The Impossible Victory

There are many stories of heroic victories in the long chequered history of motorsport. But the one that intrigues and inspires me the most has been the story of the “Flying Mantuan” - Tazio Nuvolari and his spectacular win at the German Grand Prix of 1935.

To those readers, who are aware of this amazing achievement, this story would only serve to refresh their memories. So, bear with me as I go into the minor details only to make it more enjoyable. To those who are coming to know about it for the first time, buckle up.....

Let me go back to the beginning of the nineteenth century, often referred to as the dawn of motor racing. Charles Jennings in his book “Burning Rubber” points out “Fear or bewilderment. The motor car at the turn of the last century was so new, so outlandish, that no one much knew what to do with it under normal conditions, let alone competition.”

However, as motorcars evolved, there emerged an amazing desire to push engineering to unreachable limits. In fact, motor racing and was so entwined with politics, that more often, a Grand Prix emerged as the arena to impose political strength of a country over one another.

By, the mid 1930s, there were many well known manufacturers (British, German, Italian, French etc.) who participated in the Grand Pries to showcase their manufacturing and engineering prowess laced with sense of nationalistic pride.

On one hand, there was the Nazi sponsored Auto Unions (refer as modern day Audis) and Mercedes. Jennings said, “they were splitting an annual government grant of half a million Reichmarks between them, and were about to spend millions more on making some of the most devastating weapons of competition ever seen.” There was also the Alfa Romeos (Ferrari for reference), Bugattis, Maserratis and ERAs as well.

But, the Germans were in a league of their own and outclassed the rest. Clearly, the objective of their investment was to build the most powerful engine that could fit it in a lightweight car. Then attach tyres to it and bring in a driver to do the rest.  As Jennings puts it, “Their engines used clever modern alloys and higher compression ratios. Camshafts multiplied and lubrication systems got more efficient. Even the brakes worked... sometimes.”

To put it on paper the difference between the cars, the Italian Alfa Romeo P3 under the Scuderia Ferrari team featured a 3800 cc eight cylinder engine against the 3990 cc Mercedes W25 and 4950 cc 16 cylinder Auto Union “type B”. All cars weighed the same.

Auto Union leading an Alfa Romeo..a common sight at races in those days

It is in this backdrop that we come to the German grand prix on a cloudy and rainy day at the Nurburgring. The date was 28th July 1935. More than 200,000 spectators were present to witness along with the Nazi dictatorship, the triumphal parade of the German cars across the 28 kilometer long narrow hilly roads. Even the Fuhrer was present to bask in the glory of the German engineering supremacy.

The old Nurburgring (in grey) against the new one (in black) used  in modern racing.

With its 174 bends, the 22 laps (501.82 km) Nurburgring circuit through the forest was often referred to as “Green Hell” as it put to test not only the limit of the machines but also the men who rode them.

Even, the number of drivers riding German cars outnumbered those of their Italian and British counterpart. At Nurburgring, Caracciola, Fagioli, Lang, Von Brauchitsch and Geyer rode for Mercedes and Rosemeyer, Varzi, Stuck and Pietsch for Auto Union. They were competing against Nuvolari, Chiron, Brivio and Balestrero in Alfas.

Von Brauchitsch

It is Tazio Nuvolari, who is the protagonist of our story. Known to his fans as "Il Montavano Volante," or the Flying Mantuan, for his home city of Mantua, Nuvolari served as a driver in the Italian army before beginning his career racing motorcycles at the age of 28; he won the Italian championship in that sport in 1924 and 1928.

His first major victory in a four-wheeled vehicle came in the 1930 Mille Miglia (Thousand Miles), Italy's most famous automobile road race.

Tazio Nuvolari, in front of his Alfa Romeo P3

Describing Nuvolari, Jennings writes, “The slightly built Nuvolari was not only brave, successful, terribly fast,” but “instantly recognizable, with his odd, lean, goblinish appearance, as if he has just been cured in a tannery: he was indomitable - epically so.”

Even Enzo Ferrari is said to have pointed out that whenever a bend presents itself, “Tazio did not lift his foot from the accelerator,” and that he kept it “flat on the floor.” Ferdinand Porsche is said to have called him ‘the greatest driver of the past, the present and the future.’

Although over the course of his racing career, Nuvolari rode for Auto Union, Bugatti and Maserrati, but his epic drive in an underpowered Alfa P3 at treacherous Nurburging was the highlight of his time in racing.

