1926 Italian Grand Prix

The Autodromo di Milano in its driven version.

The VI. The Italian Grand Prix took place on September 5, 1926 at the Autodromo di Milano in Monza and was the last and decisive race in the second automobile world championship . The race was held under the applicable International Grand Prix racing formula (racing cars up to 1.5 liters capacity, minimum weight 600 kg, body width at least 80 cm) over 60 laps of 10.0 km, which corresponded to a total distance of 600.0 km.

The winner was Louis Charavel under the pseudonym Sabipa on a Bugatti Type 39A .

run

After the various technical problems in the previous races, both Delage and Talbot decided not to take part in the Italian Grand Prix. After two victories in France and Spain and second place in Great Britain, Bugatti was no longer able to contest the world championship , but had to compete in the Italian Grand Prix according to the announcement in order not to be excluded from the ranking. So the two regular drivers Jules Goux and Bartolomeo Costantini and the Frenchman Louis Charavel, who started under the pseudonym Sabipa , set off with their three Bugatti Type 39A Grand Prix racing cars. In contrast to the disastrous French Grand Prix, the team in Monza was at least not entirely without a challenger, because the Maserati brothers , who had just left Diatto and founded their own company, used this occasion to start their first self-developed Grand Prix. Prix ​​model to carry out an initial assessment of the situation. The two eight-cylinder in-line cylinders controlled by Emilio Materassi and Ernesto Maserati , however, proved to be unreliable and a little too overweight. With the significantly underpowered Chiribiri of Roberto Serboli the number of participants eventually increased to six. After all, the organizers had wisely decided to hold a “small car race” for so-called cycle cars up to 1.1 liters displacement at the same time as the Grand Prix run , but only over 40 instead of 60 laps as in the main race.

That this precaution was only too justified should quickly become apparent in the race. Although Materassi was able to overtake the two Bugattis from Goux and "Sabipa" one after the other at the beginning, he had to park his Maserati after a few laps, just like the company owner himself. So Bugatti was able to take it easy again for the remaining nine tenths of the race, even if Goux also had to give up after half the distance. When the small car race came to an end after three hours - with André Morel in an Amilcar Type C 6 as the winner - the two Bugattis from Costantini and “Sabipa” were back on the track for the rest of the race, just like in France. On top of that, with five laps to go, Costantini pitted because his engine was on its last legs. He somehow managed to survive the last few laps, but after more than four hours of uneventful driving, the victory finally went to his relatively unknown French team-mate.

Results

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
SA of the automobile Jean-Graf	01	Jean Graf	Jean Count La Perle	CIME 1.5L I6
Automobiles Violet	02	Marcel Violet	Sima-Violet 2-stroke	Sima-Violet 1.5L Flat-4
	08th	Marcel Doré
	13	Max Fourny
Officine Alfieri Maserati	03	Emilio Materassi	Maserati 26	Maserati 26 1.5L I8 compressor	P
	09	Ernesto Maserati
		Guido Meregalli
Roberto Serboli	01	Roberto Serboli	Chiribiri Monza	Chiribiri 1.5L I4
Officine Meccaniche SA	05	Ferdinando Minoia	OM 8C GP	OM 1.5L I8	P
	10	Giuseppe Morandi
	14th
Automobiles Talbot	06th	Albert Divo	Talbot GPLB	Talbot 1.5L I4 compressor	M.
	11	Henry Segrave
	15th	Jules Moriceau
Automobiles Ettore Bugatti	07th	Jules Goux	Bugatti T39A	Bugatti 1.5L I8 compressor	M.
	12	Meo Costantini
	15th	Louis Charavel

Race result

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Louis Charavel	Bugatti	60		4: 20: 29.0 h	4th
02	Meo Costantini	Bugatti	60		+ 6: 32.4 min	5	3: 47.0 min
-	Jules Goux	Bugatti	36		DNF	1		defective oil pump
-	Roberto Serboli	Chiribiri	27		DNF	2		Wagon fire
-	Ernesto Maserati	Maserati	5		DNF	6th		Kold damage
-	Emilio Materassi	Maserati	3		DNF	3		Piston damage

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

• VI Gran Premio d'Italia. (No longer available online.) Www.teamdan.com, archived from the original on February 7, 2019 ; accessed on February 17, 2020 (English). 
• Hans Etzrodt: The 1926 Automobile World Championship. www.kolumbus.fi, May 7, 2013, accessed on February 17, 2020 . 
• Leif Snellman, Felix Muelas: GRAN PREMIO D'ITALIA. In: www.kolumbus.fi. November 30, 2018, accessed March 21, 2020 .