1927 Italian Grand Prix
The VII Italian Grand Prix took place on September 4, 1927 at the Autodromo di Milano in Monza . The race also had the AIACR honorary title V. European Grand Prix and was a compulsory event for the ranking of the automobile world championship . It was held 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 50 laps of 10 km, which corresponded to a total distance of 500 km .
The winner was Robert Benoist in a Delage Type 15 S 8 , who was not only the first Grand Prix driver to win three successes in a row, but - together with the victory in the French Grand Prix of 1925 with Albert Divo - also to to then the most successful driver in Grand Prix history.
run
In view of the recently disappointing participation of the manufacturers, the organizers of the Italian Grand Prix now also attempted to embed the race in an overall more attractive format. Under the title Gran Premio di Milano , an all-day supporting program was drawn up, which consisted of several individual races, initially separated by class, and a joint final over 50 km. In between, the actual Grand Prix race was held, from which participants were also able to qualify for the Formula Libre final after five laps on the basis of a special classification .
Indeed, after Talbot's withdrawal from Grand Prix racing and the renewed cancellation of the Bugatti team, which figured little chance of its underpowered Bugatti Type 39A on the fast track , the Grand Prix threatened to turn into another fiasco . Delage could now even afford to send just one of the overpowering eight-cylinders for Robert Benoist in order to comply with the World Championship regulations. This had determined that participation in the Italian Grand Prix was mandatory, and since there was practically no other manufacturer in the rating, Benoist simply had to take part in the start to finally secure the title for the team.
With the two Ferdinando Minoia and Giuseppe Morandi starting for the Italian company OM , there would have been only three racing cars at the start if the organizers had not even managed to win three more participants from the United States. Among these was George Souders on Duesenberg , the surprise winner of this year's Indianapolis 500 , as well as the two modified Miller “Specials” from Cooper Engineering Co. with front-wheel drive, with which Peter Kreis and the company owner Earl Cooper competed. For the slender single-seaters from overseas, with their centrifugal compressors , which are designed more for maximum continuous speed than for acceleration, good chances were expected on the Monza track, which is quite similar to the domestic oval courses, but the cars first had to be welded on additional sheet metal in the cockpit area be brought to the required minimum of 80 cm.
After three years of abstinence, a great sensation was triggered by the unexpected appearance of a completely redesigned Fiat Grand Prix racing car . The 806 model , with its twelve-cylinder engine made up of two separate six-cylinder blocks connected via a common crankshaft housing, was even slightly lower than the Delage and had already achieved sensational lap times in test drives, but according to the factory it had not yet been sufficiently tested over long distances to be used in the actual Grand Prix . Instead, only participation in the Grand Premio di Milano with regular driver Pietro Bordino came into question because the race organizers could not postpone the race date until the end of the test program due to the Americans' travel planning.
On the day of the race it was pouring rain, so that the Grand Prix run was shortened by ten laps from 600 to 500 km. Regardless of this, Benoist took the lead with his Delage right from the start and did not give it up until the end of the race. Behind it, Miller von Kreis was stranded with an engine failure after just a few kilometers and Cooper also couldn't cope with the front-wheel drive car on the wet track. Benoist had already lapped the entire field once in the first 100 km. Souders was first in second place ahead of the two OMs of Mioia and Morandi, but because he had lost the fuel filler cap, rainwater got into the gasoline, so that the Duesenberg stopped on the track on the twelfth lap. A short time later, Kreis took over the car of his team-mate, but the gap to the rest was already so great that by the end of the race he could only overtake the OM from Minoia, which was only running on seven cylinders. Benoist won confidently with over 20 minutes ahead of Morandi and more than half an hour over Kreis and Minoia in the last two places.
This meant that Delage could no longer take the world championship mathematically, but to the disappointment of the spectators, the team decided not to take part in the final race at the Gran Premio di Milano , because after the stresses on the car in the Grand Prix, a confrontation with the still "fresh" Fiat wanted to get out of the way as a precaution. Bordino won the race confidently against the larger-capacity 2-liter cars from Giuseppe Campari ( Alfa Romeo P2 ), as well as Aymo Maggi and Emilio Materassi (both Bugatti Type 35C ).
Results
Registration list
| team | No. | driver | chassis | engine | tires |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Cooper Engineering Company
|
2 |
Peter Circle
|
Cooper-Miller Special | Miller 1.5L I8 | |
| 10 |
Earl Cooper
|
||||
 Automobiles Delage
|
4th |
Robert Benoist
|
Delage Type 15 S 8 1927 | Delage 1.5L I8 | M. |
 Officine Mecchaniche SA
|
6th |
Ferdinando Minoia
|
OM 8C GP | OM 1.5L I8 | P |
| 12 |
Giuseppe Morandi
|
||||
|
Duesenberg Motor Company
|
8th |
George Souders
|
Duesenberg special | Duesenberg 1.5L I8 | F. |
|
Fiat
|
Pietro Bordino
|
Fiat 806 | Fiat 806 1.5L 2xI6 | P | |
|
Carlo Salamano
|
|||||
|
Automobiles Ettore Bugatti
|
Emilio Materassi
|
Bugatti T39A | Bugatti 1.5L I8 compressor | M. | |
 Louis Chiron
|
|||||
|
Caberto Conelli
|
Race result
| Item | driver | constructor | Round | Stops | time | begin | Fastest lap | Failure reason |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Robert Benoist
|
Delage
|
50 | 3: 26: 59.7 h | 2 | 3: 57.3 min | ||
| 2 |
Giuseppe Morandi
|
OM
|
50 | + 22: 32.8 min | 6th | |||
| 3 |
Earl Cooper Peter Circle
|
Cooper-Miller
|
50 | + 35: 06.0 min | 5 | |||
| 4th |
Ferdinando Minoia
|
OM
|
50 | + 35: 28.8 min | 3 | |||
| - |
George Souders
|
Duesenberg
|
13 | DNF | 4th | Water in the fuel | ||
| - |
Peter Circle
|
Cooper-Miller
|
1 | DNF | 1 | Engine failure |
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
- VII Gran Premio d'Italia. www.teamdan.com, accessed on August 5, 2014 .
- Hans Etzrodt: The 1927 Automobile World Championship. www.kolumbus.fi, May 7, 2013, accessed August 5, 2014 .