 

Coming back to Germany, rather incredibly two of the underpowered Alfa Romeos managed to beat the German machines at the front with Renato Balestrero on pole, Nuvolari second, Stuck (in AU) third, Caracciola (MB) seventh and Rosemeyer (AU) way down in twelfth. Whatever the German teams or drivers were trying it didn't work.

However, at the start of the race, it was a completely different story. Rain began to fall. Balestrero crashed immediately and Nuvolari had a truly appalling start, dropping him from second down to fifth as the German cars blasted past. The race from there on should have been a formality for the Germans who were using their power advantage to blast away from the rest of the field.

However, Nuvolari began his fight back and tried to stay on the tail of the Germans. He drove his Alfa on the very limit and gradually caught up the cars the leaders and when the leaders pitted he moved up the order. Nuvolari worked his way up to second and then it came to his pit stop.

However, thunder struck when during the pit-stop for the refueling Tazio had a problem: the petrol pump machine didn't work and the mechanics had to do the refueling with drums and funnel!

This lost Nuvolari a full six minutes of time. To put that in perspective if you lost that amount of time in current Formula One machinery you would be around 4-5 laps down. The race now looked totally over for him.

However, there was a reason why Nuvolari was called the “The Flying Mantuan”. He came back to the track and unleashed himself, trying to recover the disadvantage.

Tazio - Full Throttle

Slowly, the winding track began to take toll of several cars. After the 13th lap Rosemeyer and Caracciola had mechanical problems: the first had to pit and the second had to slow down. Nuvolari flew to the second position and began driving faster and faster to reach Von Brauchitsch who was beginning to have problems with the tyres having pushed his car hard.

Even in those days, pit stop strategies played a crucial part just like it does now in modern day Formula One. Tazio was fitted with hard tyres to last the race length. Jennigs points out, “Nuvolari wasn’t just driving out of his skin: he was using low cunning, too, having made sure to put harder wearing tyres on the Alfa than Von Brauchitsch had put on his Mercedes, thus providing himself with an essential margin of destructibility as he thrashed the Alfa around the track.”

Von Brauchitsch didn’t have the pit-stop for change of the tyres and continued to drive over the limit, stressing his car over the possibilities. He hoped that the tyres will resist even as he knew that they were completely consumed.

At the last lap Von Brauchitsch was in first position and for the spectators the race was finished and foreseen! At the finishing line the German authorities had begun preparing the prize-giving: they heaved the Reich flag, the German National anthem was ready on the record player and the generals were waiting for the winner.

An artist's impression of the battle between Von Brauchitsch and Nuvolari

Suddenly, from a distance, a roar broke the silence, and slowly it became more and more loud. From the long distance of the straight stretch, confused by the haze, a car appeared. The crowd was amazed and fell silent: the car wasn't silver but red; the car was the Alfa Romeo of Tazio Nuvolari!!

Jennigs says - Von Brauchitsch, also known as ‘die Pechvogel - the Unlucky Bird- due to his capacity of losing races from sure shot winning positions “watched in horror as his rear tyres, shredded by hard racing, German engine power, softer compound and Nuvolari’s remorseless pressure, simply fell to pieces leaving him in tears, rolling along on his wheel rims at 40 mph and letting Nuvolari through...”

After a moment of astonishment and incredulity the crowd exploded and the Nurburgring gave the right tribute to the impossible victory!

While Nuvolari finished first, Stuck and Caracciola were classified second and third. Von Brauchitsch finished fifth.

Jennings writes, “Adolf Hitler was in the crowd, however, and Korpsfuhrer Adolf Hunnlein, representing the Third Reich, tore up his speech and refused to have anything to do with Nuvolari’s victory appearance...Someone dug out a shabby old Italian flag and hung it up. There was no Italian national anthem to play, until Nuvolari pointed out that he always carried with him a gramophone record of ‘Marcia Reale’ and that they were welcome to put it on. Which they did.”

Montanelli (a famous Italian journalist) wrote: "While Nuvolari was covered with the laurel of the winner, some thousand of amazed blue eyes were fixing his exhausted car. They were seeking vainly the technical reasons of that absurd victory. They didn't find it and they found relief in invoking 'der Teufel', the devil."

There were many great races of such nature thereafter. But, this one will always remain special as the level of determination and grit showed by Nuvolari to step up to the top of the podium that day was something special….

Pinak Ghosh

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