installed across the front axle. In order to achieve the largest possible cylinder bore, the cylinders were arranged in a still rather unusual V-shape. Four eight-cylinder engines from Porthos from France, Weigel from Great Britain and Dufaux from Switzerland, on the other hand, looked almost conventional again.

A total of 16 manufacturers from seven countries sent a total of 37 cars on the total distance of 769.83 km over ten laps, of which 24 were racing cars from ten French manufacturers. These included Clément-Bayard's three cars , although Albert Clément , the son of the company founder, had a fatal accident during test drives on the track prior to the race, as did Darracq driver Marius Pin . After Aquila Italiana had withdrawn shortly before the race, Fiat alone represented the national colors of Italy, which are now also compulsory at a Grand Prix. In addition to the aforementioned cars from Great Britain, Switzerland and the USA, Mercedes and Germain from Belgium each completed the field with a three-car team from Germany .

At the same time as the Grand Prix, another race was held on the same course, the Coupe de la Commission Sportive , in which fuel consumption was even limited to 15 l per 100 km, but only ran over six laps and was very weak with only nine participants. The winner was a certain de Langhe on Darracq.

In the main race of the Grand Prix cars, Louis Wagner initially took the lead in a Fiat, but the gap to the pursuers remained relatively small, so that for a long time all three Fiat drivers as well as the entire Darracq team as well as two Lorraines and one Renault had a chance of victory could calculate. In the fourth lap, however, Wagner had to retire due to engine problems, so Arthur Duray took the lead on Lorraine-Dietrich. On the penultimate lap he was six minutes ahead of the two remaining Fiat drivers Felice Nazzaro and Vincenzo Lancia , but then he too retired with a damaged gearbox. After Lancia had also retired on the last lap due to a clutch defect, the order at the finish was Nazzaro on Fiat with a total of 6:46:33 hours and an average of 113.621 km / h, 6:37 minutes ahead of last year's winner Szisz on Renault , behind with 18:32 minutes behind Paul Baras on Brasier . None of the participants had any serious problems with the fuel supply. From the initial 231 l to which each participant was entitled, there were still 11 in Nazzaro's Fiat, and even 42 l in Victor Rigal's Darracq . A total of 17 cars reached the destination, 12 of which were French. The French cars also finished second through ninth, but victory went to Italy for the first time. After the Targa Florio and the Kaiserpreisrennen , Fiat had won the third important race of the season and thus races of all three applicable racing formulas.

Results

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Automobiles Brasier	0B1	Jules Barillier	Brasier
	0B2	Paul Baras
	0B3	Paul Bablot
Société Francaise des Automobiles Corre	0C1	Joseph Collomb	Corre
Société A Darracq	0D1	René Hanriot	Darracq
	0D2	Gustave Caillois
	0D3	Victor Rigal
Fiat	0F1	Vincenzo Lancia	Fiat 130 HP	Fiat 13.0L I4
	0F2	Felice Nazzaro
	0F3	Louis Wagner
Daimler Motor Company	0M1	Camille Jenatzy	Mercedes 120 hp	Mercedes14.4L I6
	0M2	Otto Salzer
	0M3	Victor Hémery
Société General des Automobiles Porthos	0P1	Emile Stricker	Porthos
Renault Frères	0R1	Ferenc Szisz	Renault AK	Renault 13.0L I4
	0R2	Henri Farman
	0R3	Claude Richez
Weigel Motors	0W1	Gregor Laxen	Weigel
	0W2	Pryce Harrison
Automobiles Clément-Bayard	0BC1	Pierre Garcet	Clement-Bayard
	0BC2	Jean Alezy
	0BC3	Elliott Shepard
Marchand et Dufaux	0DM1	Frederic Dufaux	Marchand
Societé Gobron-Brillie	0GB1	Louis Rigolly	Gobron Brillié
Ateliers Germain	0GE1	Claude Perpère	Germain
	0GE2	François Degrais
	0GE3	François-Marie Roch-Brault
De Dietrich et Cie	0LD1	Arthur Duray	Lorraine-Dietrich
	0LD2	Henri Rougier
	0LD3	Fernand Gabriel
Automobiles Motobloc	0MB1	Louis Pierron	Motobloc
	0MB2	Claude Page
	0MB3	Jean-Pierre Courtade
Automobiles Panhard et Levassor	0PL1	George Heath	Panhard
	0PL2	Hubert Le Blon
	0PL3	Lucas Dutemple
Front Drive Motor Co	0WC1	John Walter Christie	Christie

