Mille Miglia 1933

Tazio Nuvolari on his victory drive

Domenico Tabanelli drove his Maserati 4CTR to 27th place overall

Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza

Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 GS Spider Zagato

Fiat 508S Balilla Sport

The seventh Mille Miglia took place on April 8th and 9th, 1933 and ran over 1,650 km from Brescia to Rome and back again to Brescia.

The race

The aftermath of the global economic crisis did not stop at motorsport at the beginning of the 1930s. The large automobile plants in Germany, France and Italy had massive sales problems and cut back production. As far as possible, austerity measures were taken. Also Alfa Romeo had factory retracted at the end of the motor sports 1932 from racing. The fact that the Alfa Romeo brand remained in sport was mainly due to Enzo Ferrari , who with his Scuderia, founded in 1929, took over the races of the works cars.

The Scuderia reported six vehicles, two Alfa Romeo 6C in the class for sports cars up to 1.5 liters and four Alfa Romeo 8C , which started in the class for cars over 1.5 liters. The racing cars were driven by former Alfa Romeo works drivers Tazio Nuvolari , Baconin Borzacchini , Carlo Felice Trossi , Piero Taruffi , Gianfranco Comotti , Antonio Brivio and Ippolito Berrone, among others . In addition to the Scuderia-Alfa-Romeos, there were many other vehicles of this brand. Ten Alfa Romeo vehicles were among the top ten in the final classification; among the first 20 cars were no fewer than 19 Alfas, interrupted only by the Lancia Dilambda , with which Ermenegildo Strazza and Luigi Gismondi achieved eleventh position in the final ranking. The Fiat 508S Balilla Sport made its racing debut. One of these cars was driven by the brothers Luigi and Emilio Villoresi .

For the first time, a British works team took part in the Mille Miglia. After Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, fascist Italy in Great Britain came under media pressure. The launch of MG was hailed as a major event. When the British arrived in Brescia with drivers, mechanics and material, they were taken over by King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy . , Benito Mussolini and the British Ambassador to Italy. The entry was arranged by the Italian nobleman Giovanni Lurani , who had come into contact with MG during his successful races in Brooklands . Three MG Magnette K3 were used , which went to the start in the racing class up to 1.1 liter displacement. The toughest competition for the British were the privately used Maseratis . Lurani drove a K3 with George Eyston , who was holding several world speed records at the time. The team also included Earl Howe and Henry Birkin , which in 1931 the 24-hour race in Le Mans had won, the former Bentley Boys Bernard Rubin , who in 1928 had been victorious at Le Mans, and the young rookie Hugh Caulfield Hamilton .

It was also Lurani who reported a spectacular incident. While refueling Franco Cortese's Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza in the paddock, the car caught fire and was destroyed. When Cortese arrived there before the race, he was told that he could not start. However, he motivated the mechanics to repair the car, albeit a makeshift one. To everyone's astonishment, the Alfa rolled over the launch pad just a few seconds after the actual start time and went into the race. Cortese and team-mate Carlo Castelbarco achieved second place in the final standings with the battered car.

Race course

The first Scuderia-Alfa-Romeo was canceled shortly after the start. Felipe Trossi touched a curb and then hit a stone wall. Antonio Brivio was thrown out of the car, but was unharmed. Borzacchini dictated the pace towards Florence and was clearly in the lead. In the 1.1 liter class, Birkin led the way, breaking the class record by 12 minutes in Florence. Shortly before Siena he had to give up after a cylinder damaged. After Giuseppe Tuffanelli's Maserati failed with a gearbox damage, the two remaining MGs achieved a clear class win. At this point in time, the German Grand Prix driver Manfred von Brauchitsch had already given up on the race. The heavy Mercedes-Benz SSK had too much tire wear. After three punctures in a row, von Brauchitsch gave up.

In Rome, Borzacchini was three minutes ahead of Nuvolari, but retired shortly afterwards with a cylinder defect. Nuvolari won in Brescia by more than half an hour over Cortese and another twenty minutes over team-mate Piero Taruffi.

caesura

The 1933 race was a turning point, especially in Italian motorsport. Giuseppe Campari , the overall Mille Miglia winner of 1928 and 1929 , had a fatal accident in September at the Italian Grand Prix . With him, the second Italian top driver of the 1920s, Baconin Borzacchini, died there. Campari had a fatal accident while in the lead when his Maserati skidded on an oil spill and crashed into the lane. The following Borzacchini could no longer avoid the wreck and died after a violent collision also at the scene of the accident. In the third race, there was another fatal accident that killed the Polish racing driver Stanisław Czaykowski .

