1937 Grand Prix season
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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 boosting 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 1960's, and European Grand Prix cars did not have this kind of power again until the early 1980's (a span of nearly 45 years), when Grand Prix racing had long since become Formula One.
Season review
European Championship Grands Prix
Rd | Date | Name | Circuit | Winning drivers | Winning constructor | Report |
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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
Grandes Épreuves are denoted by a yellow background.
Date | Name | Circuit | Winning driver | Winning constructor | Report |
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14 February | Flatenloppet | Flaten, Stockholm | Eugen Bjørnstad | Alfa Romeo | Report |
18 April | Turin Circuit | Valentino Park | Antonio Brivio | Alfa Romeo | Report |
25 April | Naples Grand Prix | Posillipo | Giuseppe Farina | Alfa Romeo | Report |
1 May | Campbell Trophy | Brooklands | Prince Bira | Delage | Report |
9 May | Tripoli Grand Prix | Mellaha | Hermann Lang | Mercedes-Benz | Report |
9 May | Finnish Grand Prix | 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 |
25 July | San Remo Grand Prix | San Remo Circuit | Achille Varzi | Maserati | Report |
25 July | Vila Real Circuit | Vila Real | Vasco do 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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References
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. Retrieved 2007-08-05.
Galpin, Darren. "1937 Grands Prix". The GEL Motorsport Information Page. Retrieved 2007-08-05.