1938 Italian Grand Prix

The Autodromo di Milano in its driven version.

The XVI. The Italian Grand Prix took place on September 11, 1938 at the Autodromo di Milano in Monza . As Grande Épreuve , the race was part of the European Grand Prix Championship in 1938 , but was deviating from the provisions of the International Grand Prix Formula (mainly racing cars up to 3 liters displacement with compressor and up to 4.5 liters displacement without compressor; minimum weight 850 kg; Race distance at least 500 km) over 60 laps of 6.993 km each, which corresponded to a total distance of 419.58 km.

The winner was Tazio Nuvolari in an Auto Union "Type D" , which was the only season success for his team at an official International Grand Prix in the 1938 season against the hitherto overwhelming competition of the Mercedes team. With his third place, Rudolf Caracciola in a Mercedes-Benz W154 won the European championship title.

The race

After an absolutely dominant season, the Daimler-Benz Grand Prix team took a four-fold lead in the drivers' championship for the European championship in the final round of the Italian Grand Prix , which after its detour to the Circuito di Montenero near Livorno last year had returned to the original location at the Monza Autodrome . Rudolf Caracciola , who had four championship points ahead of his team-mate Manfred von Brauchitsch , only had to come over 75% of the distance to safely win the title regardless of how his competitor did. Also Hermann Lang and Richard Seaman had been able to celebrate success already, so that Mercedes-Benz was the clear favorite in the race and was able to promptly achieve sustained as Trainingsschnellstem ahead of von Brauchitsch and Caracciola three of the four seats in the front row of the grid.

The Auto Union team , on the other hand, had not been able to return to the road to success this season after their only top international driver, Bernd Rosemeyer , was killed in a record attempt at the beginning of the year. Even the signing of Tazio Nuvolari in the middle of the season, who had previously left Alfa Romeo due to continued unsuccessfulness in the dispute, had initially not been able to change that because the Italian had initially not got along well with the rear-engined racing car, which was unfamiliar to him. After all, Hermann Paul Müller was a talented youngster who was able to prove his rising form again with a starting position in front of his famous team captain.

Surprisingly, it was also Müller who got away the fastest at the start and was then able to assert himself at least in second position behind Lang. Nuvolari did not let himself be left behind by the competition this time either and came in fifth from the first lap behind Seaman and Caracciola. Instead, this time the Mercedes team got increasingly into problems: First, on the second lap, Caracciola came into the lap barrier and had to laboriously free his car from the straw bales again, then Lang's racing car slowed down because of a loss of engine power, and so did Seaman Eliminated from the race with a burning engine, the Italian finally found himself in the lead in his home race. On the 19th lap, von Brauchitsch completed the Mercedes debacle, so that the Auto Union team even went into the second half of the race with a triple lead with Nuvolari ahead of Stuck and Müller.

In the end, however, the Silver Arrows from Saxony were not spared from the disaster, as Stuck and Müller were also thrown out of the race due to engine damage. Nuvolari, however, made his laps completely unimpressed and with one lap ahead of Giuseppe Farina on the very latest model Alfa Romeo Tipo 316 was able to achieve a now no longer endangered first success of the season for his ailing team. With his third place - albeit three hours behind the winner - Caracciola secured the European Championship after briefly handing over his car to von Brauchitsch.

Registration list

No.	driver	constructor	vehicle	team
02	Pietro Ghersi	Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo Tipo 308	Scuderia Torino
04th	Manfred von Brauchitsch	Mercedes Benz	Mercedes-Benz W 154	Daimler-Benz AG
06th	Clemente Biondetti	Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo Tipo 316	Alfa Corse
08th	Luigi Villoresi	Maserati	Maserati 8CTF	Officine A. Maserati
12	Rudolf Caracciola	Mercedes Benz	Mercedes-Benz W 154	Daimler-Benz AG
14th	Carlo Felice Trossi	Maserati	Maserati 8CTF	Officine A. Maserati
16	Richard Seaman	Mercedes Benz	Mercedes-Benz W 154	Daimler-Benz AG
18th	Goffredo Zehender	Maserati	Maserati 8CTF	Officine A. Maserati
20th	Hermann Paul Muller	Auto Union	Auto Union Type D	Auto Union AG
22nd	Tazio Nuvolari	Auto Union	Auto Union Type D	Auto Union AG
24	Christian Kautz	Auto Union	Auto Union Type D	Auto Union AG
26th	Hermann Lang	Mercedes Benz	Mercedes-Benz W 154	Daimler-Benz AG
28	Jean-Pierre Wimille	Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo Tipo 312	Alfa Corse
30th	Giuseppe Farina	Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo Tipo 316	Alfa Corse
32	Vittorio Belmondo	Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo Tipo 308	R. Balestrero
34	Piero Taruffi	Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo Tipo 312	Alfa Corse
36	Hans Stuck	Auto Union	Auto Union Type D	Auto Union AG

Starting grid

1		2		3		4th
Long 2: 32.4 min		von Brauchitsch 2: 33.1 min		Caracciola 2: 33.3 min		Müller 2: 34.4 min
	5		6th		7th
	Nuvolari		Seaman		Kautz
8th		9		10		11
Biondetti		Wimille		Taruffi		Trossi
	12		13		14th
	Villoresi		Farina		Piece
	15th		16		17th
	Ghersi		Toe		Belmondo

Race result

Item	No.	driver	constructor	Round	time	Failure reason	EM points
1	22nd	Tazio Nuvolari	Auto Union	60	2: 41: 39.6 h		1
2	30th	Giuseppe Farina	Alfa Romeo	49	+ 01 lap		2
3	12	Rudolf Caracciola / Manfred von Brauchitsch	Mercedes Benz	47	+ 03 rounds		3 / -
4th	06th	Clemente Biondetti	Alfa Romeo	57	+ 03 rounds		4th
DNF	18th	Hermann Paul Muller	Auto Union	57		engine	4th
DQ	14th	Carlo Felice Trossi	Maserati	56			8th
5	02	Pietro Ghersi	Alfa Romeo	47	+ 13 rounds		4th
DNF	36	Hans Stuck	Auto Union	41		mechanics	5
DNF	26th	Hermann Lang	Mercedes Benz	35		engine	5
DNF	08th	Luigi Villoresi	Maserati	24/29?		mechanics	6th
DNF	04th	Manfred von Brauchitsch	Mercedes Benz	19th		mechanics	6th
DNF	28	Jean-Pierre Wimille	Alfa Romeo	17th			6th
DNF	18th	Goffredo Zehender	Maserati	15th			6th
DNF	32	Vittorio Belmondo	Alfa Romeo	15/18?			6th
DNF	16	Richard Seaman	Mercedes Benz	11/14?		engine	7th
DNF	34	Piero Taruffi	Alfa Romeo	10/14?		mechanics	7th
DNF	24	Christian Kautz	Auto Union	2			7th

Fastest race lap : Hermann Lang ( Mercedes-Benz ), 2: 34.2 min = 163.3 km / h  

Web links

Commons : Automobilsport 1938  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

• XV Gran Premio d'Italia. www.teamdan.com, accessed on August 11, 2014 . 
• Leif Snellman, Felix Muelas: XVI ° GRAN PREMIO D'ITALIA. www.kolumbus.fi, May 3, 2013, accessed on August 11, 2014 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The type designation of the Auto Union racing cars was only introduced later by specialist authors to differentiate between the individual models