Bleacher Report - Articles by Formula One Hall of Fame

The Bleacher Report Grand Prix Hall of Fame: Tazio Nuvolari by Michael Griffin

Formula One Hall of Fame — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:37:50 -0400

Tazio Giorgio Nuvolari (November 16, 1892 – August 11, 1953)

Tazio Nuvolari, a legend in his own era and ours today, was known as the Flying Mantuan, acquiring that name for his understanding of how a car would handle, even in the most unknown of conditions.

Nuvolari epitomized courage and determination to win or get the best result possible, whatever was holding him or his car back. For over 30 years, he amazed the motorsport fraternity with his performances and natural ability on both two and four wheels.

He was born November 18, 1892 in Casteldrio near Mantua. His uncle Guiseppe was a dealer in Bianchi and soon he introduced his nephew to a phenomenon which would soon become his life. After Tazio served his time in the Italian Army as a driver, he began to race competitively on motorcycles when he was 28, a relatively late age when you look at motorsport in the modern era.

In his time, he raced Nortons, Saroleas, Garellis, Fongris and Indians. His riding was soon noticed by the incredibly powerful team Bianchi, of which he soon became a member and then national champion of motorcycling in Italy.

At the Monza Grand Prix for motorcycle racing, Tazio crashed heavily in practice and was lucky to survive. He suffered two broken legs, which to any normal person which leave them immobile, but not Tazio Nuvolari.

After the doctors put both of his legs in plaster, they told him it would be a minimum of one month before he would even be able to stand, never mind walk, and much longer before they would allow him to race again.

The next day, Tazio instructed his engineers to tie him to the bike and give him a push start, which they did, and Tazio went on to win the race...the legend was born.

Nuvolari began racing motorcars in 1924 when he was 32, still competing in motorcycle series at the time. Three years later he started his own team, buying a pair of Bugatti 35b’s which he shared with his partner Achille Varzi, who also happened to be a successful motorcycle racer.

Unbeknownst to the pair, this friendship would soon turn into a heated rivalry.

Nuvolari soon began to win races at the expense of Varzi, who soon grew agitated with the success and talent of his team-mate, and decided to leave the team. Varzi, the son of a wealthy merchant banker, could easily afford better equipment and soon bought a pair of Alfa Romeo’s.

Nuvolari soon joined his team and became embroiled in a heated rivalry with Varzi again. The rivalry reached its climax in the best possible way, in the 1930 Mille Miglia. Nuvolari took the brave decision of driving with no lights on in the night, to let Varzi believe that he was well ahead of him.

With just three kilometres left in the race, Nuvolari pulled alongside Varzi, smiled at him, gave him a cheeky wink, and flashed on his headlights and stormed off into the lead. That drive is widely regarded as one of the bravest, and funniest performances of all time.

Then, in the Targa Florio of 1932, he requested a mechanic from Enzo Ferrari (you may have heard of him), a man as light, if not lighter than Tazio himself. Nuvolari took the young and inexperienced little man and told him that he would warn him of any particularly scary or tight corners so not to frighten the poor lad (don’t you feel sorry for the young lad?).

As they approached a corner, Nuvolari would bark an order at the young man to tell him to duck under the dashboard of the car. After the race and yet another victory for Nuvolari, Ferrari asked how the mechanic had survived the ride of his life.

“He shouted at the first turn, and finished at the last. I was under the car all the time, quite boring but it was ok, I guess”

In 1933 he scored many more victories but soon became estranged from Ferrari and signed with Maserati. That year also saw Tazio travel to Northern Ireland to compete in the Tourist Trophy Race and drive a supercharged MGK3 Magnee.

Somebody calmly asked him if he liked the brakes, but Tazio said he could not tell as he did not really use them...that is actually rather scary.

In 1935, Nuvolari made a return to Alfa Romeo and scored one of his greatest victories at the Nurburgring. Driving an obsolete Alfa against the technical might of the Germans, he drove at the very edge and over it quite often.

The relentless pursuit of the “Flying Mantuan” caused one of the Mercedes' to blow a tyre and that meant that Nuvolari could then cruise to victory in front of an entourage from the Nazi party. They were not happy, understandably.

In 1936, Nuvolari had a serious accident in practice for a Grand Prix and was rushed to hospital, but he soon escaped, hailed down a taxi and drove the spare to seventh in the race, and was then hired by Auto Union, later to become Audi, when their driver Bernd Rosemeyer died in 1938.

