1928 Italian Grand Prix

Track layout

Emilio Materassi in the Talbot-Darracq 700 in training

The wreck of the Talbot after the accident

Race winner Louis Chiron

The VIII. Italian Grand Prix took place on September 9, 1928 at the Autodromo di Milano in Monza . The race also had the AIACR Honorary VI. Grand Prix of Europe and this year was the only Grande Épreuve that was carried out using the applicable International Grand Prix racing formula (racing cars between 550 and 750 kg total weight; minimum width 80 cm; racing distance at least 600 km). It was originally intended as a race for the automobile world championship and was held over 60 laps of 10 km each, which corresponded to a total distance of 600 km.

The winner of the race was Louis Chiron in a Bugatti Type 35C .

During the race, with 23 dead and 36 injured, there was the most serious incident in Grand Prix racing to date - and after the accident at the Le Mans 24-hour race in 1955, it was the second biggest catastrophe in the history of motorsport - as a Talbot driver Emilio Materassi got off the track at full speed and his car was thrown into the stands.

run

Despite the decline of the Grand Prix races, the AIACR had again announced an automobile world championship for 1928, for which a new official international racing formula had already been adopted at the end of 1926 . Cubic capacity regulations were now completely omitted, only minimum and maximum weights of 550 and 750 kg, as well as a minimum distance of 600 km for the big prizes were still required. Despite this, with the exception of Bugatti and Maserati, no automobile companies showed willingness to participate. In order to still be able to offer attractive starting fields, most of the organizers therefore completely waived any restrictions and opened their races to private drivers who were not tied to a factory - even if this resulted in the loss of the status of Grande Épreuves . The British Grand Prix , which was originally intended as the Grand Prix of Europe this year , was even completely canceled. Only the Italian Automobile Association held on to the hosting of its Grand Prix as a Grande Épreuve according to the international racing formula, which is why the honorary title was then transferred to this race. However, the CSI ("Commission Sportive Internationale" - the sports committee of the AIACR) made a complete U-turn on this occasion and decided that independent participants were also allowed here if they could show the appropriate approval from the manufacturer of their racing car.

This benefited primarily Bugatti and increasingly also Maserati , whose racing cars were freely for sale and therefore dominated the formula-free races across Europe not only in numbers. Bugatti had either the Type 35B with a displacement of 2.3 liters or the Type 35C with a displacement of just 2 liters in its range, which was a bit lighter and easier to turn and was also used by the works team itself. With the Tipo 26R with a displacement of 1.7 liters, Maserati opposed this, the only model specially developed for the current racing formula, while private drivers also had a somewhat older and heavier construction available with the Tipo 26 / 26B with a displacement of 1.5 or 2 liters .

The organizer achieved a decent registration result and in addition to the Bugatti from Louis Chiron and the Bugatti under the pseudonym “W. Williams “starting William Grover-Williams the Maserati factory team with Baconin Borzacchini , Aymo Maggi and Ernesto Maserati was a strong field of 17 private drivers at the start. Including the former factory Talbots , which were now used privately by Emilio Materassi , who, with his teammates Gastone Brilli-Peri , Antonio Brivio , Luigi Arcangeli and Gianfranco Comotti, led the first private racing stable that was competitive on an international level. Another strong private driver was Tazio Nuvolari in a Bugatti, while Achille Varzi had left Nuvolari's racing team and had bought Giuseppe Campari 's Alfa Romeo P2 Grand Prix racing car, which they shared in the race, which was still maintained by the factory . Two older Delage Type 2 LCV twelve-cylinder, also from the 2-liter racing formula that expired in 1925 and used by Giulio Aymini , had already suffered noticeably from the fact that no factory organization was available for maintenance nothing to do with the outcome of the race.

In view of the fact that the race was open to so many different participants, the organizer stipulated that only those who had previously achieved a full lap at an average speed of at least 150 km / h in training on the 10 km long course were allowed to compete. This is the first case that an official International Grand Prix participant first had to qualify for the race.

accident

Right from the start, the race had the most exciting course that an Italian Grand Prix had ever seen; For the first time there were almost equivalent cars from different manufacturers and the legendary "slipstream battles" took place for the first time, for which Monza soon became famous for a long time. Grover-Williams, Nuvolari (both Bugatti), Brilli-Peri (Talbot) and Varzi (Alfa Romeo) take turns at the front in the first third of the race. While Borzacchini gradually lost touch with his Maserati, Chiron (Bugatti) - who, as usual, approached the race a little cautiously - caught up with the leading group and Materassi (Talbot) was also able to narrow the gap further after an early pit stop.

