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| Tazio Nuvolari | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Nuvolari at the Belgrade Grand Prix in 1939 | |||||||
| Born | Tazio Giorgio Nuvolari (1892-11-16)16 November 1892 Castel d'Ario,Lombardy, Kingdom of Italy | ||||||
| Died | 11 August 1953(1953-08-11) (aged 60) | ||||||
| Championship titles | |||||||
| AIACREuropean Drivers' Championship (1932) Major victories Monaco Grand Prix (1932) 24 Hours of Le Mans (1933) Vanderbilt Cup (1936) | |||||||
| European Championship career | |||||||
| Years active | 1931–1932,1935–1939 | ||||||
| Teams | Alfa Romeo,Ferrari,Auto Union | ||||||
| Starts | 26 | ||||||
| Championships | 1(1932) | ||||||
| Wins | 4 | ||||||
| Podiums | 7 | ||||||
| Poles | 0 | ||||||
| Fastest laps | 4 | ||||||
| Champ Car career | |||||||
| 2 races run over 2 years | |||||||
| Best finish | 5th (1936) | ||||||
| First race | 1936Vanderbilt Cup (Westbury) | ||||||
| Last race | 1937Vanderbilt Cup (Westbury) | ||||||
| First win | 1936Vanderbilt Cup (Westbury) | ||||||
| |||||||
| 24 Hours of Le Mans career | |||||||
| Years | 1933 | ||||||
| Teams | Sommer | ||||||
| Best finish | 1st(1933) | ||||||
| Class wins | 1(1933) | ||||||
Tazio Giorgio Nuvolari (Italian:[ˈtattsjoˈdʒordʒonuvoˈlaːri]; 16 November 1892 – 11 August 1953) was an Italianracing driver. He first racedmotorcycles and then concentrated onsports cars andGrand Prix racing. Originally ofMantua, he was nicknamedil Mantovano Volante ("the Flying Mantuan") andNuvola ("Cloud"). His victories—72 major races, 150 in all[1]—included 24Grands Prix, fiveCoppa Cianos, twoMille Miglias, twoTarga Florios, twoRAC Tourist Trophies, aLe Mans 24-hour race, and aEuropean Championship in Grand Prix racing.Ferdinand Porsche called him "the greatest driver of the past, the present, and the future".[2]
Nuvolari startedracing motorcycles in 1920 at the age of 27, winning the 1925350cc European Championship. Having raced cars as well as motorcycles from 1925 until 1930, he then concentrated on cars, and won the 1932 European Championship with theAlfa Romeo factory team,Alfa Corse.
After Alfa Romeo officially withdrew from Grand Prix racing, Nuvolari drove forScuderia Ferrari. The team was owned byEnzo Ferrari, who ran the Alfa Romeo cars semi-officially. In 1933, Nuvolari won Le Mans in an Alfa Romeo as a member of Ferrari's team, and a month later won the Belgian Grand Prix in a worksMaserati, having switched teams a week before the race.[3]Mussolini helped persuade Ferrari to take Nuvolari back for 1935, and in that year he won theGerman Grand Prix in Ferrari's outdatedAlfa Romeo, defeating more powerful rivals fromMercedes-Benz andAuto Union. It was the only time a non-German car won a European Championship race from 1935 to 1939.
The relationship with Ferrari deteriorated during 1937, and Nuvolari raced an Auto Union in that year'sSwiss Grand Prix. He rejoined the Auto Union team for the 1938 season and stayed with them through 1939 until Grand Prix racing was put on hiatus byWorld War II. The only major European race he never won was theCzechoslovakian Grand Prix.
When Nuvolari resumed racing after the war he was 54 and in poor health. In his final appearance in competition, driving aCisitalia-Abarth Tipo 204A at aPalermo hillclimb on 10 April 1950, he won his class and placed fifth overall. He died in 1953 from a stroke.
