1921 French Grand Prix

Race winner Jimmy Murphy

Jean Chassagne in his 3 liter ballot

Pit signals for the Sunbeam drivers

The XV. The French Grand Prix ( XV Grand Prix de l'Automobile Club de France ) took place on July 25, 1921 at the Circuit de la Sarthe near Le Mans . The race was held in accordance with the applicable Grand Prix racing formula (3 liter capacity, 800 kg minimum weight) over 30 laps of 17.26 km, which corresponded to a total distance of 517.8 km.

With Jimmy Murphy on Duesenberg , an American participant won the Grand Prix de l'ACF for the first time .

run

After a seven-year break caused by the First World War and a subsequent two-year reticence on the part of automobile manufacturers, the ACF hosted a Grand Prix for the first time after the war in 1921 . As with the very first Grand Prix of 1906, Le Mans was chosen as the venue, but this time with a significantly shorter, but still unpaved circuit of 17.26 km lap length directly in the south of the city, which is still largely part of the route of the 24 hours of Le Mans forms. The total distance of 517.8 km was also the shortest of all previous Grand Prix races.

Regarding the racing formula, it was decided to adopt the provisions of the Indianapolis races of 1920 and 1921 , which stipulated a maximum cylinder capacity of 3 liters with a minimum weight of 800 kg. This opened up opportunities for the cars competing there, which the Ballot company in particular made use of, which had taken over the technological leadership role among French racing car manufacturers by taking over star designer Ernest Henry from Peugeot . For Ballot, Henry had further developed the concept of the four-cylinder four-valve engine from Peugeot with hemispherical combustion chambers and two overhead camshafts into a short-stroke and correspondingly easy-revving in-line eight-cylinder, which, however, had not yet fully met expectations at his two Indianapolis appearances. Ballot has now started three of these cars in his home race, driven by Jean Chassagne , Louis Wagner and Ralph DePalma . Jules Goux , on the other hand, as the fourth driver of the team, had to make do with an older 2-liter four-cylinder model.

The French-British Sunbeam - Talbot - Darracq group, which had just emerged from a company merger, had registered a total of seven cars under its various brand names. Although the newly designed eight-cylinder had also previously been used in Indianapolis, they did not prove to be sufficiently mature during training, and only the massive resistance of the drivers meant that participation was not withdrawn completely. Ultimately, with the Grand Prix newcomer Henry Segrave at the side of the more experienced Kenelm Lee Guinness on "Talbot" for Great Britain, and René Thomas and André Boillot , the younger brother of the pre-war star Georges Boillot , on "Talbot-Darracq" for France four cars still to be sent to the start. Fiat, on the other hand, had to completely cancel the participation of its team because the cars could not be completed on time due to workers' unrest. Another participant, almost hopeless from the start, was the Alsatian Émile Mathis on his significantly underpowered Mathis four-cylinder with a displacement of just 1.5 liters.

So the way to victory would have been practically free for Ballot, but literally at the last minute, Duesenberg , a serious competitor, appeared on the scene. Born in France, Albert Champion , owner of the spark plug factory Champion Spark Plug , agreed as a sponsor of Duesenberg to pay the entry fee - doubled due to the delay - and all travel expenses for a team of four cars for the US drivers Jimmy Murphy and Joe Boyer and to take over the two Frenchmen Albert Guyot and Louis Inghilbert . For the first time in history - apart from Walter Christie's appearance as a single starter at the 1907 Grand Prix - an overseas team entered a European Grand Prix race. In addition to the almost perfect organization of the racing team, the all-white American cars were also quite a bit ahead of the European designs from a technical point of view: Their eight-cylinder in-line cylinders, which were equipped with removable cylinder heads for the first time, allowed speeds of up to 5000 revolutions per minute and unprecedented speeds as well For the first time in a Grand Prix car with hydraulic brakes from the Lockheed system were used - a technology that was only able to establish itself in European racing car designs about a decade later due to the high license fees. In addition, Duesenberg did not carry spare wheels on the car in order to achieve corresponding advantages in handling and weight. Experience in American races had shown that on circuits that were relatively short for the time, it was ultimately more effective to pits in the event of a tire damage on the rim than to switch to the track and then to the pits again stop and then charge new spare tires there.

A few days before the race, however, the American team suffered a serious setback when Murphy had an accident with Inghilbert as co-driver during a training drive on the track. Inghilbert then had to be replaced by the wealthy amateur rider André Dubonnet, who was originally registered for Talbot , while Murphy started despite his injuries - albeit in pain. The total of 13 cars were sent into the race in pairs at intervals of 30 seconds in the order of the starting numbers drawn - in view of the time intervals that were usual up to now, this was already a big step towards the mass start.

