1934 Italian Grand Prix

The Italian Grand Prix was held on September 9th at the Autodromo Di Monza. In the previous year�s Grand Prix, serious accidents had taken the lives of Giuseppe Campari and two other drivers. To lessen the speeds, it was decided that the track should be shortened from 10kms to 4.3kms, with many chicanes added in. With 500kms to cover for the Grand Prix, this made for a longer, more grueling race.

Mercedes had their W25, Bugatti their Type 59, Scuderia Ferrari the Alfa P3, while Maserati introduced the new model 6C-34, to be driven by Tazio Nuvolari. The balance of their team would drive the 8CMs.

Pen&ink, markers, and pencil on archival white stock 12�x 9� � Paul Chenard 2010

Original art & limited editions available.

At the start, Hans Stuck took an early lead for Auto Union but was soon overtaken by Mercedes driver Rudolf Caracciola. His teammate Manfred Georg Rudolf von Brauchitsch was not competing, having been injured in a crash at the previous Swiss Grand Prix. Battling amongst the leaders were Luigi Fagioli (Mercedes), Archille Varzi (Alfa Romeo), Nuvolari (Maserati) and Count Carlo Felice Trossi (Alfa Romeo).

Unfortunately for Nuvolari, the Maserati mechanics forgot to top-up his car's brake fluid after weigh-in, so he slowly lost his brakes during the long race.

The 4.75 hour race, with it�s 1600 total corners, took a toll on the drivers and the cars. Fagioli, whose car broke down, later replaced Caracciola, who had to be lifted out of his car. Stuck had to be replaced by zu Leiningen, and Trossi by Comotti.

Varzi dropped out with mechanical woes, so the race finished with Caracciola/Figioli in first place, Stuck/zu Leiningen in second, with Trossi/Comotti in third. After 4th place Chiron (Alfa Romeo), Nuvolari finished a respectable 5th place, using his gears to brake for the last half of the race.

Alfa Romeo & the 1934 Grand Prix Season

The 1934 Grand Prix season introduce to the world a glimmer of the powerful government-subsidized German Grand Prix racing teams. Both Mercedes and Auto Union (formed by the racing union of Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer) brought new racers to battle, highlighting advanced technologies.

These new technologies were so new that they were not fully developed for the 1934 season. The very well organized Scuderia Ferrari developed and managed the Alfa Romeo racing cars for the company, and that season�s Alfa Romeo domination was the result; they won 18 out of a total 35 races.

Pen&ink, markers and pencil on white archival stock 12�x 9� (30.5cm x 22.9cm)

� Paul Chenard 2010
Original sketch available, as is the limited edition.

In the image above, the Scuderia Ferrari Alfa Romeo P3�s of Varzi, Chiron and Trossi are ready to race the Grand Prix de France at Montlh�ry. They came in respectively 2nd, 1st, and 3rd place.

Instrument of Racing: The Alfa Romeo Tipo B �P3� Monoposto

After the success of their P2 racer, Alfa Romeo followed it up by developing the "P3" monoposto (single-seat), also known as the Tipo B. Designed by the brilliant Vittorio Jano, it was the first genuine single-seater Grand Prix car.

Pen & ink with a watercolour pencil wash on archival white stock, 12"x 9"
� Paul Chenard 2009

Original art is available for sale, as are limited edition prints.

* The inset clover "quadrifoglio" graphic appeared on the Alfa Romeo Racing Team cars.

It was powered by a straight 8- cylinder engine, built around two 4-cylinder cast-iron blocks, each fed by a Roots supercharger. Power was transmitted to the rear wheel via twin drive-shafts.

In the hands of Tazio Nuvolari, Rudolf Caracciola, Louis Chiron, Achille Varzi, Raymond Sommer, and Ren� Dreyfus, the P3 won countless races from 1932 through to 1935.

It�s best known victory came in the hands of Nuvolari at the 1935 German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring. With the P3�s engine bored-out to 3.2 litres, he beat out the far superior machines of the Mercedes and Auto-Union teams.

Fire and Ice: the 1933 Monaco Grand Prix

Pen & ink and Prismacolor pencils on archival white stock
� Paul Chenard 2008

The 1933 Monaco Grand Prix was fought with passion and coolness. The fiery Tazio Nuvolari squared off against the cool, reserved Achille Varzi in a race-long battle to win.

Nuvolari raced a Scuderia Ferrari team Alfa Romeo 8C Monza, swapping first place with Varzi's Bugatti Type 51 during 97 of the 100 laps of the race.

On the last lap, Nuvolari's over-heating racer finally broke down just ahead of the finish line and Varzi took the checkered flag. Nuvolari pushed his car across the line, but was disqualified because he was helped by a mechanic.