1948 Italian Grand Prix

Winner: Jean-Pierre Wimille (here 1933)

Winning car: Alfa Romeo 158 here in the version from 1938

The XVIII. Italian Grand Prix was held on September 5, 1948 on a temporary circuit in Valentino Park in Turin . The race to the category of Grandes Épreuves and according to the provisions of the International Grand Prix Formula or Formula 1 (racing cars up to 1.5 liters displacement with compressor or up to 4.5 liters displacement without compressor; race distance at least 300 km or at least three hours of racing) over 75 laps of 4.801 km each, which corresponded to a total distance of 360.075 km.

The winner was Jean-Pierre Wimille in an Alfa Romeo Tipo 158 "Alfetta" , who achieved the last success of his career in an official International Grand Prix .

run

In 1948 the Italian automobile club ACI was again faced with the problem of having to find a suitable venue for its Grand Prix. The street circuit around the Milan exhibition center that was used in the previous year had proven to be unsuitable for a Grand Prix and at the time the racing calendar was adopted, it was not foreseeable that at the traditional home of the Italian Grand Prix at the Monza Autodrom until summer the damage caused by the war would have largely been repaired. So the choice finally fell on the Parco del Valentino in Turin , where the Gran Premio del Valentino, one of the most important races of the first post-war season, had already been successfully held in 1946 .

The importance of motor racing since then, especially in Italy, is also evident from the fact that no fewer than 35 entries were received for the race, so that for the first time in the history of the Grand Prix, the participants can compare themselves based on their lap times achieved in training had to qualify for one of the only 20 available starting places.

Of course, the Alfa Romeo team, which is used to winning, had no problems whatsoever with this regulation, which until then had dominated the races of the post-war period with their overpowering “Alfettas” practically at will. In addition, regular driver Carlo Felice Trossi's suffering from cancer was alleviated at least enough after a long hospital stay that he was able to take part in the race again with team captain Jean-Pierre Wimille and the established test driver Consalvo Sanesi .

Trossi's return to Alfa Romeo also meant that Alberto Ascari , who had replaced him at the previous French Grand Prix , now returned to the Maserati camp to race alongside his friend Luigi Villoresi in one of the new Maserati 4CLT / 48 of the Scuderia Ambrosiana, which operates as a semi-official factory team . Three other new 4CLT / 48 were also driven by Franco Cortese and the British Reginald Parnell and Leslie Brooke .

The return of Scuderia Ferrari to the Grand Prix stage and its entry as an independent manufacturer of racing cars also attracted great public attention . Although the Ferrari brand had already been represented in the lists of participants at the previous Grandes Épreuves of the season, it had been privately used racing sports cars of the Ferrari 166SC "Inter" type , which thanks to their design with free-standing wheels also as Racing cars could be used. In the meantime, however, the chief designer Gioacchino Colombo , who switched from Alfa Romeo to Ferrari after the war, had also developed the Ferrari 125 , the first “real” Formula 1 racing car for Ferrari, which was to be used for the first time in three copies in Turin . In the absence of regular drivers of its own, the new team hired Giuseppe Farina , who was more or less randomly available , who had already won the Monaco Grand Prix for Maserati at the beginning of the season , as well as Grand Prix veteran Raymond Sommer and the Siamese driver Prince Bira , who As a descendant of the Thai royal family, he had already made a name for himself as a Voiturette driver before the war . However, both the team and the drivers lacked experience with the new racing car, so that, for example, Farina carried out night test drives on the not yet closed Grand Prix track in the run-up to the race. It quickly became clear, however, that the comparatively simply constructed 1.5-liter V12 engine with only simple supercharging not only lacked power to pose a serious challenge for Alfa Romeo, but that it was, not least for the purpose of optimization The power-to-weight ratio, the extremely short wheelbase and the narrow lane also resulted in problematic road holding.