The 1933 Mille was also one of the last great races for Hugh Hamilton and Henry Birkin. Hamilton died of heart failure at the Swiss Grand Prix and Birkin drove one last race on May 7, 1933 at the Gran Premio di Tripoli . He badly burned his arm on the exhaust pipe of his Maserati while stopping for fuel. Nevertheless, he finished the race and finished third behind Achille Varzi and Tazio Nuvolari. He probably did not have his burn wound adequately treated, so that it became seriously infected and he died of blood poisoning on June 22, 1933 in the Countess of Carnarvon Nursing Home in London . However, some sources believe it is possible that a new attack of malaria as a result of the physical weakening from the burn was the actual cause of death.

Results

Final ranking

Item	class	No.	team	Driver / passenger	vehicle	Travel time
1	S / TP + 1-5	98	Scuderia Ferrari	Tazio Nuvolari Decimo Compagnoni	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300MM Spider Zagato	15: 11: 50,000
2	S / TP + 1.5	91		Carlo Castelbarco Franco Cortese	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza	15: 38: 22,400
3	S / TP + 1.5	90	Scuderia Ferrari	Piero Taruffi Lelio Pellegrini	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Spider Zagato	16: 00: 57,000
4th	S / TP + 1.5	80		Giovanni Battaglia Ferruccio Bianchi	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300	16: 19: 40,400
5	S / TP + 1.5	85		Luigi Scarfiotti Guido d'Ippolito	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300	16:22: 10,000
6th	S / TP + 1.5	77		Giovanni Battista Santinelli Umberto Berti	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300	16: 25: 39,000
7th	S / TP + 1.5	78		Hans Ruesch Hans Keßler	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300	16: 25: 46,000
8th	S / TP + 1.5	97		Carlo Gazzabini Remo D'Alessio	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300	16: 31: 28,400
9	S / TP + 1.5	63	Scuderia Ferrari	Roberto Foligno Gianfranco Comotti	Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 GS	16: 41: 48,000
10	S / TP + 1.5	73		O. Peverelli C. Dell'Orto	Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 GS Spider Zagato	16: 51: 55,000
11	S / TP + 1.5	82		Ermenegildo Strazza Luigi Gismondi	Lancia Dilambda	16: 58: 20,000
12	S / TP + 1.5	64		A. Casti Luigi Soffietti	Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 GS Spider Zagato	17: 07: 37,000
13	S / TP + 1.5	76		Gennaro Auricchio Archimede Rosa	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300	17: 09: 03,600
14th	S / TP + 1.5	83		Giovanna Maria Cornaggia Medici E. Premoli	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Touring	17: 29: 24,000
15th	S / TP + 1.5	81		A. Facchetti G. Bellingeri	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300	17: 35: 27,400
16	S 1.5	52	Scuderia Ferrari	Ippolito Berrone Guglielmo Carraroli	Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 SS Spider Zagato	17: 38: 35,000
17th	VGI	74		B. Donnini Sperti	Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 GT	17: 49: 58,000
18th	VGI	48		Teofilo Rossi di Montelera Guido Cattaneo	Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 GT Touring	17: 50: 17,000
19th	S / TP + 1.5	60		V. Parodi F. Campanelli	Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 Spider Zagato	17: 50: 40,600
20th	S / TP + 1.5	72		M. Bruno A. Jannantuoni	Alfa Romeo 6C 1750	17: 53: 40,000
21st	S 1.1	39	MG	George Eyston Giovanni Lurani	MG Magnette K3	18: 01: 04,000
22nd	S 1.1	42	MG	Earl Howe Hugh Caulfield Hamilton	MG Magnette K3	18: 02: 34,000
23	S 1.5	56		G. Della Mura E. Crivellari	Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 Spider Zagato	18: 05: 36,600
24	S / TP + 1.5	95		Clifton Penn-Hughes T. Thomas	Mercedes-Benz SSK	18: 38: 10,000
25th	S 1.1	44		Giorgio Ambrosini D. Menchetti	Fiat Siata Balilla Berlinetta Ghia	18: 44: 30,000
26th	S 1.5	53		Ermanno Gurgo Salice Carlo Laredo de Mendoza	Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 SS	18: 49: 10,000
27	S 1.5	59		GA Alfieri B. Scesa	Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 SS Spider Carr. Sports	18: 53: 01,000
28	VU + 1.1	34		M. Marinelli G. Tragella	Bianchi 5S	18: 54: 15,000
29	VU 1.1	21st		G. Ricci Aymo Maggi	Fiat 508S Balilla Sport	19: 01: 36,000
30th	VU 1.1	2		Franco Spotorno B. Ghiringhelli	Fiat 508S Balilla Sport	19: 07: 22,000
31	VU 1.1	8th		Renzo Ceschina Gino Guagnellini	Fiat 508S Balilla Sport	19: 17: 21,000
32	VU 1.1	23		John Cain G. Aymini	Fiat 508S Balilla Sport	19: 17: 30,000