Ferdinand Porsche insisted that they turned to an Italian with the total understanding of how to drive a mid-engined car. They turned to Tazio, and he won the British Grand Prix in Donington.

After that it was only the Second World War that could stop Nuvolari from obliterating his opposition, and he returned to racing after the war at the age of 53. In a minor race, Tazio had the steering wheel fall off the car he was driving, yet somehow he managed to steer the car back to the pits with the steering wheel in one hand and the column in the other.

He continued to win races, but years of inhaling exhaust fumes finally took its toll in his body, with his last win coming in the 1948 Mille Miglia.

Tazio Nuvolari had declared many times that his ultimate dream was to die whilst racing, as he knew he was too quick for anyone else to die. Unfortunately for him, he was denied that dream, and died on August 11, 1953 of a stroke.

Nuvolari is still remembered to this day as the man that heralded the beginning of preparations for Formula One, and many drivers still aspire to be like him. He was like no other driver to ever compete in the sport, and is still remembered to this day as the ultimate racing driver. Dr Ferdinand Porsche called Nuvolari "The greatest driver of the past, the present, and the future."

Major Wins

Year	Location	Vehicle
1924	Savio Circuit	Chiribiri Monza (1.5 litre)
1924	Polesine Circuit	Chiribiri Monza (1.5 litre)
1924	Tigullio Circuit	Bianchi 20 (2 litre)
1927	Rome Grand Prix	Bugatti T35
1927	Garda Circuit	Bugatti T35c
1928	Tripoli Grand Prix	Bugatti T35c
1928	Pozzo Circuit	Bugatti T35c
1928	Alessandria Circuit	Bugatti T35c
1931	Targa Florio	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza
1931	Coppa Ciano	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza
1932	Monaco Grand Prix	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza
1932	Targa Florio	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza
1932	Italian Grand Prix	Alfa Romeo Type B/P3
1932	Grand Prix de L'A.C.F	Alfa Romeo Type B/P3
1932	Coppa Ciano	Alfa Romeo Type B/P3
1932	Coppa Acerbo	Alfa Romeo Type B/P3
1933	Tunis Grand Prix	Alfa Romeo 8C 2600 Monza
1933	Alessandria	Alfa Romeo 8C 2600 Monza
1933	Eifelrennen	Alfa Romeo 8C 2600 Monza
1933	Nîmes Grand Prix	Alfa Romeo 8C 2600 Monza
1933	Belgian Grand Prix	Maserati 8 cm
1933	Coppa Ciano	Maserati 8 cm
1933	Nice Grand Prix	Maserati 8 cm
1933	RAC Tourist Trophy, Ards	MG K3 Magnette
1934	Modena Grand Prix	Maserati 6c 34
1934	Naples Grand Prix	Maserati 6c 34
1935	Pau Grand Prix	Alfa Romeo Type B/P3
1935	Bergamo Circuit	Alfa Romeo Type B/P3
1935	Biella Circuit	Alfa Romeo Type B/P3
1935	Turin Circuit	Alfa Romeo Type B/P3
1935	German Grand Prix	Alfa Romeo Type B/P3
1935	Coppa Ciano	Alfa Romeo Type B/P3
1935	Nice Grand Prix	Alfa Romeo Type B/P3
1935	Modena Grand Prix	Alfa Romeo 8c-35
1936	Penya Rhin Grand Prix	Alfa Romeo 12c-36
1936	Hungarian Grand Prix	Alfa Romeo 8c-35
1936	Milan Grand Prix	Alfa Romeo 12c-36
1936	Coppa Ciano	Alfa Romeo 8c-35
1936	Modena Grand Prix	Alfa Romeo 12c-36
1936	Vanderbilt Cup	Alfa Romeo 12c-36
1937	Milan Grand Prix	Alfa Romeo 12c-36
1938	Italian Grand Prix	Auto Union Type D
1938	Donington Grand Prix	Auto Union Type D
1939	Belgrade Grand Prix	Auto Union Type D
1946	Albi Grand Prix	Maserati 4cl