Nuvolari was born inCastel d'Ario, nearMantua, on 16 November 1892 toArturo Nuvolari and his wife Elisa Zorzi.[4] The family was well acquainted with motor racing, as Arturo and his brotherGiuseppe were both bicycle racers—Giuseppe was a multiple winner of the Italian national championship and was particularly admired by a young Tazio.[4]
Nuvolari was married to Carolina Perina, and together they had two children: Giorgio (born 4 September 1918), who died in 1937 aged 19 frommyocarditis,[5] and Alberto, who died in 1946 aged 18 fromnephritis.[6]
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 inWorld War I, and in 1920[7] took part in his first motorcycle race at the Circuito Internazionale Motoristico inCremona[4] but did not finish.[8] He also raced cars, winning the Coppa Verona reliability trial in 1921.[8]
In 1925, Nuvolari 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 designatedEuropean Champions.[9] He won theNations 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 aBianchi motorcycle.[11]
It was also in 1925 thatAlfa Romeo, seeking a driver to replaceAntonio Ascari, who had been killed in theFrench Grand Prix in July, tested Nuvolari in their Grand Prix car with a view to running him in theItalian Grand Prix in September. He crashed when the gearbox seized,[12] and severelylacerated 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 atMonza.[14][12]
1930
In 1930, Nuvolari won his firstRAC 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 toSammy 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 theSicilianTarga Florio he said toEnzo Ferrari, "What a strange businessman you are. What if I am brought back in a coffin?".
Nuvolari and co-driverBattista Guidotti won theMille Miglia in aZagato-bodiedAlfa 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 teammateAchille 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 atBrescia.[16]
1931
Towards the end of 1930, Nuvolari decided to stop racing motorcycles and concentrate fully on cars for 1931.[12] Regulations for theseason required Grand Prix races to be at least 10 hours long.[17] For theItalian Grand Prix, Nuvolari was to share anAlfa Romeo withBaconin Borzacchini. The car started from ninth place on the grid, and when it retired with mechanical problems after 33 laps Nuvolari teamed up withGiuseppe Campari. The pair took the race win,[18] although Nuvolari could not receive the championship points. Apart from theBelgian Grand Prix, where he came second, the only otherEuropean Championship race was theFrench Grand Prix, where he finished 11th. The same year, he won both theCoppa Ciano atLivorno and the arduousTarga Florio, which was run on the 92-mile (146 km)Grande variant of the super-twisty course that year.
1932
For1932, 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, theAlfa 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 prestigiousMonaco Grand Prix and a secondTarga 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'scenter 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 1932, the writerGabriele d'Annunzio gave him a golden tortoise badge. Thereafter Nuvolari wore it as a talisman, and it became famously associated with him, along with his initialled yellow jumper.
"Tazio Nuvolari was not simply a racing driver. To Italy he became an idol, a demi-god, a legend, epitomising all that young Italy aspired to be; the man who 'did the impossible', not once but habitually, the David who slew the Goliaths in the great sport of motor racing. He was Il Maestro."
1933
The1933 season began a two-year hiatus in the European Championship, and although Alfa Romeo ceased official involvement in Grands Prix their cars continued racing withEnzo Ferrari'sprivateer 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 theTripoli Grand Prix. The story is that he conspired withAchille Varzi andBaconin 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 withAlfred Neubauer, theMercedes-Benz team manager at the time, who was well known as araconteur 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, andBorzacchini agreed to pool the prize money should one of them win.[22]
For the1933 24 Hours of Le Mans, Alfa Romeo teamed Nuvolari withRaymond 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
"Let any who say it was foolhardy at least be honest and admit it was one of the finest exhibitions of pluck and grit ever seen. By such men are victories won!"
