Doug Nye

As reverberations persist from Red Bull’s Malaysian Grand Prix wrong-way-around 1-2 finish, consider for a moment the 1937 Monaco GP. No two-way radios then, just increasingly frantic pit signals and increasingly disapproving body language — which means plenty of it — from Daimler-Benz team manager Alfred Neubauer.

Without radio there was no possibility of debate, no “What about Multi 21?” from the aggrieved predecessor of Mark Webber that day — Mercedes-Benz number one driver, Rudi Caracciola. The naughty boy ignoring team orders was Manfred von Brauchitsch, hardly a slip of a lad like Sebastian Vettel — but certainly another fine example of a self-possessed, ruthlessly ambitious German racing driver in whom the sportsmanship part of the chip has apparently never been installed.

The psychological problem with these people is that once race-rage has been activated in those blessed with extreme levels of combative talent, they become more driven than driver. As ‘Lofty’ England once remarked to me, “The silly buggers simply cannot help it…”

Consider that long-gone 1937 Monaco GP. Perhaps to a greater degree than Red Bull Racing 2013, there had been friction bubbling for some time very near the surface within Mercedes’ driver team. Caracciola then aged 36 was the established, accepted but now beginning to age number one, while Brauchitsch at 32 had long played second fiddle, and it grated. “Browk” was the nephew of Generalfeldmarschall Walther von Brauchitsch, a favourite of Hitler’s, then head of the Fourth Army Group and soon to be appointed Commander of the Heer the entire German Army. Brauchitsch’s aristocratic self-esteem was near high-tide and although Caracciola’s roots were decidedly middle-class his family ran a hotel in Remagen on the Rhine these two senior drivers generally gravitated together within the team. They were Mercedes’ longest-serving star drivers. In succession they had felt increasingly threatened, and then quite literally outclassed, by engine mechanic-turneddriver Hermann Lang and by English newcomer Dick Seaman, most decidedly a privately wealthy public school toff.

But at the time of that Monaco GP, neither Lang nor Seaman could drive, the German stricken by influenza while the Englishman was recovering from his German GP collision in which Auto Union driver Ernst von Delius had been killed. Seaman himself had broken his nose and thumb and suffered cuts and contusions. So drivers of the third and fourth works Mercedes-Benz W125s at Monte Carlo were Goffredo Zehender and Christian Kautz.

On race day, Caracciola led the Grand Prix initially from Brauchitsch and the Auto Unions of Rosemeyer and Stuck. The Mercedes duo drew some 15 seconds clear of Rosemeyer, before the exuberant young ex-DKW team motorcyclist rushed back onto Brauchitsch’s tail only for his Auto Union to career into a trackside barrier. This elevated Kautz’s Mercedes into third place, while Brauchitsch began throwing his car around in huge power slides to catch Caracciola. He broke the lap record on lap 21 and Caracciola responded, “pushing hard” as Vettel and Webber would say, though the Aussie today would almost certainly add an unnecessary “yeah”. Brauchitsch was leading when Caracciola made a 3min 15sec pitstop to cure misfiring.

But once back in the fray, Caracciola simply blasted around Monte Carlo, determined to recatch Brauchitsch.

On lap 55 he unlapped himself, then ripped into his team-mate’s advantage. On lap 69 Brauchitsch stopped for fuel and tyres. But while he was stationary a front brake seized and had to be freed. Brauchitsch finally rejoined only just in front of Caracciola.

It was at this point that a ferocious bare-knuckle duel erupted between the German pair. Caracciola was lungeing and sniping to get by, Brauchitsch using all the road, the kerbs and more to stay ahead. Each time past the pits, Neubauer furiously signalled Brauchitsch to let Caracciola pass. Caracciola was shaking his fist, Brauchitsch pointedly ignoring him. Even Caracciola’s mechanics got in on the act, frantically waving Brauchitsch down, while his own mechanics grinned quietly and sat on their hands…

Neubauer’s complexion shaded from red to purple as Brauchitsch not only ignored the ‘slow’ and ‘change places’ signals but stuck out his tongue at the portly team manager as he hurtled past the pits. Brauchitsch knew that Caracciola needed another tyre change and on lap 80 he finally let his team leader through, before re-inheriting the lead as Caracciola made his inevitable stop next time round.

Deflated, the outcome decided on track, Neubauer shook his head and accepted the inevitable; Caracciola likewise. Manfred von Brauchitsch cruised home to win this most charismatic Grand Prix for MercedesBenz, with Caracciola second and Chris Kautz third in the W125s ahead of the leading Auto Union, co-driven by Hans Stuck and the bruised but unabashed Bernd Rosemeyer.

Brauchitsch had disobeyed express team orders, and was given the hard stare by both Neubauer and Caracciola but their disapproval went little further. A celebrity German racing driver in Germany’s prime works Grand Prix team had led home Mercedes’ 1-2-3 domination of the Monaco Grand Prix. In fact the team’s two longestserving drivers would remain united in circling their wagens against the ever more serious threat from blue-collar Lang and top-hat-and-tails Seaman. Like Sebastian Vettel, however, Brauchitsch had friends with influence in high places.

In Vettel’s case it has been Helmut Marko, but von Brauchitsch’s influence could easily trump that. Through his uncle it extended to Adolf himself

Game, set and motor race?

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