1923 Italian Grand Prix

Ferdinando Minoia at start and finish; on his drive to fourth place overall

Ferdinando Minoia with his Benz RH in the pits

The III. The Italian Grand Prix took place on September 9, 1923 at the Autodromo di Milano in Monza . The race also had the AIACR title of honor I. Grand Prix of Europe and was held according to the International Grand Prix formula , which has been in force since 1922 , which, with a minimum distance of 800 km for the Grand Prix runs, a displacement limit of 2 liters for the cars and set a minimum weight of 650 kg. In addition, there had to be two people on board each racing car - in addition to the driver and a mechanic.

The winner was Carlo Salamano in a Fiat .

run

Now that the French Automobile Club was no longer the sole organizer of Grand Prix races, the international automobile association AIACR had decided to make one of the races the annual highlight of the season under the honorary title of a Grand Prix of Europe . The Italian Grand Prix was determined for the first Grand Prix d'Europe in 1923.

After the total failure at the previous Grand Prix de l'ACF , where too much dust and stones got into the engines from the compressors used for the first time , Fiat converted the cars to less sensitive Roots compressors for the home race . With Alfa Romeo , another manufacturer is now also relying on the compressor, but after the fatal accident of Ugo Sivocci in the unofficial pre-training session , the factory pulled its car back before the race, so that the Alfa Romeo P1 never went to a Grand Prix Use came. In order not to devalue the rather fortunate success in the French race with the foreseeable defeat against Fiat, Sunbeam had decided not to participate from the outset, just as Bugatti avoided the confrontation with the superior Italians. Voisin and Rolland-Pilain, on the other hand, faced the seemingly hopeless fight, although their cars had not been fast enough at the Grand Prix in Tours , and the “teardrop car” from Benz was, despite its revolutionary concept - the first Grand Prix Racing car with a mid-engine, teardrop-shaped streamlined body with side coolers, internal brakes and swing axle at the rear - no chance due to its insufficient engine power. The three US Miller racing cars remained the only halfway serious competitors , which, however, had to be converted into two-seater at short notice due to the different regulations.

A total of 14 racing cars finally gathered at the start, with the starting grid - as was customary at the time - having been drawn beforehand. Fiat had previously suffered a major setback when Pietro Bordino went off the track and rolled over during training two weeks before the race. His co-driver Enrico Giaccone , who was originally intended to drive the third car alongside Bordino and Carlo Salamano , was killed. Grand Prix veteran Felice Nazzaro came back to work while Bordino had to tackle the race with a broken wrist.

Despite his handicap, Bordino took the lead in front of his two brand companions right from the start, before he finally had to give up due to exhaustion at halftime - now with a clear lead. In the otherwise low-climax race, in which all the other participants apart from the two Millers by Louis Zborowski and Jimmy Murphy were already far behind, Nazzaro was now in the front for a long time until he too pits for an unscheduled stop shortly before the end of the race had to. This cleared the way to victory for Carlo Salamano, who crossed the finish line with half a minute ahead of his stable mate. It was also the first success of a supercharged car in a major race. After a solid race, Murphy was still third, more than five minutes behind Salamano, all other participants either dropped out or were too far behind, so that they were waved off before reaching the full race distance.

• 

  Benz RH

• 

  Voisin C6 Laboratory

• 

  Fiat 805/405

• 

  Miller 122

• 

  Alfa Romeo P1

Results

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Benz engines	01	Ferdinando Minoia	Benz RH 2-liter teardrop-shaped racing car	Benz Bz 6516 2.0L I6	C.
	07th	Franz Horns
	13	Willy Walb
Fiat	02	Pietro Bordino	Fiat 805/405	Fiat Type 405 2.0L I8 compressor	P
	08th	Felice Nazzaro
	14th	Carlo Salamano
Avions Voisin	03	Eugenio Silvani	Voisin C6 Laboratory	Voisin 2.0L I6
	09	Henri Rougier
	15th	André Lefebvre
SA des Établissements Rolland-Pilain	04th	Albert Guyot	Rolland-Pilain A22	Rolland-Pilain 2.0L I8
	10	Gaston Delalande
Harry A. Miller Manufacturing Company	05	Jimmy Murphy	Miller 122	Offenhauser 2.0L I8	F.
	11	Louis Zborowski
	16	Martín de Álzaga
SA Ital. Ing.Nicola Romeo	06th	Antonio Ascari	Alfa Romeo P1	Alfa Romeo 2.0L I6	P
	12	Giuseppe Campari
	17th	Ugo Sivocci

Race result

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Carlo Salamano	Fiat	80	2	5: 27: 38.0 h	14th
02	Felice Nazzaro	Fiat	80	3	+ 31.6 s	8th
03	Jimmy Murphy	Miller	80	2	+ 4: 17.6 min	5
04th	Ferdinando Minoia	Benz	76	2	+ 4 rounds	1
-	Franz Horns	Benz	71	2	NC	7th
-	Martín de Álzaga	Miller	60	2	NC	16
-	Albert Guyot	Rolland Pilain	70	2	DNF	4th		failure
-	Pietro Bordino	Fiat	44	1	DNF	2	3: 44.0 min	Driver injured
-	Gaston Delalande	Rolland Pilain	30th	1	DNF	10		failure
-	André Lefebvre	Voisin	29	1	DNF	15th		failure
-	Willy Walb	Voisin	29	1	DNF	13		failure
-	Henri Rougier	Benz	28	1	DNF	9		failure
-	Louis Zborowski	Miller	15th		DNF	11		failure
-	Eugenio Silvani	Voisin	14th		DNF	3		mechanics
-	Ugo Sivocci	Alfa Romeo			DNS			fatal accident during training
-	Antonio Ascari	Alfa Romeo			DNS			withdrawn
-	Giuseppe Campari	Alfa Romeo			DNS			withdrawn

literature

• Adriano Cimarosti: Car races - The great prices of the world - cars, tracks and pilots from 1894 to today , Hallwag Verlag, Bern, 1986, ISBN 3-444-10326-3
• Paul Sheldon: A Record of Grand Prix and Voiturette Racing, Vol. 1-13 , St. Leonards Press, Bradford, 1987-2002

Web links

Commons : Italian Grand Prix 1923  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• 1923 Grand Prix. (No longer available online.) Www.teamdan.com, archived from the original on February 7, 2019 ; accessed on June 18, 2020 (English). 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Enrico Giaccone. www.motorsportmemorial.org, accessed June 18, 2017 (English).