1937 Grand Prix season

The 1937 Grand Prix season was the fifth AIACR European Championship season. The championship was won by Rudolf Caracciola, driving for the Mercedes-Benz team. Caracciola won three of the five events that counted towards the championship.

This season saw the most powerful Grand Prix cars so far, Mercedes-Benz supercharged 5.6L inline-8 engines boasting nearly 650 bhp. Considering that an average saloon car produced around 25 bhp at the time, the performance of these single-seaters was extremely high compared with any other season in modern motorsport; so much so that for the first time ever, regulations were put in force for the following year to limit the engines' size capacity to reduce their power and to add weight to the cars to make them slower. Mercedes-Benz's development of their technology was thanks almost entirely to the state-subsidies that they were receiving from the Nazi German government at the time. The amount of power the supercharged Mercedes-Benz W125's had was not equaled in racing cars until American Can-Am cars in the late 1960s, and European Grand Prix cars did not have this kind of power again until the early 1980s (a span of nearly 45 years), when Grand Prix racing had long since become Formula One.

Season review

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European Championship Grands Prix

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Rd Date Name Circuit Winning drivers Winning constructor Report
1 11 July   Belgian Grand Prix Spa-Francorchamps   Rudolf Hasse Auto Union Report
2 25 July   German Grand Prix Nürburgring   Rudolf Caracciola Mercedes-Benz Report
3 8 August   Monaco Grand Prix Monaco   Manfred von Brauchitsch Mercedes-Benz Report
4 22 August   Swiss Grand Prix Bremgarten   Rudolf Caracciola Mercedes-Benz Report
5 12 September   Italian Grand Prix Livorno   Rudolf Caracciola Mercedes-Benz Report

Non-championship Grands Prix

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Date Name Circuit Winning driver Winning constructor Report
January ?   Grosnevor Grand Prix Grosnevor, South Africa   Ernst von Delius Auto Union Report
14 February   Flatenloppet Flaten, Stockholm   Eugen Bjørnstad Alfa Romeo Report
18 April   Valentino Grand Prix Turin   Antonio Brivio Alfa Romeo Report
25 April   Naples Grand Prix Posillipo   Giuseppe Farina Alfa Romeo Report
1 May   Campbell Trophy Brooklands   Prince Bira Maserati Report
9 May   Tripoli Grand Prix Mellaha   Hermann Lang Mercedes-Benz Report
9 May   Eläintarhan ajot Eläintarharata   Hans Rüesch Alfa Romeo Report
16 May   Grand Prix des Frontières Chimay   Hans Rüesch Alfa Romeo Report
30 May   Avusrennen AVUS   Hermann Lang Mercedes-Benz Report
30 May   Superba Circuit Genoa   Carlo Felice Trossi Alfa Romeo Report
30 May   Bucharest Grand Prix Bucharest   Hans Rüesch Alfa Romeo Report
6 June   Rio de Janeiro Grand Prix Gávea   Carlo Maria Pintacuda Alfa Romeo Report
13 June   Eifelrennen Nürburgring   Bernd Rosemeyer Auto Union Report
20 June   Milan Grand Prix Milan   Tazio Nuvolari Alfa Romeo Report
5 July   Vanderbilt Cup Roosevelt Raceway   Bernd Rosemeyer Auto Union Report
25 July   San Remo Grand Prix San Remo Circuit   Achille Varzi Maserati Report
25 July   Vila Real Circuit Vila Real   Vasco Sameiro Alfa Romeo Report
15 August   Coppa Acerbo Pescara   Bernd Rosemeyer Auto Union Report
15 August   Estoril Circuit Estoril   Manoel de Oliveira Ford Report
28 August   Junior Car Club 200 mile race Donington Park   Arthur Dobson ERA Report
26 September   Masaryk Grand Prix Brno   Rudolf Caracciola Mercedes-Benz Report
2 October   Donington Grand Prix Donington Park   Bernd Rosemeyer Auto Union Report
16 October   Mountain Championship Brooklands   Hans Rüesch Alfa Romeo Report
31 October   Kalastajatorpanajo Helsinki   Karl Ebb Mercedes-Benz Report

Championship final standings

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Pos Driver BEL
 
GER
 
MON
 
SUI
 
ITA
 
Pts
1   Rudolf Caracciola 1 2 1 1 13
2   Manfred von Brauchitsch Ret 2 1 3 Ret 15
3   Hermann Lang 3 7 2 2 19
=   Christian Kautz 4 6 3 6 Ret 19
5   Hans Stuck 2 Ret 4 4 9 20
6   Raymond Sommer 5 Ret 7 8 27
7   Rudolf Hasse 1 5 Ret 28
=   Bernd Rosemeyer 3 Ret Ret 3 28
=   Tazio Nuvolari 4 5 7 28
=   Giuseppe Farina Ret 6 Ret Ret 28
11   László Hartmann Ret Ret 9 29
12   Hans Rüesch 8 8 Ret 31
13   Vittorio Belmondo 12 10 32
14   Hermann Paul Müller Ret Ret 5 33
15   Richard Seaman Ret 4 34
=   Clemente Biondetti Ret Ret 34
17   Luigi Soffietti Ret Ret 35
=   Carlo Felice Trossi Ret 8 35
=   Paul Pietsch Ret 10 35
20   Kenneth Evans 9 36
=   Ernõ Festetics 10 36
=   Attilio Marinoni 11 36
=   Giovanni Minozzi Ret Ret 36
=   Goffredo Zehender 5 36
=   Carlo Maria Pintacuda 9 36
=   Luigi Fagioli 7 36
=   Achille Varzi 6 36
28   Henri Simonet Ret 37
=   Adolfo Mandirola Ret 37
30   Franco Cortese Ret 38
=   Ernst von Delius Ret 38
=   Giovanbattista Guidotti Ret 38
33   Francesco Severi Ret 39
=   Renato Balestrero Ret 39
=   Edoardo Teagno Ret 39
=   Antonio Brivio Ret 39
=   Max Christen Ret 39
Pos Driver BEL
 
GER
 
MON
 
SUI
 
ITA
 
Pts
Colour Result Points
Gold Winner 1
Silver 2nd place 2
Bronze 3rd place 3
Green Completed more than 75% 4
Blue Completed between 50% and 75% 5
Purple Completed between 25% and 50% 6
Red Completed less than 25% 7
Black Disqualified 8
Blank Did not participate 8

References

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  • Etzrodt, Hans. "Grand Prix Winners 1895–1949 : Part 3 (1934–1949)". The Golden Era of Grand Prix Racing. Archived from the original on 6 August 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-05.
  • Leif Snellman and Hans Etzrodt. "1937". The Golden Era of Grand Prix Racing. Archived from the original on 2022-05-05. Retrieved 2007-08-05.
  • Galpin, Darren. "1937 Grands Prix". The GEL Motorsport Information Page. Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2007-08-05.