1948 Monaco Grand Prix

The X Grand Prix of Monaco ( X Grand Prix de Monaco ) took place on May 16, 1948 on the Circuit de Monaco in Monaco . The race belonged to the category of the Grandes Épreuves and became according to the provisions of the international Grand Prix formula or, more recently, Formula 1 (racing cars with engines up to 1.5 liters displacement with compressor or up to 4.5 liters displacement without compressor; racing distance at least 300 km or at least three hours of racing) over 100 laps of 3.180 km each, which corresponded to a total distance of 318.0 km.

The winner was Giuseppe Farina in a Maserati 4CL , who was able to achieve the first success of his career in an official International Grand Prix . At the same time, it was also the first victory for Maserati in a Grande Épreuve since the Belgian Grand Prix in 1933 .

The race

For the first time since the war, and after a total of eleven years break returned to the classic street circuit of Monte Carlo in 1948 back into the international Grand Prix calendar. However, after the two editions of 1938 and 1939 had already been canceled for financial reasons, the Monegasque automobile club ACM apparently still had trouble fully re-establishing the race in the first post-war years.

In 1948, for example, the Alfa Romeo team, which had dominated everything up to that point , stayed away from the event, which, despite its status as Grande Épreuve, automatically meant a certain devaluation for the race. Otherwise, however, almost everything that had rank and name in Grand Prix racing had gathered again in Monaco. The total of six participants in numbers as well as sporty strongest delegation presented, as usual, the Maserati -Fahrer under which the Scuderia Ambrosiana as a semi-official factory team driving Luigi Villoresi and standing still at the beginning of his career Alberto Ascari were considered clear co-favorites. Also with the support of the factory, Giuseppe Farina competed with a Maserati that he reported and financed himself, which after being kicked out from Alfa Romeo at the end of the 1946 season took a year off and returned to Grand Prix racing at the start of the 1948 season Geneva had already won the Grand Prix des Nations . Like Villoresi's racing car, it was an improved version of the tried and tested Maserati 4CL , which, with an otherwise practically unchanged appearance, was now equipped with a tubular frame chassis and an engine with two-stage supercharging. Ascari, like all other Maserati drivers, initially had to be content with the older model.

The three Lago-Talbots from Louis Chiron , Yves Giraud-Cabantous and Louis Rosier were rated as the strongest competitors , especially since Chiron once again won his home race with his winning car from last year's French Grand Prix , the “Monoplace Centrale” of Ecurie France , which was used before the war with a 4.5 liter inline six-cylinder naturally aspirated engine. Rosier, on the other hand, already had the first copy of the new Grand Prix model Talbot T26C with the DOHC engine developed from it , which, however, was still lacking in stability for the time being.

On the narrow street circuit not to be underestimated also were indeed significantly underpowered with its 1.5-liter four-cylinder without a compressor, but extremely agile due to its dimensions and light weight and agile Simca-Gordini T15 , especially with the fact of Alfa Romeo bound Jean-Pierre Wimille was an absolute top pilot available for this race. Other drivers in the team were the experienced Raymond Sommer , the Siamese Prince Bira and the talented young French driver Maurice Trintignant .

With the privately entered Ferrari 166SC "Tipo Inter" of under the pseudonym of Russian launching "Prince Igor" French descent Igor Trubetzkoi  - at that time husband of the heiress Barbara Hutton  - first appeared the name of Ferrari as a brand name in the start list of Grande Épreuve on . Although Scuderia Ferrari had already operated successful Grand Prix racing as the official agency for Alfa Romeo in the 1930s, Enzo Ferrari had settled in Maranello immediately before the war after separating from the Milan-based company , and was henceforth under his own name To produce racing and sports cars. Troubetzkoy's vehicle was basically an open, two-seater racing sports car with a 2-liter V12 naturally aspirated engine, which, thanks to its design with free-standing wheels with removed fenders and headlights, could also be used as a Grand Prix racing car.

After all, Tazio Nuvolari , the great pre-war star, competed for the last time at an official International Grand Prix - already in bad health . His factory-installed Cisitalia D46 / 48 with a four-cylinder naturally aspirated engine bored out to 1.3 liters, however, was almost hopelessly underpowered.

Wimille on little Simca-Gordini had the best start in the race, but before the first lap was over, Maserati's top driver Villoresi was already in the lead and continuously expanded his lead over his now second-placed brand mate Farina over the next three laps. From lap four, however, the Maserati of the leader was slowed down by transmission problems, so that Farina was now able to advance to the first position, which he did not give up until the end of the race. The fact that he even had to refuel twice because of the high consumption of the supercharged Maserati, while Chiron with the frugal Lago-Talbot was able to get through the race non-stop, didn't change that. At least the Monegasse was able to work its way position by position through the field and in the middle of the race ousted Wimille from second place, who had shown a very excellent race even with the comparatively weakly motorized Simca-Gordini until he retired on lap 61 . Shortly before the end, in the only remaining close duel in the race, the Swiss Maserati driver Emmanuel de Graffenried was able to displace Wimille's brand colleague Trintignant from third position.

Remarks

1. ↑ His very last assignment was later in the year at the French Grand Prix , where he took over the Villoresi Maserati as a substitute driver for only a few laps during the race