However, at the end of the 17th lap the race took a tragic turn. When trying to lap Ernesto Maserati (Maserati) and Foresti (Bugatti), who were fighting for position, on the start and finish straight, Materassi lost control of his Talbot at full speed (at around 185 km / h). The car began to lurch and came off the track to the left, where it broke through a wire fence and was thrown over a ditch into the stands behind it, the first rows of which it mowed over a length of about 50 m before it finally returned to the ditch Lying came. In addition to Materassi, who was thrown out of his racing car, 22 spectators were killed in the accident and another 36 were injured.

The race management, which included Vincenzo Florio and Mussolini's brother Arnaldo , immediately recognized the extent of the catastrophe, but decided to let the race continue for fear of mass panic. Only Materassi's team, for whom the death of its owner and leader was a catastrophe not only in human terms, immediately withdrew its remaining cars from the route.

Although a court subsequently found the organizers guilty of inadequate safety precautions, there were hardly any fundamental improvements in Grand Prix racing in the next two decades - up to the 1955 Le Mans catastrophe , so that fatal accidents remained almost the order of the day . In Monza, the measures were essentially limited to widening the trench and erecting 90 cm high concrete walls in the area of ​​the grandstands, which were set back by 15 m. For the drivers, however, the route remained practically as dangerous as before.

The cause of the accident is still unclear. A participation of Forestis or Maserati in the creation could not be determined in the subsequent investigations.

Continuation of the race

The other racing drivers, like the spectators, had not received any precise information and therefore continued the race in some cases relatively unimpressed. A little later there was almost another catastrophe when Borzacchini (Maserati) collided with a car parked on the track and this time just missed the spectator stands on the other side of the straight.

Although the Alfa Romeo was actually considered to be the faster car, Chiron at the top had in the meantime been able to break away from Varzi, who temporarily handed over the wheel to Campari, who was registered as a substitute driver. However, he had noticed the accident from the pits and was unable to put pressure on Chiron, so that Varzi finally took over the car again. The race finally ended without any significant change of position. Only Nuvolari and Drouet continued to fight for third place with their Bugatti for a while, which the Italian then won. In the end, Chiron crossed the line with just over two minutes ahead of Varzi, and after three more drivers the race was finally waved off. Chiron only found out about the disaster at the awards ceremony and expressed his condolences. Then he drove to the hospital with Meo Costantini , Giulio Binda and Benoît Musy to pay his last respects to his dead friend Emilio Materassi.

