Rudolf Caracciola
Otto Wilhelm Rudolf Caracciola was a German racing driver. He won the European Drivers' Championship, the pre-1950 equivalent of the modern Formula One World Championship, an unsurpassed three times. He also won the European Hillclimbing Championship three times – twice in sports cars, and once in Grand Prix cars. Caracciola raced for Mercedes-Benz during their original dominating Silver Arrows period, named after the silver colour of the cars, and set speed records for the firm. He was affectionately dubbed Caratsch by the German public, and was known by the title of Regenmeister, or "Rainmaster", for his prowess in wet conditions.
Caracciola began racing while he was working as apprentice at the Fafnir automobile factory in Aachen during the early 1920s, first on motorcycles and then in cars. Racing for Mercedes-Benz, he won his first two Hillclimbing Championships in 1930 and 1931, and moved to Alfa Romeo for 1932, where he won the Hillclimbing Championship for the third time. In 1933, he established the privateer team Scuderia C.C. with his fellow driver Louis Chiron, but a crash in practice for the Monaco Grand Prix left him with multiple fractures of his right thigh, which ruled him out of racing for more than a year. He returned to the newly reformed Mercedes-Benz racing team in 1934, with whom he won three European Championships, in 1935, 1937 and 1938. Like most German racing drivers in the 1930s, Caracciola was a member of the Nazi paramilitary group National Socialist Motor Corps, but never a member of the Nazi Party. He returned to racing after the Second World War, but crashed in qualifying for the 1946 Indianapolis 500. A second comeback in 1952 was halted by another crash, in a sports car race in Switzerland.
After he retired, Caracciola worked as a Mercedes-Benz salesman targeting North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops stationed in Europe. He died in the German city of Kassel, after suffering liver failure. He was buried in Switzerland, where he had lived since the early 1930s. He is remembered as one of the greatest pre-1939 Grand Prix drivers, a perfectionist who excelled in all conditions. His record of six German Grand Prix wins remains unbeaten.
Early life and career
Caracciola was born in Remagen, Germany, just south of Bonn, on 30 January 1901. He was the fourth child of Maximilian and Mathilde, who ran the Hotel Fürstenberg. His ancestors had migrated during the Thirty Years' War from Naples to the German Rhineland, where Prince Bartolomeo Caracciolo had commanded the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress near Koblenz.Caracciola was interested in cars from a young age, and from his fourteenth birthday wanted to become a racing driver. He drove an early Mercedes during the First World War, and gained his driver's license before the legal age of 18. After Caracciola's graduation from school soon after the war, his father wanted him to attend university, but when he died Caracciola instead became an apprentice in the Fafnir automobile factory in Aachen.
Motorsport in Germany at the time, as in the rest of Europe, was an exclusive sport, mainly limited to the upper classes. As the sport became more professional in the early 1920s, specialist drivers, like Caracciola, began to dominate. Caracciola enjoyed his first success in motorsport while working for Fafnir, taking his NSU motorcycle to several victories in endurance events. When Fafnir decided to take part in the first race at the Automobil-Verkehrs- und Übungs-Straße track in 1922, Caracciola drove one of the works cars to fourth overall, the first in his class and the quickest Fafnir. He followed this with victory in a race at the Opelbahn in Rüsselsheim. He did not stay long in Aachen, however; in 1923, after punching a soldier from the occupying Belgian Army in a nightclub, he fled the city. He moved to Dresden, where he continued to work as a Fafnir representative. In April of that year, Caracciola won the 1923 ADAC race at the Berlin Stadium in a borrowed Ego 4 hp. In his autobiography, Caracciola said he only ever sold one car for Fafnir, but due to inflation, by the time the car was delivered, "the money was just enough to pay for the horn and two headlights".
Later in 1923, Caracciola was hired by the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft as a car salesman at their Dresden outlet. Caracciola continued racing, driving a Mercedes 6/25/40 hp to victory in four of the eight races he entered in 1923. His success continued in 1924 with the new supercharged Mercedes 1.5-litre; he won 15 races during the season, including the Klausenpass hillclimb in Switzerland. He attended the Italian Grand Prix at Monza as a reserve driver for Mercedes, but did not take part in the race. He drove his 1.5-litre to five victories in 1925, and won the hillclimbs at Kniebis and Freiburg in a Mercedes 24/100/140 hp. With his racing career becoming increasingly successful, he abandoned his plans to study mechanical engineering.