Race result

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Felice Nazzaro	Fiat	10		6: 46: 33.0 h
02	Ferenc Szisz	Renault	10		+ 6: 37.6 min
03	Paul Baras	Brasier	10		+ 18: 32.6 min
04th	Fernand Gabriel	Lorraine-Dietrich	10		+ 25: 06.0 min
05	Victor Rigal	Darracq	10		+ 26: 03.4 min
06th	Gustave Caillois	Darracq	10		+ 29: 25.6 min
07th	Jules Barillier	Brasier	10		+ 41: 21.0 min
08th	Pierre Garcet	Clement-Bayard	10		+ 47: 44.0 min
09	Elliott Shepard	Clement-Bayard	10		+ 53: 23.2 min
10	Victor Hémery	Mercedes	10		+1: 38: 52.0 h
11	Jean-Pierre Courtade	Motobloc	10		+ 2: 02: 00.6 h
12	Paul Bablot	Brasier	10		+ 2: 26: 26.6 h
13	Claude Richez	Renault	10		+ 2: 44: 19.4 h
14th	François Degrais	Germain	10		+ 3:04:03.4 h
15th	François-Marie Roch-Brault	Germain	10		+ 3: 24: 12.0 h
16	Joseph Collomb	Corre	10		+ 3: 38: 23.7 h
17th	Claude Perpère	Germain	10		+ 4: 07: 09.0 h
-	Vincenzo Lancia	Fiat	9		DNF			Clutch damage
-	Otto Salzer	Mercedes	9		DNF			failure
-	Arthur Duray	Lorraine-Dietrich	8th		DNF		37: 59.800	failure
-	Lucas Dutemple	Panhard	8th		DNF			failure
-	Camille Jenatzy	Mercedes	7th		DNF			failure
-	Louis Pierron	Motobloc	7th		DNF			failure
-	Frederic Dufaux	Marchand	7th		DNF			failure
-	Henri Farman	Renault	7th		DNF			failure
-	René Hanriot	Darracq	6th		DNF			Engine failure
-	Henri Rougier	Lorraine-Dietrich	5		DNF			failure
-	Louis Rigolly	Gobron Brillié	5		DNF			failure
-	Pryce Harrison	Weigel	5		DNF			failure
-	Claude Page	Motobloc	5		DNF			failure
-	Emile Stricker	Porthos	4th		DNF			Steering damage
-	Jean Alezy	Clement-Bayard	4th		DNF			failure
-	John Walter Christie	Christie	4th		DNF			failure
-	Louis Wagner	Fiat	4th		DNF			Control rod
-	Gregor Laxen	Weigel	3		DNF			lost wheel
-	Hubert Le Blon	Panhard	3		DNF			Driver injured
-	George Heath	Panhard	1		DNF			Engine failure

literature

• Robert Dick: Mercedes and Auto Racing in the Belle Epoque 1895–1915 , MacFarland & Co, Jefferson, 2005, ISBN 0-7864-1889-3 (English)
• Adriano Cimarosti: Car races - The great prices of the world, cars, tracks and pilots from 1894 to today , Hallwag AG, Bern, 1986, ISBN 3-444-10326-3
• Paul Sheldon with Yves de la Gorce & Duncan Rabagliati: A Record of Grand Prix and Voiturette Racing, Volume 1 1900–1925 , St. Leonard's Press, Bradford, 1987, ISBN 0-9512433-0-6 (English)
• Karl Ludvigsen: Classic Grand Prix Cars - The front-engined Formula 1 Era 1906–1960 , Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 2000, ISBN 0-7509-2189-7
• Hodges, David: A – Z of Grand Prix Cars , The Crowood Press, Ramsbury, 2001, ISBN 1-86126-339-2

Web links

Commons : 1907 French Grand Prix  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual references / comments

1. ↑ The first race organized as the Grand Prix de l'ACF took place in 1906. In the 1920s, however, the “great” city-to-city races of the early days between 1895 and 1903 were also awarded these titles, although the ACF was founded after the Paris – Bordeaux – Paris 1895 race. This counting method made the event of 1906 the official ninth Grand Prix de l'ACF