1924 French Grand Prix
The XVIII. French Grand Prix ( XVIII Grand Prix de l'Automobile Club de France ) took place on August 3, 1924 at the Circuit de Lyon in Lyon , France .
The race also had the AIACR title of honor European Grand Prix . It was held in accordance with the provisions of the International Formula - the official International Grand Prix Formula prescribed by the AIACR, in which a minimum distance of 800 km was specified for the races - over 35 laps of 23.15 km each, resulting in a total distance of 810, 25 km corresponded. Works teams with racing cars with a capacity of up to 2 liters and a minimum weight of 650 kg were eligible to participate .
The winner was Giuseppe Campari in an Alfa Romeo P2 .
run
In 1924 the Grand Prix d'ACF returned to Lyon , the venue for the epoch-making race of 1914 . The route consisted of a section of the then racetrack and for the first time in its history a French Grand Prix was held on a circuit with a paved road surface throughout. In keeping with the importance of the race, which was also organized under the title of the Second European Grand Prix , Fiat , Sunbeam , Delage , Bugatti , Alfa Romeo and Rolland-Pilain-Schmid were all active manufacturers of Grand Prix racing cars this time represented according to the applicable formula. Only Mercedes , as a German company, was still excluded from participating in races in France as a result of the First World War , but had not yet developed its new Grand Prix model. Even with the drivers, everything was gathered that had rank and name, including Felice Nazzaro and Pietro Bordino (Fiat), Jules Goux (Rolland-Pilain-Schmid), Henry Segrave , Albert Divo and Dario Resta (Sunbeam) and Louis Wagner ( Alfa Romeo) seven previous Grand Prix and Indianapolis winners. In addition, with Giuseppe Campari and Antonio Ascari (both Alfa Romeo) and Robert Benoist (Delage) a new generation of upcoming Grand Prix aces was added. A special position also fell to Louis Zborowski , whose Miller is considered to be the first racing car privately used in an official International Grand Prix, even if that was rather unintentional. In order to be able to participate, Zborowski would actually have needed a certificate from the manufacturer with the confirmation that he was starting on the “behalf” of the plant. Although Zborowski had failed to do so, he was allowed to compete.
In addition to Fiat, which had already driven with engine charging the previous year , two other manufacturers, Sunbeam and Alfa Romeo, have now competed with supercharged racing cars with an output of between 138 and 150 hp. For Alfa Romeo it was the first Grand Prix start in the company's history (the Italian Grand Prix last year had been withdrawn due to Ugo Sivocci's fatal accident after training), but the new Grand Prix model Alfa Romeo P2 was already there a formula-free race in Cremona impressively demonstrated its performance. For the other three teams, who had decided against installing compressors, this meant that they had to try to make up for the performance disadvantage of the naturally aspirated engine in another way through special design features. With the Delage Type 2 LCV , the first Grand Prix racing car with a V12 engine, the focus was on increasing the engine speed, with the highly complex unit for the time (four overhead camshafts , a total of 48 valves) with 120 hp at 6000 rpm actually came close to the performance values of the compressor motors. Bugatti, on the other hand, pursued a completely opposite approach with its Type 35 , which was conventional in terms of engine construction , but its excellent driving behavior was not enough to make up for the performance lag behind the compressor models. Another interesting, albeit inferior, design was the valveless six-cylinder engines from the Swiss engine manufacturer Schmid , built into two older Rolland-Pilain chassis.
As usual on street courses, the start was carried out on the fly . Immediately a three-way battle between the three compressor teams developed with Segrave (Sunbeam) ahead of Ascari (Alfa Romeo), Guinness (Sunbeam), Campari (Alfa Romeo) and Bordino (Fiat). However, Segrave had to pit after a short time with a misfire. Bordino and Ascari then fought for the lead until the Fiat driver had to stop with the brakes falling off. The Bugatti team was already in great difficulty because the Dunlop tires could not withstand the load due to poor vulcanization. After a brief interruption due to the scheduled refueling stops, Ascari took the lead again in front of Guinness, Campari and the now slightly stronger Delage from Divo. In the second half the race calmed down noticeably and Ascari already looked like the sure winner, but had to give up his Alfa Romeo in the 32nd of a total of 35 laps with a crack in the engine block. After seven exciting hours, his team-mate Campari achieved the first significant victory of his career, at the same time the first Grand Prix success for Alfa Romeo right on the first attempt. Delage also came in second with Divo - just one minute behind the winner, the closest result between drivers of two different brands at a Grand Prix to date - and Benoist in third place to a very respectable result. Overall, the race with its open outcome was a great success for Grand Prix racing. For Fiat, on the other hand, its own performance after the loss of personnel was a bitter disappointment, so that company boss Giovanni Agnelli ordered a withdrawal from the Grand Prix events a little later.