1926–1930: Breakthrough
Caracciola's breakthrough year was in 1926. The inaugural German Grand Prix was held at the AVUS track on 11 July, but the date clashed with a more prestigious race in Spain. The newly merged company Mercedes-Benz, conscious of export considerations, chose the latter race to run their main team. Hearing this, Caracciola took a short leave from his job and went to the Mercedes office in Stuttgart to ask for a car. Mercedes agreed to lend Caracciola and Adolf Rosenberger two 1923 2-litre M218s, provided they enter not as works drivers but independents. Rosenberger started well in front of the 230,000 spectators, but Caracciola stalled his engine. His riding mechanic, Eugen Salzer, jumped out and pushed the car to get it started, but by the time they began moving they had lost more than a minute to the leaders. It started to rain, and Caracciola passed many cars that had retired in the poor conditions. Rosenberger lost control at the North Curve on the eighth lap when trying to pass a slower car, and crashed into the timekeepers' box, killing all three occupants; Caracciola kept driving. In the fog and rain, he had no idea which position he was in, but resolved to keep driving so he could at least finish the race. When he finished the 20th and final lap, he was surprised to find that he had won the race. The German press dubbed him Regenmeister, or "Rainmaster", for his prowess in the wet conditions.Caracciola used the prize money——to set up a Mercedes-Benz dealership on the prestigious Kurfürstendamm in Berlin. He also married his girlfriend, Charlotte, whom he had met in 1923 while working at the Mercedes-Benz outlet in Dresden. He continued racing in domestic competitions, returning again to Freiburg to compete in the Flying Kilometre race where he set a new sports car record in the new Mercedes-Benz 2-litre Model K, and finished first. Caracciola entered the Klausenpass hillclimb and set a new touring car record; he also won the touring car class at the Semmering hillclimb before driving a newly supercharged 1914 Mercedes Grand Prix car over the same route to set the fastest time of the day for any class. The recently completed Nürburgring was the host of the 1927 Eifelrennen, a race which had been held on public roads in the Eifel mountains since 1922. Caracciola won the first race on the track, and returned to the Nürburgring a month later for the 1927 German Grand Prix, but his car broke down and the race was won by Otto Merz. However, he won 11 competitions in 1927, almost all of them in the Ferdinand Porsche-developed Mercedes-Benz Model S.
Caracciola regained his German Grand Prix title at the Nürburgring at the 1928 German Grand Prix, driving the new 7.1-litre Mercedes-Benz SS. He shared the driving with Christian Werner, who took over Caracciola's car when the latter collapsed with heat exhaustion at a pit stop. The German Grand Prix, like many other races at the time, ignored the official Grand Prix racing rules set by the Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus, which limited weight and fuel consumption, and instead ran races under a Formula Libre, or free formula. As a result, Mercedes-Benz focused less on producing Grand Prix cars and more on sports cars, and Caracciola drove the latest incarnation of this line, the SSK, at the Semmering hillclimb, and further reduced his own record on the course by half a second.
The inaugural Monaco Grand Prix was held on 14 April 1929. Caracciola, driving a 7.1-litre Mercedes-Benz SSK, started from the back row of the grid, and battled Bugatti driver William Grover-Williams for the lead early on. However, his pit stop, which took four and a half minutes to refill his car with petrol, left him unable to recover the time, and he eventually finished third. He won the RAC Tourist Trophy in slippery conditions, and confirmed his reputation as a specialist in wet track racing. He partnered Werner in the Mille Miglia and Le Mans endurance races in 1930; they finished sixth in the former but were forced to retire after leading for most of the race in the latter after their car's generator burnt out. Caracciola took victory in the 1930 Irish Grand Prix at Phoenix Park, and won four hillclimbs to take the title of European Hillclimb Champion for the first time. However, he was forced to close his dealership in Berlin after the firm went bankrupt.