The four Lago Talbot pilots, of whom Philippe Étancelin , Louis Rosier and Gianfranco Comotti already had current post-war Talbot T26C models , had even lower chances of success , while Louis Chiron continued to make do with his “Monoplace Centrale” prototype from the pre-war period had to. The French racing cars with their 4.5-liter six-cylinder naturally aspirated engines could at best score with their stability and low fuel consumption.

While the Alfa Romeo drivers Wimille and Trossi almost effortlessly secured the best starting positions in wet conditions during training, some dramas took place at the other end of the field. In particular, the notoriously disorganized Scuderia Milan team had arrived without rain tires for the four older and technically deplorable Maserati 4CLs , so that there was no prospect of qualifying for the race from the outset. Earlier, the organizers had the Ferrari 166SC of Ferdinando Righetti excluded as a two-seater from participating and for the same reasons was also the Frenchman Charles Pozzi with his Talbot T26SS participation denied in the race, although he had previously achieved a sufficient qualification training time. By means of an emphatic protest - Pozzi pitched his tent right in front of the door of the Turin Automobile Club building - he at least managed to enforce his claim for payment of the entry fee before he started his journey home again without having achieved anything like the British John Gordon , whose transporter had collapsed on the approach to the San Bernardino Pass and therefore continued the journey with his ERA racing car on his own, only to arrive in Turin 20 minutes after the end of the training session.

To the regret of the organizer, it was pouring rain on race day too, so that only 26,000 spectators found their way to the track and the ACI had to close the event with a financial deficit. But the wet conditions also presented a great challenge for the drivers. Unimpressed by this, Wimille irresistibly pulled away with his Alfetta from the start, while behind him there was a duel between Sommer (Ferrari) and Villoresi (Maserati) that soon ran through almost the entire race in which the Italian was only able to gain an advantage in the last third of the race through a faster pit stop. Ascari with his Maserati - in spite of the rain without racing goggles - could not quite keep up with the pace, just like the two Alfa Romeo drivers Trossi (due to illness) and Sanesi continuously lost ground. The Ferrari trio Sommer, Farina and Prince Bira, on the other hand, were surprisingly able to maintain positions three to five for a long time, until the Italian crashed in the second half of the race and the Siamese Prince retired with a broken gear lever a few laps before the end. In the final laps, on the other hand, despite the decreasing brakes of his Ferrari, Sommer was able to reduce the gap to Villoresi to a few car lengths, but the latter with his Maserati, which is now only on three cylinders, was just able to save his second place due to the fact that Sommer was lapped again by Wimille just as the trio crossed the finish line.

Registration list

No.	driver	constructor	vehicle	team	comment
02	Charles Pozzi	Talbot-Lago	Talbot-Lago T26 SS	Ecurie Lutetia	not qualified
04th	Nello Pagani	Maserati	Maserati 4CL	Scuderia Milano	not qualified
06th	Consalvo Sanesi	Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo 158	Alfa Corse
08th	Reg Parnell	Maserati	Maserati 4CLT / 48	R. Parnell (private)
10	Yves Giraud-Cabantous	Gordini	Gordini type 15	Equipe Gordini
12	Juan Jover	Maserati	Maserati 4CL	Scuderia Auto Spagnola	not qualified
16	Mario Lietti	Talbot	Talbot-Darracq 700	Scuderia Enrico Platé	not qualified
18th	Dioscoride Lanza	Maserati	Maserati 4CL	Scuderia Diniex	not qualified
20th	Richard Ramseyer	Maserati	Maserati 4CM	Ecurie Genève	not qualified
26th	Philippe Étancelin	Talbot-Lago	Talbot-Lago T26C	P. Étancelin (private)
28	Raymond Summers	Ferrari	Ferrari 125	Scuderia Ferrari
30th	Paco Godia	Maserati	Maserati 4CL	Scuderia Auto Spagnola	not qualified
32	Robert Manzon	Gordini	Gordini type 15	R. Manzon (private)
36	Giuseppe Farina	Ferrari	Ferrari 125	Scuderia Ferrari
38	Alberto Ascari	Maserati	Maserati 4CLT / 48	Scuderia Ambrosiana
40	Luigi Villoresi	Maserati	Maserati 4CLT / 48	Scuderia Ambrosiana
44	Louis Chiron	Talbot-Lago	Talbot-Lago T26	SFACS Ecurie France
46	Consalvo Sanesi / Carlo Felice Trossi	Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo 158	Alfa Corse
48	Louis Rosier	Talbot-Lago	Talbot-Lago T26C	L. Rosier (private)
50	Eugène Chaboud	Delahaye	Delahaye 135S	Ecurie Lutetia
52	Jean-Pierre Wimille	Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo 158	Alfa Corse
54	Toulo de Graffenried	Maserati	Maserati 4CL	Scuderia Enrico Platé
56	Leslie Brooke	Maserati	Maserati 4CLT / 48	Officine Alfieri Maserati
60	Gianfranco Comotti	Talbot-Lago	Talbot-Lago T26C	F. Comotti (private)
64	Franco Cortese	Maserati	Maserati 4CL	F. Cortese (private)
68	"B. Bira "	Ferrari	Ferrari 125	Scuderia Ferrari
70	Piero Taruffi	Maserati	Maserati 4CL	Scuderia Milano
100	John Gordon Bennett	ERA	ERA B-Type		not started
101	Lamberto Grolla	Stanguellini - Fiat			not started