[edit] Complete European Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Entrant	Make	1	2	3	4	5	EDC	Points
1931	Alfa Corse	Alfa Romeo	ITA Ret	FRA 11	BEL 2			8	13
1932	Alfa Corse	Alfa Romeo	ITA 1	FRA 1	GER 2			1	4
1935	Scuderia Ferrari	Alfa Romeo	BEL	GER 1	SUI 5	ITA Ret	ESP Ret	4	24
1936	Scuderia Ferrari	Alfa Romeo	MON 4	GER Ret	SUI Ret	ITA 2		3	17
1937	Scuderia Ferrari	Alfa Romeo	BEL	GER 4	MON		ITA 7	7=	28
1937	Auto Union	Auto Union				SUI 5		7=	28
1938	Auto Union	Auto Union	FRA	GER Ret	SUI 9	ITA 1		5=	20
1939

Inductee profile by Michael Griffin

The Bleacher Report Grand Prix Hall of Fame: Rudolf Caracciola by Billy Sexton

Formula One Hall of Fame — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 02:11:51 -0500

Rudolf Caracciola (1901-1959) was a pre war Grand Prix driver and the first man to assume the title of "The Regenmeister." The original master in the rain, he is still considered the best of all time in the wet.

Born in January 1901, Rudolf was to become a top class race car driver during the 1920's and 30's. This was a period when drivers literally put their life on the line to race motor cars, a time when the sport had almost zero safety regulations and a time when Rudolf reigned.

Caracciola soon made history in motor sport by becoming the first non-Italian driver to win the Mille Miglia, an Italian open-wheel endurance race that ran until 1957.

Much like Michael Schumacher, Caracciola was a home favorite in his day and has won the German Grand Prix a record six times, all coming at the Nurburgring which, during the 1930's, was over 14 miles long.

The German raced for Mercedes Benz during much of his career, taking a record three European Championships with them. This is yet another amazing achievement of Caracciola.

The European Championships were an annual competition, much like the current World Championships, and ran for eight years before WW2 prevented the championships from continuing. I have no doubt that Rudolf would have won at least one more championship had the competition continued on if the horrors of war had not intervened.

His 1937 season is considered Rudolf's best racing year. He competed in the classic Mercedes Benz W125 and, out of five races, took three poles, three wins, four podiums and two fastest laps. It can only be classed as Schumacher-like domination.

Although Rudolf didn't participate in the first round of the championship at Belgium (this scored him eight points, which was not good in those days as the less points you had, the better) he won three races and came second at the other.

Going into the final round, Rudolf was on 12 points and his championship rival and fellow countryman Manfred von Brauchitsch was on 10 points.

This meant that if Caracciola wanted to win the championship, he would have to finish first and hope that Brauchitsch would finish third or worse in the very same car. It turned out that Rudolf won the race and Brauchitsch retired, placing a massive five points on his total score.

And you thought the Kimi Raikkonen comeback was impressive.

His next season was a complete dominance despite only scoring one win. He finished seven points clear of Brauchitsch.

To add to these amazing achievements, Rudolf drove his Mercedes Benz W125 at 432.7 km/h (268.9 mph), a speed that remains the fastest ever officially timed speed on a public road to this day.

Major career wins:

European Hillclimbing Champion 1930
European Champion 1935, 1937, 1938
Irish Grand Prix 1930
AVUSrennen 1931
Coppa Acerbo 1938
Coppa Ciano 1937
Belgian Grand Prix 1935
Czechoslovakian Grand Prix 1937
Eifelrennen 1927, 1931, 1932, 1935
French Grand Prix 1935
German Grand Prix 1926, 1928, 1931, 1932, 1937, 1939
Italian Grand Prix 1934, 1937
Lemberg Grand Prix 1932
Mille Miglia 1931
Monaco Grand Prix 1936
Spanish Grand Prix 1935
Swiss Grand Prix 1935, 1937, 1938
Tripoli Grand Prix 1935

Complete European Championship results

(Races in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Entrant	Make	1	2	3	4	5	EDC	Points
1931	Private entry	Mercedes-Benz	ITA	FRA Ret	BEL			46	22
1932	Alfa Corse	Alfa Romeo	ITA NC	FRA 3	GER 1			3	9
1935	Daimler-Benz AG	Mercedes-Benz	BEL 1	GER 3	SUI 1	ITA Ret	ESP 1	1	11
1936	Daimler-Benz AG	Mercedes-Benz	MON 1	GER Ret	SUI Ret	ITA		6	22
1937	Daimler-Benz AG	Mercedes-Benz	BEL	GER 1	MON 2	SUI 1	ITA 1	1	13
1938	Daimler-Benz AG	Mercedes-Benz	FRA 2	GER 2	SUI 1	ITA 3		1	8
1939	Daimler-Benz AG	Mercedes-Benz	BEL Ret	FRA Ret	GER 1	SUI 2		3	17

Inductee profile by Billy Sexton

Zander Opens The Hall

Formula One Hall of Fame — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 11:31:26 -0500

The essence of professional spectator sport is the athlete.