1931–1932: Move to Alfa Romeo
Mercedes-Benz officially withdrew from motor racing in 1931—citing the global economic downturn as a reason for their decision—although they continued to support Caracciola and a few other drivers covertly, retaining manager Alfred Neubauer to run the 'independent' operation. In part because of the financial situation, Caracciola was the only Mercedes driver to appear at the 1931 Monaco Grand Prix, driving an SSKL. Caracciola and Maserati driver Luigi Fagioli challenged the Bugattis of Louis Chiron and Achille Varzi for the lead early in the race, but when the SSKL's clutch failed Caracciola withdrew from the race. A crowd of 100,000 turned out for the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring. Rain began to fall before the race, and continued as Caracciola chased Fagioli for the lead in the early laps. The spray from Fagioli's Maserati severely impaired Caracciola's vision, but he was able to pass to take the lead at the Schwalbenschwanz corner. The track began to dry on lap six, and Chiron's Bugatti, which was by then running second, began to catch the heavier Mercedes. Caracciola's pit stop, completed in record time, kept him ahead of Chiron, and despite the Bugatti lapping 15 seconds faster than the Mercedes late in the race, Caracciola won by more than one minute.Caracciola was lucky to escape from a crash in the Masaryk Grand Prix. He and Chiron were chasing Fagioli when Fagioli crashed into a wooden footbridge, bringing it crashing down onto the road. Caracciola and Chiron drove into a ditch at the side of the road to avoid the debris; while Chiron drove out of the ditch and was able to continue, Caracciola drove into a tree and retired. Despite this accident, Caracciola again performed strongly in the Hillclimbing Championship; he won eight climbs in his SSKL to take the title. Perhaps his most significant achievement of 1931 was his win in the Mille Miglia. The local fleet of Alfa Romeos battled for the lead early in the race, but when they fell back Caracciola in his SSKL was able to take control. His win, in record time, made him and his co-driver Wilhelm Sebastian the first foreigners to win the Italian race. The only other foreigners to win the race on the full course were Stirling Moss and Denis Jenkinson in 1955, also in a Mercedes-made car.
File:Millemiglia-Radicofani-Montalcino.jpg|thumb|alt=An old sports car drives on unsealed roads as people stand on hills around the road and watch|Caracciola driving an Alfa Romeo 8C in the 1932 Mille Miglia. The car later retired when a valve connection broke, leaving him unable to defend his 1931 title
Mercedes-Benz withdrew entirely from motor racing at the start of 1932 in the face of the economic crisis, so Caracciola moved to Alfa Romeo with a promise to return to Mercedes if they resumed racing. His contract stipulated he would begin racing for the Italian team as a semi-independent. Caracciola later wrote that the Alfa Romeo manager was defensive when he questioned him about this clause; Caracciola believed it was because the firm's Italian drivers did not believe he could adjust smoothly from the big Mercedes cars to the smaller Alfa Romeos. His first race for his new team was at the Mille Miglia; he led early in the race, but retired when a valve connection broke. Caracciola later wrote, "I can still see the expression on Campari's face when I arrived back at the factory. He smiled to himself as if to say, Well, didn't I tell you that one wasn't going to make it?"
The next race was the Monaco Grand Prix, where Caracciola was again entered as a semi-independent. He ran fourth early in the race, but moved to second as Alfa Romeo driver Baconin Borzacchini pitted for a wheel change and the axle on Achille Varzi's Bugatti broke. Tazio Nuvolari, in the other Alfa Romeo, found his lead reduced rapidly as Caracciola closed in; with ten laps remaining in the race Caracciola was so close he could see Nuvolari changing gears. He finished the race just behind Nuvolari. The crowd jeered Caracciola: they believed he had deliberately lost for the team, denying them a fight for the win. However, on the strength of his performance, Caracciola was offered a full spot on the Alfa Romeo team, which he accepted.
Alfa Romeo dominated the rest of the Grand Prix season. Nuvolari and Campari drove the light and newly introduced Alfa Romeo P3 at the Italian Grand Prix, while Borzacchini and Caracciola drove much heavier 8Cs. Caracciola was forced to retire when his car broke down, but he took over Borzacchini's car when the Italian was hit by a stone, and came third, behind Nuvolari and Fagioli. In the French Grand Prix, Caracciola, now driving a P3, battled Nuvolari for the lead early on. Alfa Romeo's dominance was so great and their cars were so far ahead the team could choose the top three finishing positions, thus Nuvolari won from Borzacchini and Caracciola, with the two Italians ahead of the German. The order was different at the 1932 German Grand Prix, where Caracciola won from Nuvolari and Borzacchini.
Caracciola performed strongly in other races; he won the Polish and Monza Grands Prix and the Eifelrennen at the Nürburgring, and took five more hill climbs to win that Championship for the third and final time. He was, however, beaten by the Mercedes-Benz of Manfred von Brauchitsch at the Avusrennen. Von Brauchitsch drove a privately entered SSK with streamlined bodywork and beat Caracciola's Alfa Romeo, which finished in second place. Caracciola was seen by the German crowd as having defected to the Italian team and was booed, while von Brauchitsch's all-German victory drew mass support.