1947 French Grand Prix
The XXXIV. The French Grand Prix ( XX Grand Prix de l'Automobile Club de France ) took place on September 21, 1947 at the Lyon-Parilly circuit in France . It belonged to the category of Grandes Épreuves and was awarded according to the provisions of the International Grand Prix Formula (later Formula 1 - racing cars up to 1.5 liters displacement with compressor or up to 4.5 liters displacement without compressor; racing distance at least 300 km or at least three hours of racing) over 70 laps of 7.289 km each, which corresponded to a total length of 510.37 km.
The winner was Louis Chiron with a Lago-Talbot "Monoplace Centrale" from Ecurie France , which was able to achieve the last success of his career at a Grande Épreuve in the absence of the favorite Alfa Romeo team .
The race
Similar to the previous Italian Grand Prix, the choice of the venue for the French Grand Prix was primarily based on pragmatic criteria. In times of fuel shortages and weekend driving bans, the transport of spectators to the racetracks in particular was still a major problem, so that a highly improvised-looking course in the city of Lyon was chosen as the venue for the race to facilitate travel. Named after the nearby Parc de Parilly , the route essentially consisted of the two lanes of one of the city's major arterial roads, the RN 6 in the direction of Grenoble , with a narrow hairpin at both ends of each lap In the opposite direction.
Another augenscheinliches deficit of the event also was the absence of the factory team of Alfa Romeo , the season with wins in all three previously discharged Grandes Épreuves had clearly dominated. Originally, Jean-Pierre Wimille had even been promised a car for the race, but the team suspended it for the rest of the season after violating the stable order at the Belgian Grand Prix .
However, it was precisely the lack of this “over-team” that ensured that, for the first time in the season, the outcome of a Grand Prix was not practically determined in advance. The Maserati 4CL pack , which was also represented here in large numbers , was considered to be the favorite . However, the Scuderia Ambrosiana, which operates as an unofficial works team, once again lived up to the chaotic reputation of Maserati when, according to its own statements, it only arrived on site after the training sessions were hindered by strikes, so that the two top drivers Luigi Villoresi and Alberto Ascari not having to start a race from the very back of the grid for the first time this season due to a lack of training time.
The main opponent of the Maseratis was Ecurie France , which with the only thoroughbred Grand Prix model from Lago-Talbot , as the company was now usually called after the takeover by Anthony Lago , the so-called "Monoplace Centrale", in the hands of the legendary driver Louis Chiron took over.
A completely unknown quantity was also the CTA arsenal of Raymond Sommer , who had already made a number of excellent performances as a Maserati driver after the war. The car was another project for a French national racing car that was carried out by a sub-agency of the Ministry of Defense, the Center d'études Techniques de l'Automobile et du Cycle ( CTA for short ) under the technical direction of Albert Lory . Lory became famous for the Delage Type 15 S 8 he had designed , which in 1927 had dominated all the races at the automobile world championship at that time . Although the V8 supercharged engine he developed in the CTA arsenal with double charging delivered a remarkable 260 hp, the chassis with its unusual, completely antiquated design could hardly deny its military origins, so that it was practically impossible for the pilots to do so Keeping the vehicle in lane even on a straight line. Fortunately, however, Sommer was released from the car on the starting line during the race when the abruptly gripping clutch caused the drive shafts to shear off.
In the race, other participants also had to struggle with some problems, so that in the initial phase no fewer than five drivers replaced one another in the leading position. At the start, Maserati driver Henri Louveau was in front, who was soon replaced by his brand companion Pierre Levegh and then by George Raphaël Béthenod de Montbressieux , who also started under a pseudonym ( Georges Raph ) . By the third lap, Villoresi had finally worked his way forward from his last starting position through the entire field, only to be eliminated one lap later with engine failure, so that finally Emmanuel de Graffenried, the fifth and last Maserati driver, took the lead.
In the meantime, Louis Chiron, following his usual racing tactics, had rather held back after the start, but now, after the race had settled somewhat, started to make up for the leading ground. When he passed the Swiss driver on lap eight, the race was practically decided, especially since de Graffenried also had to retire due to a technical defect. While Chiron now safely controlled the race at the front until the end, a tragedy developed behind him on lap 23. Anticipating the Le Mans catastrophe of 1955 , Levegh skidded with his Maserati on the long straight with a blocked drive train at full speed and then landed in the spectator seats. Four people were killed in the accident and sixteen others, including the accident driver, who then had to take a full year off, were seriously injured.
It wasn't until the very end of the race that the outcome became exciting again because the cooling water temperature rose on Chiron's Talbot. However, he succeeded in deceiving the pit crew of Maserati driver Henri Louveau , who was runner-up at the time, about the condition of his racing car by giving it full throttle every time he drove by, so that Louveau made no further efforts to profit from the situation .
Remarks
- ↑ The first race organized as the Grand Prix de l'ACF took place in 1906. In the 1920s, however, the "great" 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.