1934 Eifelrennen Formule Libre

At the Nurburgring track, bad weather delayed this important race by a few hours.

Mercedes-Benz was making its first official entry into the Grand Prix season at this event after extensive testing and adjustment of the new W25.

Team manager Alfred Neubauer was feeling the pressure to succeed in their homeland. Their star driver had not yet fully recovered enough from his 1933 Monaco crash to participate so Mercedes brought in a new driver Manfred Georg Rudolf von Brauchitsch, along with Luigi Fagioli to drive their new racer.

Pen&ink, markers, and pencil on archival white stock 12�x 9� 
� Paul Chenard 2010

Original art & limited editions available.
Auto Union had Hans Stuck, Hermann zu Leiningen and August "Bubi" Momberger to drive their Type A.

Scuderia Ferrari had Louis Chiron and Mario Tadini driving the Alfa Romeo P3. Bugatti had no entries in the race, and nor did Maserati.

Three classes of cars were racing together, flagged off one class after another, a total of forty-four cars in all.

Italian Fagioli took an early lead until he was ordered by team manager Neubauer to let his German teammate von Brauchitsch by. Later in the pits for fueling, Fagioli argued furiously with Neubauer over this. He started off again, but with only one lap remaining in the race, he pulled over and abandoned his race car in protest.

With two Auto Unions out of the race, Stuck had taken the sole remaining Type A to a sizeable lead over von Brauchitsch. Some believed he would go non-stop and win the race. He finally did have to come in for fuel and tires, and the Mercedes driver took the lead, which he would keep to the checkered flag.

The win was a stunning debut for both the Mercedes-Benz team and their new driver.

1934 Italian Grand Prix

The Italian Grand Prix was held on September 9th at the Autodromo Di Monza. In the previous year�s Grand Prix, serious accidents had taken the lives of Giuseppe Campari and two other drivers. To lessen the speeds, it was decided that the track should be shortened from 10kms to 4.3kms, with many chicanes added in. With 500kms to cover for the Grand Prix, this made for a longer, more grueling race.

Mercedes had their W25, Bugatti their Type 59, Scuderia Ferrari the Alfa P3, while Maserati introduced the new model 6C-34, to be driven by Tazio Nuvolari. The balance of their team would drive the 8CMs.

Pen&ink, markers, and pencil on archival white stock 12�x 9� � Paul Chenard 2010

Original art & limited editions available.

At the start, Hans Stuck took an early lead for Auto Union but was soon overtaken by Mercedes driver Rudolf Caracciola. His teammate Manfred Georg Rudolf von Brauchitsch was not competing, having been injured in a crash at the previous Swiss Grand Prix. Battling amongst the leaders were Luigi Fagioli (Mercedes), Archille Varzi (Alfa Romeo), Nuvolari (Maserati) and Count Carlo Felice Trossi (Alfa Romeo).

Unfortunately for Nuvolari, the Maserati mechanics forgot to top-up his car's brake fluid after weigh-in, so he slowly lost his brakes during the long race.

The 4.75 hour race, with it�s 1600 total corners, took a toll on the drivers and the cars. Fagioli, whose car broke down, later replaced Caracciola, who had to be lifted out of his car. Stuck had to be replaced by zu Leiningen, and Trossi by Comotti.

Varzi dropped out with mechanical woes, so the race finished with Caracciola/Figioli in first place, Stuck/zu Leiningen in second, with Trossi/Comotti in third. After 4th place Chiron (Alfa Romeo), Nuvolari finished a respectable 5th place, using his gears to brake for the last half of the race.