Despite his injury, Murphy took the lead from the second of the total of 30 laps, while the cars of the Talbot / Darracq team in particular had problems early on with the increasingly poor track conditions and were thrown back by numerous tire changes. When Murphy pits to have his tires checked, Chassagne took the lead to the cheers of the crowd. On lap 17, however, the Ballot driver had to give up due to a rockfall with a cracked tank, around the same time Duesenberg driver Boyer had to give up because of an engine failure. Guyot had also lost a lot of time in second place because his mechanic was hit by a stone and injured. After four hours of driving, Murphy was the undisputed first - and until Dan Gurney in an AAR Eagle won the Belgian Grand Prix in 1967  - the only US-American on an American make to finish as the winner for 46 years, although towards the end of the race A stone had also leaked the radiator on his car and he had to make another pit stop before the last lap because of a puncture. Despite the lead of almost 15 minutes over second-placed DePalma and more than 20 minutes over third-placed Goux, Édouard Ballot, who was annoyed by the unexpected defeat, declared the moral winner after the race, on the grounds that Murphys Duesenberg would not have another lap would have endured more. The best Talbot driver was substitute Dubonnet in fourth place, 23 minutes behind.

Results

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Automobiles ballot	01	Ralph DePalma	Ballot 3 liter	Ballot 3.0L I8	P
	08th	Jean Chassagne
	14th	Louis Wagner
	18th	Jules Goux	Ballot 2-liter S.	Ballot 2.0L I4	P
Fiat	02	Ugo Sivocci	Fiat 802	Fiat 3.0L I8	P
	09	Pietro Bordino
Mathis	03	Émile Mathis	Mathis		M.
Sunbeam-Talbot-Darracq Motors	04th	Kenelm Lee Guinness	Talbot
	07th	André Dubonnet
	10	Henry Segrave
	05	René Thomas	Talbot-Darracq
	15th	André Boillot
	11	Louis Zborowski	Sunbeam
	13	Dario Resta
Duesenberg Bros	06th	Albert Guyot	Duesenberg GP	Duesenberg 3.0L I8	F.
	07th	André Dubonnet
	12	Jimmy Murphy
	16	Joe Boyer
	17th	Louis Inghilbert

Race result

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Jimmy Murphy	Duesenberg	30th	5	4:07:11.4 h	8th	7: 43.0 min
02	Ralph DePalma	Ballot	30th		+ 14: 59.2 min	1
03	Jules Goux	Ballot	30th		+ 20: 22.2 min	12
04th	André Dubonnet	Duesenberg	30th		+ 23: 07.8 min	13
05	André Boillot	Talbot-Darracq	30th		+ 27: 58.8 min	10
06th	Albert Guyot	Duesenberg	30th		+ 34: 02.7 min	5
07th	Louis Wagner	Ballot	30th		+ 40: 49.7 min	9
08th	Kenelm Lee Guinness	Talbot	30th		+ 59: 28.0 min	3
09	Henry Segrave	Talbot	30th		+1: 01: 54.6 h	7th
-	René Thomas	Talbot-Darracq	27		DNF	4th		Leak in the oil tank
-	Joe Boyer	Dusenberg	17th		DNF	11		Engine failure
-	Jean Chassagne	Ballot	17th		DNF	6th		Leak in the fuel tank
-	Émile Mathis	Mathis	5		DNF	2		Engine failure
-	Louis Zborowski	Sunbeam			DNS			Vehicle not ready for use
-	Ugo Sivocci	Fiat			DNS			Vehicle not ready for use
-	André Dubonnet	Talbot			DNS			started for Duesenberg
-	Pietro Bordino	Fiat			DNS			Vehicle not ready for use
-	Dario Resta	Sunbeam			DNS			Vehicle not ready for use
-	Louis Inghilbert	Duesenberg			DNS			Vehicle assigned to Dubonnet

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
• Tim Considine: American Grand Prix Racing - A Century of Drivers & Cars , MBI Publishing, Osceola, 1997, ISBN 0-7603-0210-3 (English)
• Jon M Bill: Duesenberg Racecars & Passenger Cars Photo Archive ; Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum (Ed.), Iconografix, Hudson WI, Photo Archive Series, ISBN 1-58388-145-X (English)
• Griffith Borgeson: The Golden Age of the American Racing Car , 2nd edition (1998), published by SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers), Warrendale PA, ISBN 0-7680-0023-8 (English)
• JA Martin and Thomas F. Saal: American Auto Racing - The Milestones and Personalities of a Century of Speed , McFarland & Company, Inc., Jefferson NC, ISBN 0-7864-1235-6 (English)

Web links

Commons : French Grand Prix 1921  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• 1921 Grand Prix. (No longer available online.) Www.teamdan.com, archived from the original on January 29, 2019 ; accessed on June 24, 2020 (English). 

Remarks

1. ↑ The first race organized as the Grand Prix de l'ACF took place in 1906. In the 1920s, however, the "big" city-to-city races of the early years 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. This numbering was after the 1968 renaming of the Grand Prix de l'ACF for Grand Prix de France continued further throughout.
2. ↑ According to Sheldon, the reports of the brand "Sunbeam" had been withdrawn completely
3. ↑ As in the last pre-war races, Mathis had no serious ambitions for serious competition with the competition, but wanted to use the Grand Prix merely as a stage to demonstrate the reliability and endurance of his design