Rudi Fischer

Rudi Fischer
Born 19 April 1912(1912-04-19)
Died 30 December 1976(1976-12-30) (aged 64)
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality Swiss
Active years 1951–1952
Teams non-works Ferrari
Races 8 (7 starts)
Championships 0
Wins 0
Podiums 2
Career points 10
Pole positions 0
Fastest laps 0
First race 1951 Swiss Grand Prix
Last race 1952 Italian Grand Prix

Rudolf "Rudi" Fischer (born 19 April 1912 in Stuttgart, Germany - 30 December 1976 in Luzern) was a racing driver from Switzerland.

Fischer participated in eight World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 27 May 1951. He achieved two podiums, and scored a total of 10 championship points. He also participated in numerous non-Championship Formula One and Formula Two races.

Contents

Career

Fischer placed third in a race which marked the reopening of the AVUS, a popular Berlin, Germany motor racing venue. It was closed for a 14 year interval and was damaged during World War II. A crowd of 350,000 watched Paul Greifzu of Suhl, Thuringia, Germany, win in a car he built himself. Fischer drove a Ferrari to third place over a distance of 207.5 kilometers. His time was 1 hour, 10 minutes, 27.5 seconds.[1] In the 1952 Swiss Grand Prix, in Bern, Fischer came in 2nd to Piero Taruffi. Both drivers were in Ferraris.[2]

Écurie Espadon/Scuderia Espadon

Rudi Fisher was the leader of the "Écurie Espadon",[3] the entrant name for most of his racing career.

Écurie Espadon was composed of a group of Swiss amateur gentleman racers. The word "Écurie" was used at the beginning as most of the team's cars were French, generally Gordinis. Later the team's equipment changed to Ferraris and other Italian vehicles, thus the name of the team evolved to "Scuderia".

The team was involved in several races all over Europe, as the presentation document described.[4]

The team was composed of:


Formula One World Championship results

(key)

Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 WDC Points
1950 Écurie Espadon SVA 1500 FIAT L4 GBR
 MON
 500
 SUI
DNA		 BEL
 FRA
 ITA
 NC 0
1951 Écurie Espadon Ferrari 212 Ferrari V12 SUI
11		 500
 BEL FRA
 GBR
 GER
6		 ITA ESP NC 0
1952 Écurie Espadon Ferrari 500 Ferrari L4 SUI
2		 500
 BEL FRA
11†		 GBR
13		 GER
3		 NED
 ITA
Ret		 4th 10

† Entered and practiced in his Ferrari 500, but engine failure meant that he reverted to the previous season's 212 model for the race.[5] Drive shared with Peter Hirt.

References

  1. ^ 350,000 See Reopening of Motor RaceWay In Berlin After an Interval of 14 Years, New York Times, July 2, 1951, Page 31.
  2. ^ Swiss Auto Race to Taruffi, Los Angeles Times, May 19, 1952, Page 24.
  3. ^ [1] Presentation document Ecurie Espadon
  4. ^ [2] Team Espadon background
  5. ^ Diepraam, M (June 2001). "German F2 specials taking on Ferrari". 8W. http://www.forix.com/8w/d52.html. Retrieved 2008-04-30.