1927 French Grand Prix

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Race winner Robert Benoist
Robert Benoist at the award ceremony
Robert Benoist on the track with his Delage

The XXI. The French Grand Prix ( XXI Grand Prix de l'Automobile Club de France ) took place on July 3, 1927 at the Autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry in France and was a race for the third automobile world championship.

The race was carried out using the applicable International Grand Prix racing formula (racing cars up to 1.5 liters capacity; minimum weight 700 kg, body width at least 80 cm; racing distance at least 600 km) over 48 laps of 12.500 km, which is a total distance of 600 km corresponds.

The winner was Robert Benoist on a Delage Type 15 S 8 .

run

After the debacle of 1926 , the French Grand Prix returned to the Linas-Montlhéry permanent circuit in 1927, which had also been used in 1925 . To upgrade the supporting program, the ACF had also scheduled a Formula Libre race on the day before the Grand Prix , which was also open to private participants with racing cars of all kinds, and a race based on a consumption formula.

With Delage , Talbot and the reigning world champion Bugatti, all automobile companies active in Grand Prix racing had announced their participation in the main race . Delage had completely redesigned the fast but problematic Delage Type 15 S 8 over the winter. In particular, the cylinder head of the engine had been turned so that the exhaust could no longer heat up the driver's side of the cockpit so unbearably and the pilots could now fully exploit the potential of the model, which had already been superior to all competitors in terms of speed in 1926. The team had again signed Robert Benoist, Edmond Bourlier and André Morel as drivers .

Although Talbot had already run into financial difficulties over the development of his Grand Prix model, the racing cars there had also been redesigned and, above all, the previously vulnerable front axle was reinforced. Albert Divo won the "Jedermann" race the day before the Grand Prix, which he contested as a test run for the team. In the main race, the veteran Louis Wagner and the under the pseudonym "W. Williams “driving British driver William Grover-Williams for the team.

After training was already in full swing, the Bugatti team finally arrived at the race track on the Friday night before the race. The three Bugatti Type 39A from Emilio Materassi , Jules Goux and André Dubonnet , however, were largely unchanged compared to the previous year and it quickly became clear that they were significantly slower than the Delage. Bugatti drew the consequences and, to the general disappointment, canceled the team immediately before the race. So finally seven participants gathered at the start - in addition to the Delage and Talbot teams, the Briton George Eyston also competed with his Halford Special , which, however, played no role in the outcome of the race.

Despite the small field of participants, the race was extremely exciting in the early stages. Divo went straight to the front with his Talbot, but was overtaken after a few laps by the two Delage drivers Benoist and “Williams”, who in turn were fighting a tough battle for the lead. The Briton then lost an entire lap during a pit stop because he had to fix a problem with the fuel pump. The same problem overtook Morel a little later, so that now only Divo and Bourlier were in one round with Benoist. Behind him followed the constantly driving Wagner, who had already lost several minutes at the start before he could get his engine running, ahead of Morel and "Williams", who continued to struggle with problems with the fuel supply. Halfway through the race, Divo had to give up due to a defect in the engine and when Wagner finally got into problems, Delage was able to achieve an undisputed triple victory with Benoist ahead of Bourlier and Morel.

After Talbot had already clearly overused the company's capacities in the arms race against Delage, the factory finally closed for financial reasons following the again disappointing performance of the racing team.

Results

Registration list

team No. driver chassis engine tires
United KingdomUnited Kingdom Major Frank Halford 2 United KingdomUnited Kingdom George Eyston Halford special Halford 1.5L I6
Third French RepublicThird French Republic Automobiles Talbot 04th Third French RepublicThird French Republic Albert Divo Talbot GPLB Talbot 1.5L I8 compressor M.
10 United KingdomUnited Kingdom William Grover-Williams
16 Third French RepublicThird French Republic Louis Wagner
Third French RepublicThird French Republic Jules Moriceau
Third French RepublicThird French Republic Automobiles Delage 06th Third French RepublicThird French Republic Robert Benoist Delage Type 15 S 8 1927 Delage 1.5L I8 M.
12 Third French RepublicThird French Republic Edmond Bourlier
18th Third French RepublicThird French Republic André Morel
Third French RepublicThird French Republic Robert Sénéchal
Third French RepublicThird French Republic Automobiles Ettore Bugatti 08th Third French RepublicThird French Republic André Dubonnet Bugatti T39A Bugatti 1.5L I8 compressor M.
14th Italy 1861Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946) Emilio Materassi
20th Third French RepublicThird French Republic Jules Goux
Italy 1861Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946) Caberto Conelli
Italy 1861Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946) Meo Costantini
Czechoslovakia 1920Czechoslovakia Eliška Junková Czechoslovakia 1920Czechoslovakia Eliška Junková Bugatti T39A Bugatti 1.5L I8 compressor

Race result

Item driver constructor Round Stops time begin Fastest lap Failure reason
01 Third French RepublicThird French Republic Robert Benoist Third French RepublicThird French Republic Delage 48 4: 45: 41.2 h 3 5: 41.0 min
02 Third French RepublicThird French Republic Edmond Bourlier Third French RepublicThird French Republic Delage 48 + 8: 14.4 min 5
03 Third French RepublicThird French Republic André Morel Third French RepublicThird French Republic Delage 48 + 25: 50.2 min 7th
04th United KingdomUnited Kingdom William Grover-Williams Jules Moriceau
Third French RepublicThird French Republic 
Third French RepublicThird French Republic Talbot 46 + 38: 48.8 min 4th
- Third French RepublicThird French Republic Louis Wagner Third French RepublicThird French Republic Talbot 42 DNF 6th Magneto
- United KingdomUnited Kingdom George Eyston United KingdomUnited Kingdom Halford 32 DNF 1 angled
- Third French RepublicThird French Republic Albert Divo Third French RepublicThird French Republic Talbot 23 DNF 2 broken piston

Web links

Commons : French Grand Prix 1927  - collection of images, videos and audio files

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 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.