1922 French Grand Prix

Race winner Felice Nazzaro after the race

Nazzaro with co-driver Evasio Lampiano in a Fiat 804

Pierre de Vizcaya in the Bugatti T30 in front of Giulio Foresti in the 2-liter ballot

The XVI. French Grand Prix ( XVI Grand Prix de l'Automobile Club de France ) took place on July 16, 1922 at the Circuit de Strasbourg around Duppigheim near Strasbourg in France . The race was held in accordance with the newly issued Grand Prix formula (2 liter displacement, 650 kg minimum weight, race distance at least 800 km) over 60 laps of 13.38 km, which corresponded to a total distance of 802.88 km. For the first time in Grand Prix history, a mass start was carried out, albeit initially in the form of a flying start , in which the cars - led by a motorcyclist - slowly rolled along in a previously drawn formation until the race was released.

run

The overwhelming superiority of Fiat had already become apparent during training , when the three drivers of the team, Pietro Bordino , old master Felice Nazzaro and his young nephew Biagio (as a Grand Prix newcomer) regularly with the new six-cylinder model 804-404 Lap times 30 seconds faster than the other 15 participants on five different makes. In the race this developed into a veritable show of power, especially since some manufacturers had responded by shortening the drive ratio, which now led to numerous engine damage among the competitors. At halftime, eleven of the 18 participants who had started were already out of the race, including the entire Rolland-Pilain , Sunbeam and Aston Martin teams  - where the millionaire and gentleman driver built and used the car, which only had a 1.5-liter four-cylinder Louis Zborowski had been funded. At the top, however, the three Fiat drivers were already well ahead. Only the Alsatian Bugatti driver Ernest Friederich was initially able to keep up with Fiat due to his good track knowledge, until he too had to give up on lap 16 with an engine failure. After three quarters of the race distance, the last remaining ballot from Giulio Foresti had to give up the sails, so that next to the three leading Fiat only the Bugattis of Pierre de Vizcaya , Pierre Marco and Jacques Mones-Maury  - albeit with a considerable backlog - were still represented in the race.

Nevertheless, the dramatic events at the end of the race put Fiat victory in serious danger again when all three of the team's racing cars broke the rear axle due to a design fault. After Biagio Nazzaro had lost a wheel as a result of this at high speed and was killed when his car rolled over, Bordino survived his accident caused by a similar defect two laps before the end of the race, at least without major health consequences. Felice Nazzaro, who continued to drive after the death of his nephew, was able, after a total time of over six hours and with an average of 127.67 km / h, to manage his car, which was also battered, despite his time advantage of almost an hour on the second-placed Bugatti driver de Vizcaya just about to cross the finish line for the last significant victory of his career. With Pierre Marco in a Bugatti, there was only one other driver who was about 90 minutes behind in the standings.

Results

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
SA Mathis	01		Mathis		M.
Société Lyonnaise de l'Industrie Mécanique et Autos Pilain	02		Slim pilain		M.
Delage et Compagnie	03		Delage
	10
Fiat	04th	Felice Nazzaro	Fiat 804	Fiat Type 404 2.0L I6	P
	11	Pietro Bordino
	17th	Biagio Nazzaro
Usines Bugatti	05	Ernest Friederich	Bugatti T30	Bugatti 2.0L I8
	12	Pierre de Vizcaya
	18th	Jacques Mones-Maury
	22nd	Pierre Marco
SA des Établissements Rolland-Pilain	06th	Albert Guyot	Rolland-Pilain A22	Rolland-Pilain 2.0L I8
	13	Victor Hémery
	19th	Louis Wagner
Automobiles ballot	07th	Jules Goux	Ballot 2-liter S.	Ballot 2.0L I4
	14th	Giulio Foresti
	20th	Giulio Masetti
Aston Martin Cars	08th	Clive Gallop	Aston Martin GP	Aston Martin 1.5L I4
	15th	Louis Zborowski
Sunbeam-Talbot-Darracq Motors	09	Jean Chassagne	Sunbeam GP	Sunbeam 2.0L I4
	16	Kenelm Lee Guinness
	22nd	Henry Segrave

Race result

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Felice Nazzaro	Fiat	60		6: 17: 17,000	1	5: 43,000
02	Pierre de Vizcaya	Bugatti	60		+ 57: 42.800	8th
03	Pierre Marco	Bugatti	60		+1: 30: 47,200	18th
04th	Pietro Bordino	Fiat	58		+ 2 rounds	7th		accident
-	Jacques Mones-Maury	Bugatti	57		NC	14th
-	Biagio Nazzaro	Fiat	57		DNF	13		deadly accident
-	Giulio Foresti	Ballot	44		DNF	10		Engine failure
-	Jules Goux	Ballot	31		DNF	4th		accident
-	Clive Gallop	Aston Martin	30th		DNF	5		Engine failure
-	Henry Segrave	Sunbeam	29		DNF	17th		Engine failure
-	Louis Zborowski	Aston Martin	19th		DNF	11		Engine failure
-	Giulio Masetti	Ballot	15th		DNF	16		Engine failure
-	Ernest Friederich	Bugatti	14th		DNF	2		Engine failure
-	Victor Hémery	Rolland Pilain	12		DNF	9		Cylinder overheated
-	Kenelm Lee Guinness	Sunbeam	5		DNF	12		Engine failure
-	Jean Chassagne	Sunbeam	5		DNF	6th		Engine failure
-	Albert Guyot	Rolland Pilain	2		DNF	3		Engine failure
-	Louis Wagner	Rolland Pilain	2		DNF	15th		Engine failure

Web links

Commons : French Grand Prix 1922  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• XVI Grand Prix de l'ACF www.teamdan.com, accessed on April 3, 2015 (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.