1931 Grand Prix season
After several years of Grand Prix racing in the doldrums with little technical development, 1931 saw new models come from all three main manufacturers: Bugatti, Maserati and Alfa Romeo.
Note: *Race mistakenly flagged by officials after only 99 laps, not the full 100 as scheduled In October 1930, the CSI regulatory body of the AIACR met to draft up rules for a new championship.
The racing bodies of Belgium, France, Italy and Spain would hold events lasting ten hours, with the results merged as a single race- the International Grand Prix.
The new 1.1-litre twin-cam 4-cylinder model – either the 4CS sports car or 4CM (monoposto) single-seater - would soon dominate the small classes, and earn good money for Maserati in both prizemoney and privateer sales.
Therefore, at the start of the season, at the Italian Grand Prix, the works teams declared these as their driver combinations: [54] These tables only intend to cover entries in the major races, using the key above.
Two Finnish drivers, Karl Ebb and "Baron" Johan Ramsay travelled across but the big draw-card was German champion Rudi Caracciola driving his Mercedes SSK.
Luigi Fagioli and new team-driver René Dreyfus had the proven 26M, Clemente Biondetti the big V4, while Ernesto Maserati ran one of the original 1.5-litre Tipo 26 in the junior class.
Strangely von Morgen's car was sabotaged on the ship from Europe when someone fed a piece of sacking into the fuel tank which then dissolved into the engine.
The Bugatti works team arrived in force with Varzi joined by Louis Chiron, Albert Divo and Guy Bouriat running the new Type 51.
On such a tight track, the three big sports cars were quite incongruous: Caracciola now had the new lightweight Mercedes SSKL, fresh from a great win in the Mille Miglia the week before.
But no-one could catch Chiron, who took the flag a comfortable three minutes ahead of Fagioli and Varzi, winning his home Grand Prix.
Therefore, Comte Vincenzo Florio and the organisers decided to run the race on the “Grande Madonie” – the full 146 km circuit used in the first years of the event, from 1906 to 1911.
The competition would come from Varzi's Bugatti and the works Maseratis of Fagioli (still recovering after a recent hip operation), Dreyfus (the only foreigner racing this year) and Biondetti all running the 26M.
Varzi had a terrible final lap and he although finished first (car and driver completely covered in the yellow mud), Nuvolari had the shorter race-time to take the win.
A sunny race-day drew a huge crowd with the dignitaries led by Sidi Mohammed, the Sultan of Morocco, along with the Grand Vizier and the French Resident-General Lucien Saint.
The Scuderia Ferrari owners Caniato/Tadini entered their 6C-1750 model and Francesco Pirola ran a 6C-1500 "voiturette" with racing journalist Conte "Johnny" Lurani.
With a 1-2 victory, breaking the Bugatti hold on Grand Prix wins, Alfa Romeo celebrated by giving their new car the “Monza” moniker.
A strong privateer field was entered: Wimille and Lehoux in their Bugattis, Caracciola and Ivanowski had their 7-litre Mercedes – the first time German cars had raced at the Grand Prix since 1914.
[68] The race also attracted a significant British contingent; Earl Howe, having just won the Le Mans 24-hour the week before in his Alfa Romeo 8C-2300 tourer,[77][78] now had a new Bugatti Type 51, while his victorious co-driver Tim Birkin ran a Maserati 26M.
In the fourth hour, Maserati started slipping back with brake issues while the problematic supercharger on Caracciola's Mercedes finally stopped the car out on the track.
The Dreyfus Maserati had severe brake problems, spending a long time in the pits and in the end had to pillage a spare from the now-retired Fagioli car.
Lehoux's erstwhile co-driver, Philippe Étancelin, was now driving the first Alfa Romeo 8C ‘Monza’ in private hands and René Dreyfus entered for the Maserati works team.
Minoia's third place put him on equal points as Campari after the latter's early retirement, and having finished all three races, he won the tie-break by having covered just over 560 km further.
Although there was no works team, Mercedes-Benz was well represented in their home Grand Prix with six cars, led by Rudolf Caracciola along with Hans Stuck and up-and-coming Manfred von Brauchitsch.
The long straights favoured the big bimotore with Nuvolari and Campari driving the Alfa Romeo Tipo A (under Scuderia Ferrari) and Maserati in his V4.
Maserati and Fagioli ran their 8C cars; Alfa Romeo drivers Nuvolari, Borzacchini and Siena raced for the Scuderia Ferrari while Varzi, Chiron and Lehoux had their own Bugattis.
From the start, Fagioli burst into the lead, but on the second lap he hit a wooden pedestrian bridge support collapsing it and blocking the road.
With the depressed German economy, there was no sponsorship money available from fuel or automotive companies and managing director Wilhelm Kissel had closed the works racing team at the end of 1930 following the wishes of his board.
However, development on the SSK produced the new lightweight model, and Kissel was able to provide works assistance to his best driver, Rudolf Caracciola, nominally running as a privateer.
[88][68] Caracciola also won the three major German races in the year – the Avusrennen, Eifelrennen and national Grand Prix and retained the European Mountain Championship.
