1937 Monaco Grand Prix

The IX. Monaco Grand Prix ( IX Grand Prix de Monaco ) took place on August 8, 1937 at the Circuit de Monaco in Monaco . As Grande Épreuve , the race was part of the European Grand Prix Championship in 1937 , but in deviation from the provisions of the International Grand Prix Formula (racing cars up to a maximum of 750 kg empty weight; 85 cm minimum width; racing distance at least 500 km), due to an exemption, it was only granted via the traditional distance of 100 laps of 3.180 km each, which corresponded to a total distance of 318.0 km.

The winner was Manfred von Brauchitsch in a Mercedes-Benz W125 , which was the first success of his career in an official International Grand Prix .

The race

In the absence of Hermann Lang , who was unable to take part in the race due to an infection, the two experienced teammates Rudolf Caracciola and Manfred von Brauchitsch secured the two best starting positions with their Mercedes-Benz W125 . Also not there was young driver Richard Seaman , who broke his thumb and nose in his accident with Ernst von Delius at the German Grand Prix , which was fatal for the Auto Union driver. Therefore, in addition to Mercedes junior Christian Kautz, the team's reserve driver, the experienced Goffredo Zehender, was also used once in Monaco .

The third and last position on the front row went to Bernd Rosemeyer , the star driver of Auto Union , on whom all the team's hopes are now focused. The experienced Hans Stuck and junior driver Rudolf Hasse , who shortly before had won the first race victory of his career at the Belgian Grand Prix, also entered the race with two other "Type C" racing cars .

There was also a big gap in the driver line-up at Scuderia Ferrari , which had now officially become part of the Alfa Romeo group. Disappointed with the performance of the team so far, which had played practically no role in the season so far, team captain Tazio Nuvolari decided to skip the Monaco race and instead to focus on a test program with the new Alfa Romeo 12C / 37 , whose Grand Prix Debut was long overdue since the beginning of the year. So Giuseppe Farina and Antonio Brivio with their inferior Alfa Romeo 12C-36 and reserve driver Carlo Pintacuda in the even older, but somewhat lighter Alfa Romeo 8C-35 , were in a rather hopeless position from the start, as were the squad of private drivers, in which Raymond Sommer - also on an Alfa Romeo 8C-35 - still had the best cards.

At the start there were no shifts in the leading positions, so that Caracciola and von Brauchitsch (both Mercedes) went through the first lap ahead of Rosemeyer and Stuck (both Auto Union) and Kautz (Mercedes), while Hasse was already in the Auto Union behind Wall of the casino tunnel. Initially, the two Mercedes drivers at the front were able to pull away a little, but by the 19th lap Rosemeyer had fought his way back to the rear of von Brauchitsch's car when the steering of his car failed and he got into the lane as a result.

Von Brauchitsch, for his part, was fighting for the lead with Caracciola, while Kautz and, after his pit stop, Zehender, who were already a long way behind, took third place. Shortly before half-time of the race, Caracciola had to make a longer pit stop with an engine problem, but his lead over Zehender was already big enough to hold at least second place. After Kautz had passed the great fighting Farina in an Alfa Romeo in the meantime, the Mercedes team now even had a quadruple lead, which they only had to give up at the very end of the race when Rosemeyer, who in the meantime got into the car von Stuck had switched, could still push past Zehender into fourth place.

In the meantime, von Brauchitsch's pit stop had not gone as he had imagined, because a stuck brake first had to be released before he could start the race again. He came back on the track just before Caracciola and as a result, a fierce battle for the lead developed again between the two. Mercdes race director Alfred Neubauer , who feared for the victory that was believed to be certain, therefore repeatedly gave the leader the signal to let his champion pass again, but von Brauchitsch did not comply with this request until the 80th lap, when he was already sure that Caracciola would his tires had worn too much and would have to make another stop. So von Brauchitsch finally got his first Grand Prix success of his career, which was long overdue.

