Tazio Nuvolari

Nuvolari obtained his license for motorcycle racing in 1915 at the age of 23.[4] He served in the Italian army as an ambulance driver in World War I, and in 1920[7] took part in his first motorcycle race at the Circuito Internazionale Motoristico in Cremona[4] but did not finish.[8] He also raced cars, winning the Coppa Verona reliability trial in 1921.[8]

In 1925 he became the 350 cc European Motorcycling champion by winning the European Grand Prix. At the time, the European Grand Prix was considered the most important race of the motorcycling season and the winners in each category were designated European Champions.[9] He won the Nations Grand Prix four times between 1925 and 1928,[10] and the Lario Circuit race five times between 1925 and 1929, all in the 350 cc class on a Bianchi motorcycle.[11]

It was also in 1925 that Alfa Romeo, seeking a driver to replace Antonio Ascari, who had been killed in the French Grand Prix in July, tested Nuvolari in their Grand Prix car with a view to running him in the Italian Grand Prix in September. He crashed when the gearbox seized,[12] and severely lacerated his back.[13] He was not picked for the team. Six days later, in bandages, with a cushion strapped to his stomach, and lifted onto his motorcycle by Bianchi mechanics for a push-start, he won the rain-soaked Nations Grand Prix at Monza.[14][12]

1930

Nuvolari (fifth from left), with other Alfa Romeo drivers and Enzo Ferrari

Nuvolari racing an Alfa Romeo 6C 1750GS in the 1930 Coppa della Consuma

In 1930, Nuvolari won his first RAC Tourist Trophy (he won again in 1933). Motor racing legend has it that when one of the drivers broke the window of a butcher's shop, Nuvolari drove onto the pavement and tried to grab a ham as he passed.[15] According to Sammy Davis who met him there, Nuvolari enjoyed dark humour and situations when everything went wrong. For example, after he got a ticket for a journey home from the Sicilian Targa Florio he said to Enzo Ferrari, "What a strange businessman you are. What if I am brought back in a coffin?"

Nuvolari and co-driver Battista Guidotti won the Mille Miglia in a Zagato-bodied Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 GS, becoming the first to complete the race at an average of over 100 km/h (62 mph). At night, leading on elapsed time but still lying behind his teammate Achille Varzi on the road because he had started after him, he tailed Varzi at speeds of up to 150 km/h (93 mph) with his headlights switched off, so that he could not be seen in the other car's rear-view mirrors. He eventually switched them on to overtake "the shocked"[15] Varzi near the finish at Brescia.[16]

1931

Towards the end of 1930, Nuvolari decided to stop racing motorcycles and concentrate fully on cars for 1931.[12] Regulations for the season required Grand Prix races to be at least 10 hours long.[17] For the Italian Grand Prix, Nuvolari was to share an Alfa Romeo with Baconin Borzacchini. The car started from ninth place on the grid, and when it retired with mechanical problems after 33 laps Nuvolari teamed up with Giuseppe Campari. The pair took the race win,[18] although Nuvolari could not receive the championship points. Apart from the Belgian Grand Prix, where he came second, the only other European Championship race was the French Grand Prix, where he finished 11th. The same year, he won both the Coppa Ciano at Livorno and the arduous Targa Florio, which was run on the 92-mile (146 km) Grande variant of the super-twisty course that year.

1932

Nuvolari after winning the 1932 French Grand Prix

For 1932, Grands Prix had to be between five and ten hours long. It was the only season in which Nuvolari regularly drove one of the fastest cars, the Alfa Romeo P3,[13] and he took two wins and a second place from the three European Championship Grands Prix, plus victory in the championship by four points from Borzacchini. He achieved four other race wins that year, including the prestigious Monaco Grand Prix and a second Targa Florio. Of the latter, his mechanic Mabelli said: "Before the start, Nuvolari told me to go down on the floor of the car every time he shouts, which was a signal that he went to a curve too fast and that we need to lower the car´s center of mass. I spent the whole race on the floor. Nuvolari started to shout in the first curve and wouldn't stop until the last one."

On 28 April the writer Gabriele d'Annunzio gave him a golden tortoise badge. Thereafter Nuvolari wore it as a talisman, and it became famously associated with him.

1933

The 1933 season began a two-year hiatus in the European Championship, and although Alfa Romeo ceased official involvement in Grands Prix their cars continued racing with Enzo Ferrari's privateer team. For economic reasons, the P3 was not passed on to Ferrari so they used its predecessor, the Monza.[20] Maserati, with a much-improved car, provided the main opposition.

It has been alleged that Nuvolari was involved in a race-fixing scandal at the Tripoli Grand Prix. The story is that he conspired with Achille Varzi and Baconin Borzacchini to fix the race in order to profit from the Libyan state lottery, in which 30 tickets were drawn before the race—one for each starter—and the holder of the ticket corresponding to the victorious driver won 7.5 million lire.[21] Others say the allegation was unfounded and that it originated with Alfred Neubauer, the Mercedes-Benz team manager at the time, who was well known as a raconteur with a penchant for spicing up a story.[22] Neubauer's version does not altogether hold true with documented records of events, which indicate that Nuvolari, Varzi, and Borzacchini agreed to pool the prize money should one of them win.[22]