Starting grid

1	2	3	4th
Wimille 2: 16.6 min	Trossi 2: 18.4 min	Villoresi 2: 20.0 min	Summer 2: 20.4 min
5	6th	7th	8th
Sanesi	Farina	Ascari	Chiron
9	10	11	12
Parnell	Comotti	de Graffenried	Cortese
13	14th	15th	16
Taruffi	Rosier	Bira	Étancelin
17th	18th	19th	20th
Manzon	Brooke	Giraud-Cabantous	Chaboud

Race result

Item	No.	driver	constructor	Round	time	Failure reason
1	52	Jean-Pierre Wimille	Alfa Romeo	75	3: 10.42.4 h
2	40	Luigi Villoresi	Maserati	74	+ 01 lap
3	28	Raymond Summers	Ferrari	74	+ 02 rounds
4th	28	Alberto Ascari	Maserati	72	+ 03 rounds
5	8th	Reg Parnell	Maserati	72	+ 03 rounds
6th	48	Louis Rosier	Talbot-Lago	70	+ 05 rounds
7th	60	Gianfranco Comotti	Talbot-Lago	70	+ 05 rounds
8th	26th	Philippe Étancelin	Talbot-Lago	69	+ 06 rounds
9	54	Toulo de Graffenried	Maserati	67	+ 08 rounds
10	50	Eugène Chaboud	Delahaye	67	+ 08 rounds
11	56	Leslie Brooke	Maserati	67	+ 08 rounds
DNF	68	"B. Bira "	Ferrari	66		transmission
DNF	46	Carlo Felice Trossi / Consalvo Sanesi	Alfa Romeo	53		compressor
DNF	36	Giuseppe Farina	Ferrari	51		accident
DNF	6th	Consalvo Sanesi	Alfa Romeo	42		accident
DNF	70	Piero Taruffi	Maserati	41		Valves
DNF	44	Louis Chiron	Talbot-Lago	41		Cylinder head gasket
DNF	10	Yves Giraud-Cabantous	Gordini	40		engine
DNF	64	Franco Cortese	Maserati	12		engine
DNF	32	Robert Manzon	Gordini	9		engine

Fastest race lap : Jean-Pierre Wimille ( Alfa Romeo ), 2: 22.4 min = 112.36 km / h  

Web links

Commons : Automobilsport 1948  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

• XVIII Gran Premio d'Italia. www.silhouet.com, accessed April 7, 2018 . 
• XVIII Gran Premio d'Italia. www.statsf1.com, accessed April 7, 2018 (English). 

Remarks

1. ↑ The official type designation was still 4CL as with the previous model, the designation as 4CLT / 48 was only introduced later in the literature for better differentiation, but has since become generally accepted.