Motor Racing: Between the Wars Quiz

Answer: False

Although Monza has always been considered the spiritual home of Italian motor racing, the first Italian Grand Prix was held in September 1921 on a road circuit near Brescia. The event was won by Jules Goux in a Ballot. The Autodromo Nazionale Monza was built in 1922 and the Italian Grand Prix that year was held only a week after it opened. Pietro Bordino led home Felice Nazzaro, the 1922 French Grand Prix winner, in a Fiat 1-2.

Answer: Alfa Romeo

Alfa Romeo were the very first World Champions in 1925. There were four events which counted towards the Championship, the French, Belgian, and Italian Grand Prix, and also the Indianapolis 500. Only three of the four events counted, so none of the European manufacturers attended or counted the Indianapolis 500. Alfa Romeo won the Belgian and Italian Grand Prix to win the title. Duesenberg won the Indianapolis 500 and finished fourth in Italy while Delage won the French Grand Prix but failed to attend the Italian Grand Prix. Alfa Romeo pulled out of Grand Prix racing at the end of the year.

The death of Antonio Ascari at the French Grand Prix had a devastating effect on the team.

Answer: Jules Goux

After being the nearly 'Man of Grand Prix' racing for so many years, Goux would finally taste success on home soil by winning the French Grand Prix for Bugatti at the Circuit of Miramas. Unfortunately for the attending crowd but a good omen for Goux, only 3 of the 12 announced cars turned up to compete with all 3 cars belonging to Bugatti. Goux would finish 15 laps ahead of his team-mate and only other finisher while no car would place 3rd. Bugatti would win the 1926 World Championship by winning 3 of the 5 events that counted towards the manufacturers title.

Answer: True

Set up by Anthony Noghes, and backed by the Monegasque Royal Family, the first Monaco Grand Prix took place on April 14th 1929. There were 16 drivers that showed up to fight for the monetary prize. Englishmen William Grover-Williams would win the 100-lap affair in his Bugatti with Georges Bouriano 2nd in another Bugatti with Rudolf Caracciola 3rd in a Mercedes. Grover-Williams would go on to win the French Grand Prix later in the year, again in a Bugatti.

Answer: Ferdinando Minoia

Three Grand Prix counted towards the Championship. The French, Italian, and Belgian Grand Prix, although the German Grand Prix was also considered a 'Grandes Épreuves' as well but was not included in the European Championship. Minoia was crowned the inaugural champion on count-back having finished equal on points with Giuseppe Campari. Campari won the Italian Grand Prix and finished 2nd in France. Minoia won the title without winning a Grand Prix, but finished 2nd in Italy, 3rd in Belgium, and 6th in France.

Answer: German Grand Prix

Driving the all-conquering Alfa Romeo Tipo B (otherwise known as the Alfa Romeo P3), Nuvolari won the French and Italian Grand Prix which counted towards the European Championship. He finished second to Rudolf Caracciola in the German Grand Prix. Nuvolari also won the Monaco Grand Prix, again in an Alfa Tipo B, and the Targa Florio, this time driving an Alfa Romeo 8C Sportscar.

Answer: Porsche

Auto Union was the amalgamation of four German manufacturers, Audi, DKW, Horch, and Wanderer who joined together in 1932, primarily due to financial difficulties each company was facing. The four rings used by Auto Union (which would later become the symbol of Audi) represented the joining of these four companies.

The car, designed by Dr. Ferdinand Porsche, was revolutionary for the time as it had the engine behind the driver, a design that wouldn't be copied until the 1950s. The first car, the Auto Union Type A, had a supercharged V16 engine that would eventually produce 550 bhp. Auto Union won their first Grand Prix on home soil at the German Grand Prix, in the hands of Hans Stuck. Stuck would also win the Swiss and Czech Grand Prix.

Answer: Bernd Rosemeyer

Four races contributed to the 1936 European Championship, the Monaco, German, Swiss, and Italian Grand Prix. Rosemeyer, after retiring at the Monaco Grand Prix, would dominate the rest of the championship. He took a fantastic first European Championship victory at the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring, with further even more comfortable wins in Switzerland and Italy.

He won the championship quite easily from Stuck in another Auto Union and Nuvolari in an Alfa Romeo.

Answer: Livorno

The Montenero circuit, created in 1921 from public roads in and around Livorno, played host to numerous races between 1921-1939, the most important being the Coppa Ciano. For only the second time in history, a circuit other than Monza would play host to the Italian Grand Prix in 1937, with Livorno hosting the event on the back of Tazio Nuvolari's epic victory in the Coppa Ciano in 1936.
Rudolf Caracciola dominated the event for Mercedes, taking pole and leading throughout, though only barely beating his team-mate Hermann Lang to the flag.

Answer: Hermann Lang

Lang won the season opening Belgian Grand Prix, held at Spa, although Lang's win was overshadowed by the death of his team-mate Dick Seaman. Retirements followed at both the French and German Grand Prix before he won the Swiss Grand Prix, held in Bremgarten on August 20, only days before hostilities began. The President of German motor racing would declare Lang the winner of the European Championship under a new points system introduced by the AIACR for 1939.

Hermann Paul Muller would have been the winner under the old points system. Officially, no winner of the 1939 European Championship was declared.