1930s Grand Prix: Who was Rudolf Caracciola?

Rudolf Caracciola

Rudolf Caracciola was the most successful driver of the 1930s and wrote himself into the history books with a number of unique records. In addition to his three European Championship titles with Mercedes, he took a number of other key victories and had one of the most remarkable Grand Prix debuts in history.

Caracciola was born in Germany in 1901 and always had an interest in motoring. He started a job in the Fafnir Automobile factory as soon as he left school and used every opportunity he could to get involved in racing. He would race the company’s cars whenever he was given the chance and also entered several motorcycle races across the country. Caracciola enjoyed plenty of success in several minor events even though the era was dominated by wealthy gentleman racers.

His was given his big chance at just 25 years of age, comparable with today’s younger generation of drivers.

Grand Prix Debut

The first ever German Grand Prix was held in 1926 but the Mercedes factory team surprisingly skipped their home race in favour of a high profile event in Spain. Caracciola saw this as an opportunity to make his debut at the sport’s top level and convinced Mercedes to lend him a three year old M218 to compete in the race. Little was expected of him as a privateer entrant in an older car.

Caracciola stalled as the race got underway and lost a full minute to the pack as his mechanic frantically bump started the car. This should’ve destroyed any hope of a strong result but his saving grace was that it started to rain. Caracciola was able to use his skill to close the gap and began overtaking several drivers as the conditions worsened.

Amazingly, as the race wore on, Caracciola managed to overtake the entire field of 43 other cars and assumed the race lead (although he had no idea of this in the cockpit). With victory in his sights, Caracciola’s Mercedes suffered spark plug failure and he lost huge amounts of time correcting the problem in the pitlane.

Caracciola rejoined the race and stayed on the circuit in changeable conditions, remarkably recovering the lost time to retake the lead. The rookie became the first ever winner of the German Grand Prix.

You won’t find anyone else who overtook 43 cars – some of them twice – to win their debut Grand Prix in front of an adoring home crowd. It was a very special achievement and earned Caracciola a place with the Mercedes factory team.

Success with Mercedes

Caracciola won 11 different sportscar titles in 1927 and became the driver to beat for almost a decade. He won the European Drivers Championship three times, and also took a trio of competitive European Hillclimb Championships throughout the 1930s.

Arguably Caracciola’s greatest victory came in the 1931 Millie Miglia. He was racing the powerful Mercedes SSKL sportscar but had not received much support from the factory due to the economic crisis that gripped Germany at the time. The race was effectively held on a giant 1000 mile lap of Italy on public roads and there were several service points along the route. Mercedes didn’t have enough mechanics to be stationed at every one of them so they had to shortcut across the country to catch up with Caracciola before he arrived. Despite this setback, he went on to become the first foreign driver to win the great race. Local knowledge was immensely valuable on the Italian roads, and Stirling Moss would later become the only other foreign driver to match Caracciola’s achievement.

Caracciola had a number of remarkable victories including the 1935 Spanish Grand Prix that he won by moving from last to first immediately after the start! He missed his braking point for turn one and scuttled the field, emerging from the mess in first place.

Records

Incredibly, Rudolf Caracciola still holds the world record for the fastest ever speed on a normal road. In 1938, Mercedes and Auto Union were competing for several speed records on German autobahns and in January that year they held a contest to see who could go fastest.

Auto Union held the record, so Mercedes went first in order to break it. Caracciola was given this responsibility on the first day of competition and set a record of 432kph over the flying mile. Tragically, Bernd Rosemeyer was killed whilst attempting to better the mark later in the day, and both companies immediately ceased racing on autobahns. Caracciola’s record on a public road stands to this day.

Caracciola also holds the current record for most German Grand Prix victories (six) which is the sort of record Michael Schumacher usually collected during his era of Ferrari domination.

Another interesting statistic is the lap record that Caracciola set at Monaco in 1937 was not broken until 1955, a massive 18 years later. The outbreak of World War Two contributed to this, as did significant regulation changes, but it’s not often that a Grand Prix circuit record remains unbroken across three different decades.

Like all of the great drivers, Caracciola is held in such high esteem because he raced against other legends of the sport.

Tazio Nuvolari

Tazio Nuvolari is undoubtedly one of the greatest drivers of all time and was certainly one of the most exciting. He recorded many victories on two wheels and four, and often did so in flamboyant style. His most famous Grand Prix victory was at the Nurburgring in 1935 where his older Alfa Romeo finished ahead of the eight faster Auto Union and Mercedes cars. It was the only European Championship race in a four year period that a German car didn’t win and was so unexpected the Italian national anthem was not available at the finish.

Nuvolari was no stranger to racing with serious injury and it was sometimes joked that a plaster cast was his usual racing suit. Nuvolari broke both of his legs in an accident shortly before a Motorcycle Grand Prix at Monza, and although he was unable to walk with both of legs in plaster, he tied himself the bike with the help of his mechanics. He won the race.

Nuvolari also broke out of hospital the day after a serious crash in practice for the 1936 Tripoli Grand Prix, and finished in seventh place by using the team’s spare car.

He also gained fame for his exploits in the Millie Miglia. During the 1930 race Nuvolari caught his arch rival on the road by sneaking up behind him at night with the headlights turned off. In a later running of the Italian event, he would ask his navigator to lie on the floor to improve weight distribution since he was so confident of knowing the route ahead.

Nuvolari was in the late stages of his career during the 1930s and you could suggest that he did not race against Caracciola in his prime. However, he was still an incredible talent, and helped make the 1930s a very exciting time for Grand Prix racing.

Bernd Rosemeyer

Bernd Rosemeyer only had a short Grand Prix career but it was no less exciting. He moved straight from motorcycling into Grand Prix racing with Auto Union, and many considered this an advantage because the German cars had a notoriously difficult power to weight ratio that troubled most drivers.

Rosemeyer had a lucky escape in his debut season at Pescara when the brakes on his Auto Union seized. He went off the track and slid through a gap between a bridge and telegraph pole that was just one inch wider than his car. He recovered (despite also suffering two blown tyres) to finish the race in second behind Nuvolari.

The young German won the 1936 European Championship and could have defended that honour in 1937 if not for a few mistakes in crucial races that counted towards the title.

Tragically, Rosemeyer was killed in 1938 whilst attempting to break a speed record with Auto Union. He was on track to beat Caracciola’s mark of 432kph when his car became aerodynamically unstable at high speed and left the road. His death came towards the end of a great era of Grand Prix racing.

Caracciola’s achievements against the like of Nuvolari and Rosemeyer are what helped make the 1930s such a special decade of motorsport.

Posted by Martin Porter. - Follow him on twitter @mpondaweb.

Like us on Facebook! »

More F1 Posts »

• 2012 Spanish GP: Hamilton and that 31 lap stint!
• Williams F1 Fire: Photos and video from dramatic post race inferno
• Lewis Hamilton blasts the rest away with pole in Spain
• An absolutely mega F1 prize you can win with the Lotus F1 Team
• Remembering Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna
• 2012 Bahrain GP: Vettel returns to the top, and Rosberg escapes penalties
• Sebastian Vettel takes his first pole since 2011
• 2012 Chinese Grand Prix: Thrilling late overtaking and tyres falling off the cliff
• Nico Rosberg takes his first pole position ahead of Lewis Hamilton
• 2012 Malaysia GP: Sergio Perez 2nd in Malaysia – but does the race need to start earlier?

Last Comment Posted »