1933 French Grand Prix
The XIX. French Grand Prix ( XIX Grand Prix de l'Automobile Club de France ) took place on June 11, 1933 at the Autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry in France . It was one of the Grandes Épreuves and was held over 40 rounds of 12.50 km, which corresponded to the specified minimum distance of 500.0 km.
The winner of the race was Giuseppe Campari on a Maserati 8C-3000 . It was the first victory for the Italian brand at an official international Grand Prix and at the same time the last Grand Prix success for the Italian, who died three months later in an accident in the race for the Monza Grand Prix .
run
In 1933, the Grand Prix de l'ACF made its fourth appearance on the permanent race track of Linas-Montlhéry . Due to its long tradition, the race was still viewed as the highlight of the season and in order to get a suitable field of participants together - and to accommodate private drivers as well, contrary to what has been the most common practice up to now - the registration fee was drastically reduced this year. At the same time, substantial prize money and bonus payments for certain interim evaluations were promised. All the more disappointing for the organizer was the extremely short-term withdrawal of the entire Bugatti racing team, whose new Grand Prix model the local audience had been eagerly awaiting. The factory found itself in difficulties due to the sluggish sales of its racing and sports cars as a result of the global economic crisis and for this reason had taken on a public contract for the production of railcars. In addition, the development of the Bugatti Type 59 had to take a back seat, while the tried and tested Bugatti Type 51 , which is now underpowered compared to the competition, was not expected to have any great chances on the fast track.
This was a major setback for the Automobile Club de France , especially since the list of participants already had some painful gaps in advance, including the three previously fatally injured French drivers Frédéric Toselli , Louis Trintignant and Guy Bouriat , the injured German top driver Rudolf Caracciola and the an British Sir Henry "Tim" Birkin fell ill with blood poisoning and died a little later. Luigi Fagioli , the long-time regular driver at Maserati , was also absent , with whose new 3-liter monoposto Maserati 8CM the paying customer Goffredo Zehender and Giuseppe Campari started on a two-seater model from last year with the same engine.
The disaster for the organizer was almost complete, because the participation of Scuderia Ferrari with its top star Tazio Nuvolari and Mario Umberto Borzacchini and Piero Taruffi as other drivers remained uncertain until shortly before the start. The team had only arrived the day before the race and in the only training session Nuvolari, who was already dissatisfied with the car and the team, had parked his Alfa Romeo type "Monza" with a broken compressor drive shaft, which had been bored out to 2.65 liters , so that Borzacchini on Had to give up his car on race day.
Other promising competitors were the two independent drivers Louis Chiron and Philippe Étancelin in their Alfa Romeo "Monza" , which was still equipped with the weaker 2.3-liter original engines , Marcel Lehoux in his Bugatti Type 51, which was about the same, and the Polish driver Count Stanisław Czaykowski on his Bugatti Type 54 , which was motorized with its 5-liter in-line eight-cylinder, but had problematic handling due to its heavy weight.
Despite the numerous departures in the run-up, there were still 19 participants at the start, whose line-up, unlike the previous race in Monaco, was still drawn by lot. Campari had to fight past nine cars on the first lap to be able to line up in second position behind Nuvolari, who started from the second row. Behind them, Chiron and Étancelin needed a few laps to get past Taruffi, who - contrary to the code of conduct applicable at the time - had deliberately denied his two faster competitors any opportunity to overtake on the narrow track.
After the sixth and seventh lap respectively, the Nuvolari and Chiron Alfa Romeos were already out of the race with differential damage - the notorious weak point of the "Monza" type . Campari now had sole leadership and was able to further expand it compared to Étancelin and Taruffi, who were fighting for second place. About halfway through the race, the pit stops were due and Nuvolari took over the car of his team-mate Taruffi, with whom he ran aground again after a few laps with the same problem. The frustrated Italian had worn out his third car in one weekend.
At this point there were only six cars left in the race, but the race was picking up again. Campari, who had increased tire wear due to the poor roadholding of his Maserati, had to pit again on lap 28, giving Étancelin a half-minute lead. Campari then worked his way up to the French again second by second, only to have to change tires four laps before the end when it started to rain. The decision now seemed to have been made, but now Étancelin was getting increasingly into trouble, who could barely shift his car with the falling clutch. On the last lap the Alfa Romeo was finally so slow that Campari was able to cross the finish line first.
For Maserati this was a great success, but the first victory at a Grande Épreuve and thus the greatest success in the brand's history was by no means certain. At one of its stops, Campari's car had been pushed by two mechanics, while the regulations stipulated that, in addition to the driver, only one person was allowed to lend a hand on the car. In contrast to Nuvolari's similar case earlier in Monte Carlo , Campari was not disqualified for this violation, but was only fined.
Results
Registration list
Race result
| Item | driver | constructor | Round | Stops | time | begin | Fastest lap | Failure reason |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
 Giuseppe Campari
|
Maserati
|
40 | 3 | 3: 48: 45,400 | 13 | 5: 23,000 | |
| 2 |
 Philippe Étancelin
|
Alfa Romeo
|
40 | 1 | + 52,000 | 11 | ||
| 3 |
 George Eyston
|
Alfa Romeo
|
39 | + 1 lap | 8th | |||
| 4th |
Raymond Summers
|
Alfa Romeo
|
39 | + 1 lap | 19th | |||
| 5 |
 Guy minor
|
Alfa Romeo
|
38 | + 2 rounds | 17th | |||
| 6th |
 Julio Villars
|
Alfa Romeo
|
34 | + 6 rounds | 4th | |||
| - |
Piero Taruffi Tazio Nuvolari
|
Alfa Romeo
|
26th | DNF | 7th | defective power transmission | ||
| - |
Goffredo Zehender
|
Maserati
|
19th | DNF | 6th | broken shock absorber | ||
| - |
Earl Howe
|
Bugatti
|
19th | DNF | 1 | Task after eye injury | ||
| - |
 Juan Zanelli
|
Alfa Romeo
|
19th | DNF | 3 | failure | ||
| - |
Pierre Félix
|
Alfa Romeo
|
17th | DNF | 2 | failure | ||
| - |
.svg){kind=small} Stanislaw Czaykowski
|
Bugatti
|
8th | DNF | 9 | Crack in the gearbox housing | ||
| - |
 Louis Chiron
|
Alfa Romeo
|
6th | DNF | 15th | defective power transmission | ||
| - |
Tazio Nuvolari
|
Alfa Romeo
|
6th | DNF | 5 | defective power transmission | ||
| - |
Pierre Bussienne
|
Bugatti
|
5 | DNF | 10 | Gearbox damage | ||
| - |
Horst von Waldthausen
|
Alfa Romeo
|
4th | DNF | 12 | Engine failure | ||
| - |
Jean-Pierre Wimille
|
Alfa Romeo
|
2 | DNF | 18th | Gearbox damage | ||
| - |
Marcel Lehoux
|
Bugatti
|
1 | DNF | 16 | defective connecting rod | ||
| - |
Jean Gaupillat
|
Bugatti
|
1 | DNF | 14th | Ignition damage |
Web links
- Leif Snellman, Felix Muelas: XIX GRAND PRIX DE L'AUTOMOBILE CLUB DE FRANCE. www.kolumbus.fi, April 4, 2013, accessed on March 23, 2015 .
- XXVII Grand Prix de l'Automobile Club de France. www.teamdan.com, accessed March 25, 2015 .
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.