Without construction workers, ticket salesmen, and hot dog vendors, we wouldn't be able to sit in the nosebleeds at classic venues and root for our favorite teams.

Without owners and general managers, team organizations wouldn't exist in the first place.

And without advertisers and television networks, we'd be playing peanuckle or singing "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" on Feb. 1 of next year instead of watching the Super Bowl.

That, my friends, is a truly scary thought. My early childhood could not have been what it was had I not been able to watch live ballgames at Yankee stadium; my grade school years would have been lamer than a Michael Bolton concert had the San Francisco 49ers never existed.

And let's just say the last time I sang "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" all the way through, my mother slapped me so hard that you can still see the mark on my face to this day.

But here's a much more frightening proposition: What if naturally gifted individuals never took the time to practice a game adored by millions of fans?

What if that stringy kid from San Diego had never picked up a baseball bat?

What if Michael Jordan had called it quits when he got cut from his high school hoops team?

Without the athletes, there would be no professional sports. Zip, zilch, nada.

No greatest game ever played; no Rumble in the Jungle. No Lakers/Celtics or Red Sox/Yankees rivalries.

No Gretzky, No Pele, no Golden Bear. No Don Bradman; no Richard Petty.

For many of us, we'd be totally different people than we are today were it not for the heroics of these individuals. Many of these figures were inspirations for us not only on the field, but also in the classroom and life in general.

The athlete—the person who competes for a living at the games we follow for fun—allows professional sports to flourish. They are the nucleus of the entire operation.

In recent times, fans and journalists alike have become fond of lashing out against professional athletes. This is somewhat understandable given the astronomical salaries many top stars are paid and the crummy attitudes of certain individuals who act more like spoiled children then stand-up role models.

But it's important to give credit where credit is due—by and large, professional athletes deserve our respect because they play the games we love at the most competitive level.

Remember that for every Pacman Jones, there's a Dwayne Wade. For every player who slacks off or gets arrested, there are ten others who are watching film, rallying their teammates, and working 24/7 to be the best in the world at what they do.

Sometimes we as fans have the pleasure of watching athletes who are simply a cut above the rest. The performances of these men and women send chills down our spine and inspire us to do great things in our personal lives.

Jerry Rice and his unmatchable skill for to run patterns to a T; Rod Laver and his brilliant passing shots and play on all surfaces. Bobby Orr and his ability to turn the outcome of a game in his team's favor.

Many sports leagues have created various Halls of Fame to honor these individuals—fans thus have the ability to visit Canton, Ohio or Cooperstown, New York to celebrate the history of their favorite games and the legends that made it all possible.

One sport that has failed to produce a substantial Hall of Fame is that of Formula One Open Wheel Racing. To say this is a shame is quite an understatement.

F1 is one of the most popular professional sports leagues in the world, with as rabid of a fan base as any. The sport has no shortage of stars in its history—from Juan Manuel Fangio to Aryton Senna to Michael Schumacher.

Yet for whatever reason, Formula One has not invested its time in honoring such legends properly. All they have in the way of a Hall of Fame is an online directory of every league champion, which can be found here: http://www.formula1.com/teams_and_drivers/hall_of_fame/

Pathetic right?

Meanwhile, Bleacher Report's F1 Community is one of the network's strongest. The arguments are fierce, and the collective knowledge of the sport from the Community's key contributors is simply superb.

As such, it is my great pleasure to announce the introduction of Bleacher Report's Formula One Hall of Fame.

The procedure is simple: every two weeks, a committee of B/R's Formula One experts will determine a list of nominees for induction. The F1 Community at large will then vote on the nominees and enshrine the two drivers who receive the most "Yea" votes.

Various members of the Community will then be asked to write biographies and tributes to the drivers, promoters, owners, designers, and commissioners that have made the sport what it is today.

Much like the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame, the committee has decided to induct two drivers alongside the cutting of the F1 HOF ribbon to get things going. For the announcement of these first two driving legends, I give you none other than Auto Racing Leader and everyones friend, L J Burgess.