33	VU 1.1	4th		Luigi Villoresi Emilio Villoresi	Fiat 508S Balilla Sport	19: 26: 18,000
34	VU + 1.1	32		L. Olimpico Calderato	Bianchi 5S	19: 35: 19,200
35	VU 1.1	27		T. Pacini T. Cucci	Fiat 508S Balilla Sport	19: 38: 18,000
36	VU 1.1	19th		L. Beccaria Cattaneo	Fiat 508S Balilla Sport	19: 53: 15,000
37	S 1.1	36		Domenico Tabanelli C. Borgnino	Maserati 4CTR 1100	20: 09: 49,000
38	S / TP + 1.5	71		C. Adorno A. Scarpari	OM	20: 19: 42,000
39	VU 1.1	18th		Francesco Apruzzi A. Bellocchi	Fiat 508S Balilla Sport	20: 21: 20,000
40	S / TP + 1.5	70		A. Damiani G. Masserini	Lancia Astura	20: 22: 20,000
41	VGI	47		P. Ferrero R. Monaco	Fiat 522	20: 25: 13,000
42	VU 1.1	5		U. Villa P. Colombo	Fiat 508S Balilla Sport	20: 25: 55,000
43	S 1.5	54		Secondo Corsi G. Barsotti	Maserati Tipo 26 1500	20: 27: 07,000
44	VU 1.1	15th		Umberto Capello N. Soprani	Fiat 508S Balilla Sport	20:30:05,000
45	VU 1.1	16		O. Ghizzoni A. Strada	Fiat 508S Balilla Sport	20: 45: 32,400
46	VU 1.1	24		A. Mattoli Selmini	Fiat 508S Balilla Sport	20: 45: 38,000
47	VU + 1.1	33		Alb. Pellerano Aldo Stefani	Fiat 514MM	21: 25: 36,800
48	VU 1.1	17th		Giannino Parravicini C. Gezzi	Fiat 508S Balilla Sport	21: 51: 51,000
49	S / TP + 1.5	66		C. Brughera I. Cipelli	Itala Tipo 75V Spider	21: 55: 50,000
50	VU + 1.1	29		Sebastiano Manzoni A. Lamperti	Fiat 514MM	22: 22: 15,000
51	VGI	45		PL Torriani Tavanti F. Amatori	Fiat 508 Berlina	23: 17: 02,000
52	VU + 1.1	30th		A. Gianelli L. Cavanna	Fiat 514MM	23: 37: 09,000
Not classified
53	S / TP + 1.5	69		M. Ferraguti General A. Agostini	Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 GS Gasogeno
Failed
54	VU 1.1	3		Arcangelo Periccioli Milton Biagini	Fiat 508S Balilla Sport
55	VU 1.1	6th		U. Vernazza C. Di Vecchio	Fiat 508S Balilla Sport
56	VU 1.1	7th		Sidoli Bertolotti	Fiat 508S Balilla Sport
57	VU 1.1	9		Giuseppe Gilera P. Sertori	Fiat 508S Balilla Sport
58	VU 1.1	10		G. Bellini Silvagni	Fiat 508S Balilla Sport
59	VU 1.1	11		M. Lombardi F. Lombardi	Fiat 508S Balilla Sport
60	VU 1.1	12		Mellei Palmi	Fiat 508S Balilla Sport
61	VU 1.1	20th		S. Petriccioli C. Ricceri	Fiat 508S Balilla Sport
62	VU 1.1	25th		L. Brussi P. Budellazzi	Fiat 508S Balilla Sport
63	VGI	26th		S. Montanari A. Mondini	Fiat 508 Berlina
64	VU + 1.1	28		O. Lufrani G. Filbi	Bianchi 5S
65	VU + 1.1	31		A. Bettinazzi Luigi Bettinazzi	Fiat 514MM
66	VU + 1.1	35		Artiro Mercanti M. Del Luca	Bianchi 5S
67	VGI	37		L. Cagna S. Fidora	Fiat 508 Berlina
68	S 1.1	40		S. Tibida F. Porticelli	Fiat
69	S 1.1	41	MG	Henry Birkin Bernard Rubin	MG Magnette K3
70	S 1.1	43		Giuseppe Tuffanelli Guerino Bertocchi	Maserati 4CS 1100
71	VGI	46		G. Peragallo M. Nardi	Fiat 508 Berlinetta Aerodynamica
72	VGI	49		Carlo Maria Pintacuda E. Oneto	Lancia Astura Berlina Carr. Lotti
73	VGI	50		Pietro Ghersi Filippo Tassara	Ford V8 Berlina Carr. Ambrosini & Botta
74	S 1.5	51		L. de Grolée Virville N. Bruttini	Bugatti T37
75	S 1.5	55		G. Carpegna G. Marnetto	Maserati Tipo 26 1500
76	S 1.5	57		S. Fabbri E. Borges	Maserati Tipo 26 1500
77	S / TP + 1.5	62		N. Pertile Nino Greggio	Alfa Romeo 6C 1750
78	S / TP + 1.5	65		G. Ramella C. Portaleoni	Alfa Romeo
79	S / TP + 1.5	79		B. Rapieri Bertolotti	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300
80	S / TP + 1.5	86		Renato Balestrero Attilio Battilana	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza
81	S / TP + 1.5	87	Scuderia Ferrari	Carlo Felice Trossi Antonio Brivio	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Spider Zagato
82	S / TP + 1.5	89		Nando Barbieri Mario Ghersi	Ford V8 Berlina Carr. Ambrosini & Botta
83	S / TP + 1.5	92		Carlo Masera Schiavio	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300
84	S / TP + 1.5	94	Scuderia Ferrari	Baconin Borzacchini Ascanio Lucchi	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Spider Zagato
85	S / TP + 1.5	96		Manfred von Brauchitsch Willy Zimmer	Mercedes-Benz SSKL
Not started
86	VU 1.1	1		A. Romoli A. Mancini	Fiat 508S Balilla Sport	1
87	VU 1.1	13		Giacomo Ragnoli	Fiat 508S Balilla Sport	2
88	VU 1.1	14th		Ovidio Capelli C. Forni	Fiat 508S Balilla Sport	3
89	VU 1.1	22nd		A. Vertunni	Fiat 508S Balilla Sport	4th
90	S 1.1	38		G. Bettoja	Fiat	5
91	S / TP + 1.5	61		Silvio Rondina De Negri	OM	6th
92	S / TP + 1.5	84		C. Cazzaniga Mughetti	Bugatti T43	7th
93	S / TP + 1.5	88		Bruno Fontanini G. Girelli	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300	8th
94	S / TP + 1.5	93		Eugenio Siena	Alfa Romeo	9
95	S 1.1		MG		MG Magnette K3	10