Registration list

No.	driver	constructor	vehicle	team	comment
02	Bernd Rosemeyer	Auto Union	Auto Union Type C	Auto Union AG
04th	Hans Stuck	Auto Union	Auto Union Type C	Auto Union AG
06th	Rudolf Hasse	Auto Union	Auto Union Type C	Auto Union AG
08th	Rudolf Caracciola	Mercedes Benz	Mercedes-Benz W 125	Daimler-Benz AG
10	Manfred von Brauchitsch	Mercedes Benz	Mercedes-Benz W 125	Daimler-Benz AG
12	Hermann Lang	Mercedes Benz	Mercedes-Benz W 125	Daimler-Benz AG	not started (driver sick)
12	Christian Kautz	Mercedes Benz	Mercedes-Benz W 125	Daimler-Benz AG	Replacement driver for Lang
14th	Richard Seaman	Mercedes Benz	Mercedes-Benz W 125	Daimler-Benz AG	not started (driver sick)
14th	Goffredo Zehender	Mercedes Benz	Mercedes-Benz W 125	Daimler-Benz AG	Substitute driver for Seaman
16	Paul Pietsch	Maserati	Maserati 6C-34	P. Pietsch	not started
18th	Raymond Summers	Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo Tipo 8C-35	R. summer
20th	László Hartmann	Maserati	Maserati 8CM	L. Hartmann
22nd	Antonio Brivio	Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo 12C-36	Scuderia Ferrari
24	Giuseppe Farina	Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo 12C-36	Scuderia Ferrari
26th	Carlo Maria Pintacuda	Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo 8C-35	Scuderia Ferrari	not started (reserve driver)
26th	Tazio Nuvolari	Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo 8C-35	Scuderia Ferrari
28	Clemente Biondetti	Maserati	Maserati 6C-34	Scuderia Maremmana
30th	Luigi Soffietti	Maserati	Maserati 6C-34	L. Soffietti
32	Hans Ruesch	Alfa Romeo	Alfa Romeo 8C-35	Hans Ruesch

Starting grid

1		2		3
Caracciola 1: 47.5 min		von Brauchitsch 1: 48.4 min		Rosemeyer 1: 49.0 min
	4th		5
	Piece 1: 49.2 min		Kautz 1: 49.7 min
6th		7th		8th
Hasse 1: 51.6 min		Zehender 1: 53.3 min		Farina 1: 53.4 min
	9		10
	Pintacuda 1: 55.6 min		Ruesch 1: 55.8 min
11		12		13
Brivio 1: 56.7 min		Summer 1: 57.6 min		Hartmann 2: 03.2 min
	14th		15th
	Soffietti 2: 04.9 min		Biondetti 2: 10.4 min

Race result

Item	No.	driver	constructor	Round	time	Failure reason	EM points
1	10	Manfred von Brauchitsch	Mercedes Benz	100	3: 07: 23.9 h		1
2	08th	Rudolf Caracciola	Mercedes Benz	100	+1 0: 24.3 min		2
3	12	Christian Kautz	Mercedes Benz	98	+ 02 rounds		3
4th	04th	Hans Stuck / Bernd Rosemeyer	Auto Union	97	+ 03 rounds		4 / -
5	14th	Goffredo Zehender	Mercedes Benz	97	+ 03 rounds		4th
6th	24	Giuseppe Farina	Alfa Romeo	97	+ 03 rounds		4th
7th	18th	Raymond Summers	Alfa Romeo	95	+ 05 rounds		4th
8th	32	Hans Ruesch	Alfa Romeo	92	+ 08 rounds		4th
9	26th	Tazio Nuvolari	Alfa Romeo	87	+ 13 rounds		4th
DNF	20th	László Hartmann	Maserati	69		engine	5
DNF	28	Clemente Biondetti	Maserati	27		engine	6th
DNF	22nd	Antonio Brivio	Alfa Romeo	21st		cooler	7th
DNF	02	Bernd Rosemeyer	Auto Union	19th		Steering problems after an accident	7th
DNF	30th	Luigi Soffietti	Maserati	3		Fuel supply	7th
DNF	06th	Rudolf Hasse	Auto Union	1		accident	7th

Fastest race lap : Rudolf Caracciola ( Mercedes-Benz ), 1: 46.5 min = 107.5 km / h  

Web links

Commons : Automobilsport 1937  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

• IX Grand Prix de Monaco. www.teamdan.com, accessed on September 13, 2014 (English). 
• IX GRAND PRIX DE MONACO. www.kolumbus.fi, May 17, 2014, accessed on September 13, 2014 . 
• 1937 Monaco Grand Prix on YouTube

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