In April 1934 Nuvolari entered theMonaco Grand Prix in a privately ownedBugatti 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 atAlessandria in theCircuito diPietro Bordino race, he crashed and broke a leg: balked byTrossi'sAlfa Romeo P3, he lost control of his privately enteredMaserati 8CM, which skidded, rolled, and hit a tree.[25] Bored in hospital, he decided to enter theAVUS-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 bycramp, he finished fifth.[13]
By the time of thePenya 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 theItalian Grand Prix, he debuted Maserati's new 6C-34 model. It performed poorly and Nuvolari could finish only fifth, three laps behind theMercedes-Benz W25s ofCaracciola andFagioli, and also trailing theAuto Union As ofStuck and Leiningen, and theAlfa Romeo P3s ofTrossi,Comotti, andChiron.[28]
At the end of September, he finished third in theCzechoslovakian Grand Prix (Masaryk Circuit), behind Caracciola and Stuck.[29]
1935
For1935, Nuvolari set his sights on a drive with the GermanAuto Union team.[30] It lacked top-line drivers but relented to pressure fromAchille 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 ministerMussolini 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 theGerman Grand Prix at theNürburgring, he beat all the dominant German cars—fiveMercedes-Benz W25s (3990 cc, 8C, supercharged, 375 hp (280 kW) driven by Caracciola, Fagioli,Lang,von Brauchitsch, and Geyer), and fourAuto Union Bs (4950 cc, 16C, supercharged, 375 hp (280 kW) driven byRosemeyer, Varzi,Stuck, andPietsch). The crowd of 300,000 applauded Nuvolari, but the representatives ofNazi Germany 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] In October, he traveled to the U.S. for theAmerican Automobile Association (AAA) sanctionedVanderbilt Cup. Starting eighth, Nuvolari took the lead fromAntonio Brivio on the second lap of the 75-lap event, leading from then until the finish.[35][36]
1937
At the beginning of1937, Alfa Romeo took its works team back from Ferrari and entered it as part of theAlfa Corse team.[37] Nuvolari stayed with Alfa Romeo despite becoming increasingly frustrated with the poor build quality of its racing cars.[38]
At theCoppa Acerbo, Alfa Romeo's new 12C-37 car proved to be slow and unreliable. Frustrated, Nuvolari handed his car over toGiuseppe Farina mid-race. Not wanting to leave Alfa Romeo, he drove an Auto Union in the Swiss Grand Prix as a one-off. After theItalian Grand Prix, Alfa Romeo withdrew from racing for the remainder of the season and dismissedVittorio Jano, its chief designer.[38]
1938
Although Nuvolari started1938 as an Alfa Romeo driver, a split fuel tank in the first race of the season atPau 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 theTripoli 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.[39] Nuvolari found further success with Auto Union; now driving a faster and more reliable car that enabled him to compete for victories and the European Championship, Nuvolari won his home Grand Prix at Monza and won the Donington Grand Prix in England.
1939
In1939, Nuvolari wonBelgrade Grand Prix which was held on 3 September 1939, the last one before outbreak ofWorld War II.[40]
In 1946, Nuvolari took part in thirteen races, winning the Grand Prix of Albi in aMaserati 4CL, finishing 4th in the Grand Prix of Nations and 13th in the Coppa Brezzi, and retiring from the others.[26] It was noted that when he raced at Milan in September, he steered with mostly one hand; the other held a bloodstained handkerchief over his mouth.[12]
Through 1947 and 1948, Nuvolari raced eleven times, winning twice. He finished 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 7th, and retired from the remaining five races. His Maserati did not qualify for the 1949 Marseilles Grand Prix.[26] Battered by health problems as well as the loss of his two sons, Nuvolari was nevertheless persuaded by Enzo Ferrari to race in the 1948 edition of the Mille Miglia. Paired with mechanic Sergio Scapinelli, Nuvolari took the lead in the early stages of the race. He was eventually forced to retire the car inReggio Emilia when he had a 27-minutes lead.[41]
Nuvolari's last appearance in competition was at the Palermo-Montepellegrino hillclimb on 10 April 1950, driving aSquadra AbarthCisitalia-Abarth 204. He won his class and finished fifth overall.[5]
"…there will never be another Nuvolari and I shall always think of him as incomparable, the greatest of them all."
Nuvolari never formally announced his retirement, but his health deteriorated and he became increasingly solitary.[5] In 1952 a stroke left him partially paralysed, and he died in bed a year later from a second one.[43] Between 25,000 and 55,000 people, at least half the population of Mantua, attended his funeral[19] in a mile-long procession, with the coffin placed on a car chassis that was pushed byAlberto Ascari,Luigi Villoresi, andJuan Manuel Fangio.[43] He is buried in the family tomb in the Cimitero Degli Angeli, on the road from Mantua to Cremona. The inscription over the door reads:Correrai Ancor Più Veloce Per Le Vie Del Cielo (Italian for 'You will race even faster along the roads of heaven').[44]
The Museum Tazio Nuvolari is located in his homestead at Giulia Romano via N. Sauro in Mantua.[45]
In Castel d'Ario there is a bronze statue of Nuvolari on a marble plinth inscribedNivola – Campione Automobilistico di Tutti Tempi (Nivola – Champion Driver of All Time); and at the end of Mantua's Via delle Rimembranze, the street where he lived towards the end of his life, is a square that is now called Piazza Nuvolari.[44]
TheCisitalia 202 SMM Nuvolari Spider,[46]EAM Nuvolari S1, andAudi Nuvolari Quattro are named after him,[47] and Maserati offers the colour Grigio-Nuvolari from their custom palette.
