1931 Italian Grand Prix
The IX. The Italian Grand Prix took place on May 24, 1931 at the 10.0 km Autodromo di Milano in Monza . As Grande Épreuve , it was a valuation run for the European Grand Prix Championship in 1931 and was held in accordance with the applicable regulations without a predetermined racing formula for the cars (only a minimum width of 100 cm had to be adhered to) over a duration of 10 hours, with two pilots at each Took turns driving a car.
The winner was the driver pairing Giuseppe Campari / Tazio Nuvolari in an Alfa Romeo 8C-2300 .
run
After the official Grand Prix sport had recently led a shadowy existence for several years, the 1931 Italian Grand Prix in Monza was finally a race that really lived up to the name International Grand Prix . This was not least due to the fact that the International Automobile Association ( AIACR) had finally broken away from its previous principles, and participation in the races for the newly introduced European Championship was now also possible for drivers who were not contractually bound to an automobile company and almost waived had opened up any technical restrictions on the car, as had been the case for a long time in numerous formula-free races all over Europe. In order to distinguish the Grandes Épreuves from the "normal" races, the regulations only stipulated a race duration of at least 10 hours. For this reason, two drivers per car had to be registered to take turns at the wheel during the races. The long duration of the race was ultimately also the reason why the Italian Grand Prix was brought forward from its traditional date of September 6th to May 24th so that it could take advantage of the longer daylight in spring. Instead, another edition of the Gran Premio di Monza was held as a Formula Libre race on the originally scheduled date .
As the route for the Italian Grand Prix in Monza in 1931, the original complete combination of road circuit and oval circuit of a total of 10 km was chosen again, on which all previous editions of the Grand Prix had been held until 1928 . In order to keep the race interesting for drivers and spectators despite its length, interim evaluations with cash prizes were carried out after three, six and eight hours.
The AIACR's decision for the "free formula" was rewarded with a substantial field of participants for the Italian Grand Prix, in which the battle between the factory racing teams of Bugatti and Alfa Romeo was eagerly awaited. Under the leadership of its experienced race director Bartolomeo Costantini , the French company was able to come up with the new Bugatti Type 51 , which has been extremely successful since the start of the season and was the factory's first racing engine to have two overhead camshafts . With Achille Varzi and Louis Chiron , the team was also able to fall back on what is arguably the strongest driver pairing in the field, while in the second car with Albert Divo and Guy Bouriat, a combination that has already been tried and tested was also at the start. The strong French pairings Marcel Lehoux / Philippe Étancelin and Jean-Pierre Wimille / Jean Gaupillat with their privately registered Bugattis also competed as independent teams .
Alfa Romeo, on the other hand, even appeared with two new models, a "real" racing car version (with a significantly shortened wheelbase) of the 8C-2300 eight-cylinder engine derived from the sports car line, with which Tazio Nuvolari had previously won the Mille Miglia , and also with the Tipo A with two in-line six-cylinders of the 6C sports car with a total displacement of 3.5 liters is the very first real racing single-seater with a centrally arranged driver position from a European Grand Prix manufacturer. Luigi Arcangeli died with the Tipo A during training in a serious accident during training, so that the original test car had to be fetched from the factory and prepared for the race practically overnight. Alfa Romeo had actually wanted to withdraw the team from the race after Arcangeli's death, but had to compete on the orders of Mussolini , who wanted to see an Italian victory secured for reasons of prestige.
Alfa Romeo finally announced the driver line up for the race Ferdinando Minoia / Goffredo Zehender and Attilio Marinoni on the two 8C-2300 and Tazio Nuvolari / Baconin Borzacchini on the Tipo A . The official Maserati team, however, had withdrawn its notification after two recent defeats against the other two factory racing teams, to devote himself instead in the meantime, the development of its Grand Prix model so that the privately reported 26M of Umberto Klinger and Pietro Ghersi the was the only representative of this brand in the race.
A total of 14 teams gathered at the start, which took place punctually at 8 a.m. Right at the beginning, Varzi with his Bugatti began to set himself apart from the rest of the field with Campari (Alfa Romeo), Lehoux (Bugatti) and Minoia (Alfa Romeo), while Nuvolari couldn't get his monoposto running properly and was already in 32nd place . Lap apparently had to stop for good because of an engine failure. Since Alfa Romeo's top pairing was out of the race so early, the team management under Director Prospero Gianferrari and chief designer Vittorio Jano used the first round of the scheduled pit stops - which had been factored in every 40 laps for refueling, changing tires and changing drivers - to help the teams during the Race completely new to put together again. After the two drivers had lost their chance for championship points anyway, Nuvolari got into Campari's car, while Borzacchini took over Minoia's car.
Bugatti had also made a change in the meantime, but after the 44th lap, Chiron had to give up while in the lead due to a defect in the differential, and Lehoux / Étancelin were also eliminated before the fourth hour, which once again made the race practically its last tension was still robbed. While the two Alfa Romeos at the front were doing their laps in a controlled manner and continued to come to the stop every 40 laps, the predetermined 10-hour format of the race was now taking its toll and the audience even began to wander off the track to find themselves in the park to have fun and only return shortly before the end of the race. In the meantime, however, at least Varzi did not want to remain inactive and took over the Bugatti from Divo / Bouriat, which had remained in the race and had fallen back several laps, plagued by permanent tire problems, until the problem was resolved by switching to the more durable, but also heavier Targa Florio tires could still be solved. Varzi was able to catch up another whole lap afterwards, but in the end had to be content with third place. Alfa Romeo, on the other hand, celebrated a double success at the debut of the new model with Campari / Nuvolari in front of Minoia / Borzacchini, which was also taken as an opportunity to give the 8C-2300 the honorable nickname "Monza", which has since become generally used for it.
Arcangeli's accident
There were no eyewitness reports from the accident after the second Lesmo bend, so that the cause of the accident is still unclear. Whether the collision with a rabbit the day before damaged the steering of the twin-engine Tipo-A-Monoposto was just as speculation as the fact whether Arcangeli made a driving error while trying to beat Giuseppe Campari's best lap time to date. Arcangeli died of his head injuries.
Results
Registration list
.svg){kind=small}
Race result
.svg){kind=small}
1 Giuseppe Campari
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
- IX Gran Premio d'Italia. www.teamdan.com, accessed on August 7, 2014 (English).
- Leif Snellman, Felix Muelas: IX ° GRAN PREMIO D'ITALIA. www.kolumbus.fi, June 4, 2014, accessed August 7, 2014 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Nuvolari and Borzacchini received no points because they did not start with the car they were registered on. The seven points that were counted for the two come from their original number 28 car, with which they completed about a quarter of the race distance. Attilio Marinoni and Goffredo Zehender, who were actually registered on car 26 and 30 respectively, received eight points each because they did not start.
- ↑ Ruggeri and Balestrero were originally rated sixth. However, as they needed more than five minutes for their last lap, the part of the lap that had ended up to the ten-hour mark was deleted, bringing them seventh and Pirola and Lurani sixth