Results
Registration list
team | No. | driver | chassis | engine | tires |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sunbeam-Talbot-Darracq Motors | 1 | Henry Segrave | Sunbeam GP | Sunbeam 2.0L I6 compressor | R T |
8th | Kenelm Lee Guinness | ||||
14th | Dario Resta | ||||
Automobiles Delage | 2 | Albert Divo | Delage 2 LCV | Delage 2.0L V12 | |
9 | Robert Benoist | ||||
15th | René Thomas | ||||
SA Ital. Ing.Nicola Romeo | 3 | Giuseppe Campari | Alfa Romeo P2 8C / 2000 | Alfa Romeo 2.0L I8 compressor | P |
10 | Antonio Ascari | ||||
16 | Louis Wagner | ||||
19th | Enzo Ferrari | ||||
Schmid | 4th | Giulio Foresti | Rolland-Pilain A22 Grand Prix | Schmid 2.0L I6 | M. |
11 | Jules Goux | ||||
Fiat | 5 | Felice Nazzaro | Fiat 805/405 | Fiat Type 405 2.0L I8 compressor | P |
12 | Pietro Bordino | ||||
17th | Onesimo Marchisio | ||||
19th | Cesare Pastore | ||||
Louis Zborowski | 6th | Louis Zborowski | Miller 122 | Offenhauser 2.0L I8 | |
Usines Bugatti | 7th | Jean Chassagne | Bugatti T35 | Bugatti 2.0L I8 | |
13 | Ernest Friederich | ||||
18th | Pierre de Vizcaya | ||||
21st | Leonico Garnier | ||||
22nd | Meo Costantini |
Race result
Item | driver | constructor | Round | Stops | time | begin | Fastest lap | Failure reason |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Giuseppe Campari | Alfa Romeo | 35 | 7: 05: 34,800 | 3 | |||
2 | Albert Divo | Delage | 35 | +1: 05.400 | 2 | |||
3 | Robert Benoist | Delage | 35 | + 11: 26,000 | 8th | |||
4th | Louis Wagner | Alfa Romeo | 35 | + 19: 36,000 | 15th | |||
5 | Henry Segrave | Sunbeam | 35 | + 23: 21,200 | 1 | 11: 19,000 | ||
6th | René Thomas | Delage | 35 | + 31: 52.600 | 14th | |||
7th | Jean Chassagne | Bugatti | 35 | + 40: 51.800 | 6th | |||
8th | Ernest Friederich | Bugatti | 35 | + 45: 10.800 | 12 | |||
9 | Antonio Ascari | Alfa Romeo | 34 | + 1 lap | 9 | Engine failure | ||
10 | Dario Resta | Sunbeam | 33 | + 2 rounds | 13 | |||
11 | Leonico Garnier | Bugatti | 33 | + 2 rounds | 20th | |||
- | Felice Nazzaro | Fiat | 22nd | DNF | 4th | Brake defect | ||
- | Kenelm Lee Guinness | Sunbeam | 20th | DNF | 7th | Engine failure | ||
- | Jules Goux | Rolland Pilain | 19th | DNF | 10 | Radiator damage | ||
- | Onesimo Marchisio | Fiat | 17th | DNF | 16 | Engine failure | ||
- | Pietro Bordino | Fiat | 17th | DNF | 11 | Brake defect | ||
- | Louis Zborowski | Miller | 16 | DNF | 5 | Axle break | ||
- | Meo Costantini | Bugatti | 16 | DNF | 19th | Steering defect | ||
- | Pierre de Vizcaya | Bugatti | 11 | DNF | 17th | accident | ||
- | Cesare Pastore | Fiat | 11 | DNF | 18th | accident | ||
- | Giulio Foresti | Rolland Pilain | DNS | Accident in training | ||||
- | Enzo Ferrari | Alfa Romeo | DNS | Driver sick |
Web links
- XVIII Grand Prix de l'ACF (No longer available online.) Www.teamdan.com, archived from the original on February 7, 2019 ; accessed on February 9, 2020 (English).
Remarks
- ↑ 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 1895 race. 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.