Nuvolari was an early exponent (if not the inventor, according to Enzo Ferrari) of the four-wheel drift cornering technique which was later utilised by drivers such asStirling Moss.[15]
AnItalian pay-TV channel featuring motor sports is also named "Nuvolari".
The online video interview platformTazio is named after him.
In the 1961The Twilight Zone episode, "A Game of Pool", Nuvolari is referenced byJonathan Winters (Fats Brown) when talking toJack Klugman (Jessie Cardiff) about great men in history.
Nuvolari was mentioned in 1969 comedy filmMonte Carlo or Bust! when Angelo Pincilli and Marcelo Agosti, two Italian policemen taking part in the Monte Carlo Rally, hope to become as famous as Nuvolari and land speed record holderMalcolm Campbell by winning the race.
The 1976 albumAutomobili by Italian singer-songwriterLucio Dalla, included the song "Nuvolari", with lyrics by poetRoberto Roversi.
ASix Metre racing yacht built in the 1978 for Luca and Tony Bassani was named Nuvolari in honour of the racing driver. That yacht was restored in 2016 and currently races in Victoria, BC.
(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | EDC | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1931 | SA Alfa Romeo | Alfa Romeo Type A | Alfa Romeo 2x 3.5L6 | ITA 1 / ret | 5th | 13 | ||||||
| Alfa Romeo Monza | Alfa Romeo 2.3L8 | FRA 11 | ||||||||||
| Alfa Romeo8C-2300 | BEL 2 | |||||||||||
| 1932 | SA Alfa Romeo | Alfa RomeoTipo B/P3 | Alfa Romeo 2.6L8 | ITA 1 | FRA 1 | GER 2 | 1st | 4 | ||||
| 1935 | Scuderia Ferrari | Alfa RomeoTipo B/P3 | Alfa Romeo 3.2L8 | MON Ret | FRA Ret | BEL | GER 1 | SUI 5 | 4th | 35 | ||
| Alfa Romeo8C-35 | Alfa Romeo 3.8L8 | ITA Ret | ESP Ret | |||||||||
| 1936 | Scuderia Ferrari | Alfa Romeo8C-35 | Alfa Romeo 3.8L8 | MON 4 | 3rd | 17 | ||||||
| Alfa Romeo12C 1936 | Alfa Romeo 4.1V12 | GER Ret | SUI Ret | ITA 2 | ||||||||
| 1937 | Scuderia Ferrari | Alfa Romeo12C-36 | Alfa Romeo 4.1V12 | BEL | GER 4 | MON | ITA 7 | 7th | 28 | |||
| Auto Union AG | Auto UnionC | Auto Union 6.0V16 | SUI 5 | |||||||||
| 1938 | Auto Union AG | Auto UnionD | Auto Union 3.0V12 | FRA | GER Ret | SUI 9 | ITA 1 | 5th | 20 | |||
| 1939 | Auto Union AG | Auto UnionD | Auto Union 3.0V12 | BEL Ret | FRA Ret | GER Ret | SUI 5 | 4th | 19 | |||
Source:[48] | ||||||||||||
(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position; races initalics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1948 | Cisitalia Spa | CisitaliaD46 | Fiat 1.1L4 | MON Ret | SUI | ||
| Scuderia Ambrosiana | Maserati4CLT/48 | Maserati 4CLT 1.5L4s | FRA 7 | ITA | |||
Source:[49] | |||||||
| Year | Team | Co-Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Pos. | Class Pos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1933 |  Raymond Sommer | Raymond Sommer | Alfa Romeo 8C 2300MM | 3.0 | 233 | 1st | 1st |
Source:[50] | |||||||
| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | 500cc Italian Motorcycle Champion 1924 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | 350cc European Motorcycle Champion 1925 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | 350cc Italian Motorcycle Champion 1926 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Winner of the Mille Miglia 1930with: Battista Guidotti | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | European Drivers' Champion 1932 | Succeeded by Rudolf Caracciola (1935) |
| Preceded by | Winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans 1933with: Raymond Sommer | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Winner of the Mille Miglia 1933with: Decimo Compagnoni | Succeeded by |