For the 1933 24 Hours of Le Mans, Alfa Romeo teamed Nuvolari with Raymond Sommer.[23] Sommer asked to drive the majority of the race as he was more familiar with the circuit and thought Nuvolari would probably break the car.[21] When Nuvolari countered that he was a leading Grand Prix driver and Le Mans was a simple layout that would not trouble him, they agreed to divide the driving equally.[21] In the race, they built a two-lap lead before a leaking fuel tank forced them to stop at the pits, where the leak was plugged by chewing gum.[21] More stops were necessary as the makeshift repair came undone several times.[21] Nuvolari, driving through to the end of the race, broke the lap record nine times and won by approximately 400 yards (370 m).[21]

1934

Nuvolari driving an Alfa Romeo P3 in the 1935 Grand Prix de Pau

Nuvolari after winning the 1935 Grand Prix de Pau

In April 1934 Nuvolari entered the Monaco Grand Prix in a privately owned Bugatti and worked up to third place before brake problems forced him back to fifth at the finish, two laps behind the winner, Guy Moll.[24] Racing in heavy rain at Alessandria in the Circuito di Pietro Bordino race, he crashed and broke a leg: balked by Trossi's Alfa Romeo P3, he lost control of his privately entered Maserati 8CM, which skidded, rolled, and hit a tree.[25] Bored in hospital, he decided to enter the AVUS-Rennen just over four weeks later.[13] As his left leg was too badly injured to operate the clutch, his Maserati was modified for him to work the pedals with his right foot.[26] Troubled by cramp, he finished fifth.[13]

By the time of the Penya Rhin Grand Prix in late June, Nuvolari's leg was finally out of plaster but still painful. He retired his Maserati with technical problems.[27]

In the Italian Grand Prix, he debuted Maserati's new 6C-34 model. It performed poorly and Nuvolari could finish only fifth, three laps behind the Mercedes-Benz W25s of Caracciola and Fagioli, and also trailing the Auto Union As of Stuck and Leiningen, and the Alfa Romeo P3s of Trossi, Comotti, and Chiron.[28]

At the end of September, he finished third in the Czechoslovakian Grand Prix (Masaryk Circuit), behind Caracciola and Stuck.[29]

1935

For 1935, Nuvolari set his sights on a drive with the German Auto Union team.[30] It lacked top-line drivers but relented to pressure from Achille Varzi, which did not want Nuvolari in the team.[30] Nuvolari then approached Enzo Ferrari, who at first rebuffed him as he had previously walked out on the team.[30] Italy's prime minister Mussolini helped persuade Ferrari to take Nuvolari back.[30]

This was the year that Nuvolari achieved the 'Impossible Victory',[31] which many regard as the greatest win in all of motor racing history:[15][32][33][34] driving an outclassed Alfa Romeo P3 (3167 cc, supercharged, 265 hp) in the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, he beat all the dominant German cars—five Mercedes-Benz W25s (3990 cm³, 8C, supercharged, 375 hp (280 kW) driven by Caracciola, Fagioli, Lang, von Brauchitsch, and Geyer), and four Auto Union Bs (4950 cc, 16C, supercharged, 375 hp (280 kW) driven by Rosemeyer, Varzi, Stuck, and Pietsch). The crowd of 300,000 applauded Nuvolari, but the representatives of the Third Reich were enraged.[34]

1936

Nuvolari had a big accident in May during practice for the Tripoli Grand Prix and it is alleged that he broke some vertebrae. Despite a limp, he took part in the race the following day and finished eighth.[32]

1937

At the beginning of 1937, Alfa Romeo took its works team back from Ferrari and entered it as part of the Alfa Corse team.[35] Nuvolari stayed with Alfa Romeo despite becoming increasingly frustrated with the poor build quality of its racing cars.[36]

At the Coppa Acerbo, Alfa Romeo's new 12C-37 car proved to be slow and unreliable. Frustrated, Nuvolari handed his car over to Giuseppe Farina mid-race. Not wanting to leave Alfa Romeo, he drove an Auto Union in the Swiss Grand Prix as a one-off. After the Italian Grand Prix, Alfa Romeo withdrew from racing for the remainder of the season and dismissed Vittorio Jano, its chief designer.[36]

1938

Although Nuvolari started 1938 as an Alfa Romeo driver, a split fuel tank in the first race of the season at Pau was enough for him to walk out on the team, critical of the poor workmanship that was exhibited. He announced his retirement from Grand Prix racing and took a holiday in America. At the same time, Auto Union was having to rely on inexperienced drivers. Following the Tripoli Grand Prix they contacted Nuvolari who, having been refreshed from his break, agreed to drive for the highly successful German team, who were running radical mid-engined cars. [37] Nuvolari found further success with Auto Union; now driving a faster and more reliable car that enabled him to compete for victories, Nuvolari won his home Grand Prix at Monza and won the Donington Grand Prix in England.

1939

In the 1939 he won Belgrade Grand Prix which was held on 3 September 1939, the last one before outbreak of World War II.[38]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

• Hilton, Christopher (2003). Nuvolari. Derby: Breedon Books Publishing Co. Ltd. ISBN 1-85983-349-7.
• Pritchard, Anthony (1998). A Century of Grand Prix Motor Racing. Croydon: Motor Racing Publications. ISBN 1-899870-38-5.
• Rendall, Ivan (1995). The Chequered Flag. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. p. 140. ISBN 0-297-83550-5.
• Skořepa, Miloš (1980). Dejiny automobilových pretekov. p. 191.
• Tibballs, Geoff (2004). Motor-Racing's Strangest Races. London: Robson. ISBN 1-86105-411-4.
• Walker, Murray; Taylor, Simon (2001). Murray Walker's Formula One Heroes. London: Virgin. pp. 17–20. ISBN 1-85227-918-4.