¹ not started ² accident during training ³ not started ⁴ not started ⁵ not started ⁶ not started ⁷ not started ⁸ not started ⁹ not started ⁹ training car

Only in the entry list

Here you can find teams, drivers and vehicles that were originally registered for the race, but did not take part for various reasons.

Item	class	No.	team	driver	chassis
96	S / TP + 1.5	68		Paola Della Chiesa M. Penati	Alfa Romeo
97	S 1.1	68		Luigi Fagioli	Salmson

Class winner

class	driver	driver	vehicle	Placement in the overall ranking
S / TP + 1.5	Tazio Nuvolari	Decimo Compagnoni	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 MM Spider Zagato	Overall victory
S 1.5	Ippolito Berrone	Guglielmo Carraroli	Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 SS Spider Zagato	Rank 16
S 1.1	George Eyston	Giovanni Lurani	MG Magnette K3	Rank 21
VU + 1.1	M. Marinelli	G. Tragella	Bianchi 5S	Rank 28
VU 1.1	G. Ricci	Aymo Maggi	Fiat 508S Balilla Sport	Rank 29
VGI	B. Donnini	Sperti	Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 GT	Rank 17

Racing data

• Registered: 97
• Started: 85
• Race day weather:
• Distance: 1650 km
• Racing series: did not belong to any racing series

literature

• Hans-Jörg Götzl: Mille Miglia Motorbuchverlag 2006.

Web links

Commons : Mille Miglia 1933  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Official website
• Race results

Individual evidence

1. ^ Scuderia Ferrari pilots at the Mille Miglia 1933
2. ↑ Mille Miglia 1927-1951, The Alfa Years; Brooklands Bocks, page 85