Results

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Officine Alfieri Maserati	02	Baconin Borzacchini	Maserati T26R	Maserati 26R 1.7L I8	P
	06th	Aymo Maggi
	42	Ernesto Maserati
		Cesare Pastore
Manuel Blancas	04th	Manuel Blancas	Bugatti T35B	Bugatti 2.3L I8 compressor
Scuderia Materassi	08th	Gastone Brilli-Peri	Talbot-Darracq 700	Talbot 1.5L I8 compressor	D.
	18th	Emilio Materassi
	46	Luigi Arcangeli
	48	Gianfranco Comotti
Giulio Foresti	10	Giulio Foresti	Bugatti T35C	Bugatti 2.0L I8 compressor
William Grover-Williams	12	William Grover-Williams	Bugatti T35B	Bugatti 2.3L I8 compressor	A.
Giuseppe Gilera	14th	Giuseppe Gilera	Bugatti T35	Bugatti 2.0L I8
Ioan Ghyka Cantacuzene	16	Ioan Ghyka Cantacuzene	Cozette special	Cozette 1.1L I4 compressor
Giulio Aymini	20th	Giulio Aymini	Delage 2 LVC	Delage 2.0L V12 compressor
Guy Bouriat	22nd	Guy Bouriat	Bugatti T35C	Bugatti 2.0L I8 compressor
Edouard Probst	24	Edouard Probst	Bugatti T35	Bugatti 2.0L I8
Scuderia Nuvolari	26th	Tazio Nuvolari	Bugatti T35C	Bugatti 2.0L I8 compressor	P
Pierre Blaque-Belair	28	Pierre Blaque-Belair	Bugatti T35C	Bugatti 2.0L I8 compressor
Cleto Nenzioni	30th	Cleto Nenzioni	Bugatti T37A	Bugatti 1.5L I4 compressor
Carlo Tonini	32	Carlo Tonini	Bugatti T35C	Bugatti 2.0L I8 compressor
Ugo Stefanelli	34	Ugo Stefanelli	Bugatti T35	Bugatti 2.0L I8
Jean-Claude d'Ahetze	36	Jean-Claude d'Ahetze	Bugatti T37A	Bugatti 1.5L I4 compressor
Giuseppe Campari	38	Achille Varzi	Alfa Romeo P2	Alfa Romeo 2.0 I8	P
		Giuseppe Campari
Guy Drouet	40	Guy Drouet	Bugatti T35B	Bugatti 2.3L I8 compressor	M.
Antonio Brivio	44	Antonio Brivio	Talbot-Darracq 700	Talbot 1.5L I8 compressor
Louis Chiron	50	Louis Chiron	Bugatti T35C	Bugatti 2.0L I8 compressor
Mario Piccolo	52	Mario Piccolo	Maserati 26B	Maserati 26 2.0L I8
Manuel Ceratto	54	Manuel Ceratto	Delage 2 LVC	Delage 2.0L V12 compressor
Federico Fisauli	56	Federico Fisauli	Maserati 26B	Maserati 26 2.0L I8
Ruggiero Bisighin	58	Ruggiero Bisighin	Bugatti T35	Bugatti 2.0L I8
Alberto Kechler	60	Alberto Kechler	Alfa Romeo 6C 1500	Alfa Romeo 1.5L I6 compressor
Roberto Serboli	62	Roberto Serboli	Delage 2 LVC	Delage 2.0L V12 compressor

Race result

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap	Failure reason
01	Louis Chiron	Bugatti	60		3: 45: 08.6 h	14th	3: 38.0 min
02	Achille Varzi Giuseppe Campari	Alfa Romeo	60		+ 2: 20.4 min	21st	3: 37.6 min
03	Tazio Nuvolari	Bugatti	60		+ 14: 19.0 min	9	3: 40.0 min
04th	Guy Drouet	Bugatti	60		+ 14: 29.2 min	16	3: 43.6 min
05	Aymo Maggi Cesare Pastore Baconin Borzacchini	Maserati	60		+ 25: 20.4 min	22nd	3: 49.0 min
06th	Ernesto Maserati	Maserati	55		+ 5 rounds	13	3: 47.4 min
07th	Guy Bouriat	Bugatti	55		+ 5 rounds	10	3: 50.6 min
08th	Giulio Foresti	Bugatti	54		+ 6 rounds	2	3: 49.4 min
-	Edouard Probst	Bugatti	45		NC	7th	4: 08.0 min	racing distance too short
-	Jean-Claude d'Ahetze	Bugatti	40		NC	12	4: 28.4 min	racing distance too short
-	Baconin Borzacchini	Maserati	26th		DNF	1	3: 44.6 min	accident
-	Pierre Blaque-Belair	Bugatti	24		DNF	11	3: 54.0 min	defective spark plugs
-	Luigi Arcangeli	Talbot	19th		DNF	17th	3: 37.2 min	withdrawn
-	Antonio Brivio	Talbot	18th		DNF	20th	4: 05.4 min	withdrawn
-	Gastone Brilli-Peri	Talbot	17th		DNF	5	3: 40.4 min	withdrawn
-	Emilio Materassi	Talbot	17th		DNF	3	3: 38.4 min	deadly accident
-	Gianfranco Comotti	Talbot	16		DNF	19th	4: 03.0 min	withdrawn
-	Carlo Tonini	Bugatti	15th		DNF	15th	4: 05.8 min	lack of lubrication
-	Giulio Aymini	Delage	14th		DNF	6th	4: 03.2 min	Cylinder overheated
-	William Grover-Williams	Bugatti	5		DNF	4th	3: 37.6 min	defective piston ring
-	Cleto Nenzioni	Bugatti	2		DNF	8th		defective spark plugs
-	Mario Piccolo	Maserati	1		DNF	18th		mechanics

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 1928  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Race report on teamdan.com
• Overview on kolumbus.fi