1913 French Grand Prix

Race winner Georges Boillot

Second placed Jules Goux

Third placed Jean Chassagne

René Thomas during the race

The fifth - according to today's counting method XIII. French Grand Prix ( XIII Grand Prix de l'Automobile Club de France ) took place on July 12, 1913 on the Circuit de Picardie near Amiens . The race was held in accordance with the applicable Grand Prix formula (maximum fuel consumption of 20 liters per 100 km, minimum weight 800 kg, maximum weight 1100 kg) over 29 laps of 31.62 km each, corresponding to a total distance of 916.98 km.

Like last year, the winner was Georges Boillot in a Peugeot L-56 .

run

After the positive new start in 1912 - with a French victory on top of that - the ACF wrote the 1913 Grand Prix again as an independent race. For the first time since 1907 the venue was changed. Instead of Dieppe, the Circuit de Picardie , with a lap length of 31.63 km, was less than half as long in front of the gates of Amiens , which featured an approximately 13 km long straight as a special feature. Returning to the one-day race, this course was lapped a total of 29 times for a total distance of 916 km. Exactly 20 participants were allowed to start, after which the entry list was closed.

Regarding the racing formula from the decided ACF establishment of ad hoc Commission Sportive this time for a combination of consumption formula with Gewichtsober- and lower limit. 20 liters of fuel were allowed to be used per 100 km of racing distance - a reduction in the amount of petrol allowed in the first consumption formula from 1907 by a third - a total of 183.3 liters of petrol per car, which were provided by various suppliers pre-selected by the organizer had to be housed in a sealed, barrel-shaped standard petrol tank behind the driver's seat. Streamlined rear panels, as seen for the first time last year, were thus implicitly excluded. The car weight had to be between 800 and 1100 kg without fuel, oil and spare parts. The main intention behind this was to prevent extreme engine overruns at the expense of too light and fragile constructions.

As the defending champion, Peugeot competed with a revised version of the previous year's model, in which the engine dimensions were even slightly reduced to a displacement of 5.6 l. Main focus was going to eliminate the vulnerability - directed, but in addition of was using - the tendency to vibrate at high speeds and lubrication problems wind tunnel by Gustave Eiffel made a favorable aerodynamic car shape with rounded radiator, underfloor paneling as well as wrap-around to the driver's seat body flanks. After the team had used Continental tires the previous year , Pirelli now offered the best contract in 1913 .

Under the new regulations, the traditional “displacement monsters” a la Fiat or Lorraine-Dietrich no longer had any prospect of success, so that these last two long-term Grand Prix manufacturers also withdrew. Instead, Delage now entered Peugeot's arch-rival from the “small car races” for the Coupe de l'Auto on the Grand Prix stage. The Model Y was accordingly an enlarged version of last year's Voiturette racing car to 6.2 liters. Other “climbers” from the Voiturette class were Th. Schneider and Sunbeam from Great Britain, and Itala returned from Italy with a three-car team around star driver Felice Nazzaro and innovative rotary valve motors . The field was completed by two Excelsior from Belgium derived from touring car models , a Mathis Baby and, for the first time, a German representative, Carl Jörns on Opel , after all with an OHC engine . For the first time at a Grand Prix, there was no longer a chain drive car and wooden spoked wheels were now a thing of the past.

The 1913 Grand Prix began under tragic circumstances. In the run-up to test drives, the technical director of Itala, Guido Bigio, and shortly afterwards also Paolo Zuccarelli  - who as a racing driver and engineer was the soul of the Peugeot Grand Prix team, the four "Charlatans", was and also played a key role was involved in the construction of the car - was killed in accidents. Despite the shock in the team, it was the two Peugeot drivers Boillot and Goux who came out of the first lap as leaders. Like almost all of the participants in the early days of the race, they still had a close eye on fuel consumption and had not even gotten the most out of their cars. Their chasing group consisted of the Delage driver Albert Guyot and the three Sunbeams with the French Jean Chassagne and the two British Dario Resta and Kenelm Lee Guinness at the wheel. Delage's second driver, Paul Bablot , had been too careful with consumption at the start and stalled the engine several times, but was now constantly catching up with the leading group. The rest of the field was soon either far behind or completely canceled.

