Grand Prix motor racing

Grand Prix motor racing has its roots in organized automobile racing that began in France as far back as 1894. It quickly evolved from a simple road race from one town to the next, to endurance tests for car and driver. Innovation and the drive of competition soon saw speeds exceeding 100 mph, but because the races were held on open roads there were frequent accidents with the resulting fatalities of both drivers and spectators.

The Pre-WW II years

Important individual and corporate names emerged during this time which would change the face of automobile design and engineering:

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• Alfa Romeo
• Ettore Bugatti
• Enzo Ferrari
• Vittorio Jano
• Alfieri Maserati
• Mercedes-Benz
• Harry A. Miller
• Ferdinand Porsche

The 1933 Monaco Grand Prix was the first time in the history of the sport that the grid was deciding by timed qualifying rather than the luck of a draw. All the competing vehicles were painted in national colors: blue for France, green for Britain, red for Italian, yellow for Belgium, and white for Germany. Beginning in 1934, the Germans stopped painting their cars, after the paint had been left off a Mercedes-Benz in an effort to reduce weight. The unpainted metal soon had the German vehicles dubbed by the media as the "Silver Arrows".

Related Topics:
1933 - Monaco Grand Prix - Silver Arrows

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French cars continued to dominate (led by Bugatti, but also including Delage and Delahaye) until the late 1920s, when the Italians (Alfa Romeo and Maserati) began to beat the French cars regularly. At the time, the Germans engineered unique race vehicles as seen in the photo here with the Benz aerodynamic "teardrop" body introduced at the 1923 European Grand Prix at Monza.

Related Topics:
Bugatti - Delage - Delahaye - 1920s - Alfa Romeo - Maserati - Benz

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In the 1930s, however, nationalism entered a new phase when the Nazis encouraged Mercedes and Auto Union to further the glory of the Reich. (The government did provide some money to the two manufacturers, but the extent of the aid into their hands was exaggerated in the media; government subsidies amounted to only about 10% of the costs of running the two racing teams.) The two German marques utterly dominated the period from 1934 to 1939, winning all but three of the races run in those years. The cars by this time were single-seaters (the riding mechanic vanished in the early 1920s), with 8 to 16 cylinder supercharged engines producing upwards of 600hp on alcohol fuels.

Related Topics:
1930s - Nazi - Mercedes - Auto Union - Reich - 1934 - 1939 - 1920s

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As early as October of 1923, the idea of an automobile championship was discussed at the annual fall conference of the AIACR (Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus) in Paris. However, discussion centered around the increased interest in racing by manufacturers and holding the first European Grand Prix at Monza in 1923. The first World Championship took place in 1925, but it was for manufacturers only, consisting of four races of at least 800 km in length. The races that formed the first Constructors Championship were the Indianapolis 500, the European Grand Prix, and the French and Italian Grands Prix. A European Championship, consisting of the major Grand Prix in a number of countries (named Grandes Epreuves) was instituted for drivers in 1935, and was competed every year until the outbreak of World War II in 1939.

Related Topics:
Indianapolis 500 - European Grand Prix - European Championship - 1935

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