At the top there was a change in leadership on the third lap because Boillot had to stop briefly to replace a defective ignition cable. This put Goux in the front, but was overtaken by Guyot on lap nine, who subsequently increased his lead continuously until halfway through the race. A little later, Boillot passed his stable mate again. Beyond that, another tragic incident occurred when the Guinness Sunbeam strayed off the track with a blown tire and caught a spectator who later succumbed to his injuries. The decision was finally made on lap 17 when Guyots Delage suffered a tire defect. In order not to lose too much time, his mechanic jumped out of the car before it came to a stop and was run over in the process. Guyot heaved the injured co-driver back into the seat and slowly drove back to the pits, where he then resumed the race with a substitute on board. However, he had lost so much time in the process that he now had nothing to do with the outcome of the race. The two Peugeot drivers fought for victory among themselves, with Boillot having to stop again shortly before the end due to a burst cooling water hose. In the end, after 7:53:57 hours of driving time and an average of 116.19 km / h, he was able to save a lead of 2:15 minutes over Goux and was the first driver ever to win the Grand Prix for the second time after 1912. There was even 20 liters of fuel in his tank. Third was Chassagne on Sunbeam, ahead of the two Delage riders.

Results

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Sunbeam Motor Co	01	Gustave Caillois	Sunbeam
	09	Dario Resta
	15th	Jean Chassagne
	19th	Kenelm Lee Guinness
Automobiles Delage	02	Paul Bablot	Delage Y	Delage 6.2L I4	M.
	10	Albert Guyot
Fritz from Opel	03	Carl Jörns	Opel
Émile Mathis	04th	Dragutin eater	Mathis		M.
Automobiles Excelsior	05	Josef Christiaens	Exelsior
	11	Sigurd Hornsted
Automobiles Theo Schneider	06th	René Croquet	Theo Schneider		M.
	12	Fernand Gabriel
	16	René Champoiseau
	20th	René Thomas
Itala	07th	Felice Nazzaro	Itala
	13	Herbert Pope
	17th	Antonio Moriondo
Automobiles et Cycles Peugeot	08th	Georges Boillot	Peugeot L-56	Peugeot 5.5L I4	P
	14th	Jules Goux
	17th	Jean Delpierre

Race result

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Georges Boillot	Peugeot	29		7: 53: 56.800
02	Jules Goux	Peugeot	29		+ 2: 25,600
03	Jean Chassagne	Sunbeam	29		+ 12: 23,400
04th	Paul Bablot	Delage	29		+ 22: 16.800		15: 22,000
05	Albert Guyot	Delage	29		+ 24: 02,000
06th	Dario Resta	Sunbeam	29		+ 27: 41,600
07th	René Champoiseau	Theo Schneider	29		+ 50: 40,400
08th	Josef Christiaens	Excelsior	29		+1: 03: 26.800
09	René Thomas	Theo Schneider	29		+1: 10: 15,400
10	René Croquet	Theo Schneider	29		+1: 18: 55.800
11	Sigurd Hornsted	Excelsior	29		+1: 43: 43.800
-	Kenelm Lee Guinness	Sunbeam	15th		DNF			accident
-	Antonio Moriondo	Itala	13		DNF			Spring break
-	Felice Nazzaro	Itala	12		DNF			Spring break
-	Dragutin eater	Mathis	8th		DNF			Valve damage
-	Gustave Caillois	Sunbeam	4th		DNF			Suspension damage
-	Fernand Gabriel	Theo Schneider	3		DNF			Carburetor damage
-	Carl Jörns	Opel	1		DNF			Engine failure
-	Jean Delpierre	Opel	1		DNF			accident
-	Herbert Pope	Itala	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 : 1913 French Grand Prix  - album containing pictures, 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 race in 1895. This counting method made the event from 1906 the official ninth Grand Prix de l'ACF.