Swiss GP 1952

MAY 18, 1952

Swiss GP, 1952

The first World Championship event of the 1952 season was the Swiss Grand Prix at Bremgarten in Berne. The pre-championship season had seen attempts to continue with the existing Formula 1 flop because only the Ferrari team was competitive following the withdrawal from Grand Prix racing of Alfa Romeo. In the end it was decided that the World Championship should be run to Formula 2 regulations and there was a good turnout for the Swiss event. Ferrari had three 500s for Giuseppe Farina, Piero Taruffi and Andre Simon, Alberto Ascari being busy at Indianapolis and Gigi Villoresi out of action after a road accident. A similar car was entered by Ecurie Espadon for Rudolf Fischer and Ecurie Rosier had another for Louis Rosier. There were plans for a Maserati factory entry for Juan-Manuel Fangio and Froilan Gonzalez with A6 GCMs but they did not appear. Gordini had three cars for Jean Behra, Prince Bira and Robert Manzon and HWM entered four cars for George Abecassis, Peter Collins, Stirling Moss and Lance Macklin. There were a couple of local machines, notably Hans Stuck Sr's AFM and Toni Ulmen's Veritas-Meteor and a trio of Bristol-engined cars: Ken Wharton's Frazer Nash and two Cooper 20s entered by Ecurie Richmond for Eric Brandon and Alan Brown.

In practice Farina was fastest with Taruffi and Manzon sharing the front row. behind them were Simon and Fischer with the third row being made up of Collins, Behra and Baron Emanuel de Graffenried in an old Maserati entered by Enrico Plate. Moss was on the fourth row.

In the race Farina led until his Ferrari broke down. This left Taruffi in the lead all the way to the finish. Farina took over Simon's car but that also retired. Moss drove an impressive race early on but then had to stop leaving Behra and Simon battling for second place until Simon was called in. Behra was forced to stop because his exhaust pipe had fallen off and HE was overheating. This enabled Farina to get back into second in Simon's car before his retirement. That meant that Fischer was second, the only man not lapped by Taruffi. Behra was a gallant third with Wharton fourth.

POSNODRIVERENTRANTLAPSTIME/RETIREMENTQUAL POS
30 Piero Taruffi Ferrari 500 62 3h01m46.100s  
42 Rudolf Fischer Ferrari 500 62 3h04m23.300s  
Jean Behra Gordini T16 61  
22 Ken Wharton Frazer Nash-Bristol FN48 60  13 
26 Alan Brown Cooper-Bristol T20 59  15 
38 Emmanuel de Graffenried Maserati Plat © 4CLT 58  
44 Peter Hirt Ferrari 212 56  19 
24 Eric Brandon Cooper-Bristol T20 55  17 
10 Prince Bira Simca Gordini-Gordini T15 52 Engine 11 
r= 32 Andre Simon Ferrari 500   
r= 32 Giuseppe Farina Ferrari 500 51 Magneto  
40 Harry Schell Maserati Plat © 4CLT 31 Engine 18 
46 Stirling Moss HWM-Alta (52) 24 Withdrew 
20 Lance Macklin HWM-Alta (52) 24 Withdrew 12 
Robert Manzon Gordini T16 20 Mechanical 
28 Giuseppe Farina Ferrari 500 16 Magneto 
18 Peter Collins HWM-Alta (52) 12 Drive Shaft/ Accident 
16 George Abecassis HWM-Alta (52) 12 Drive Shaft/ Accident 10 
Toni Ulmen Veritas METEOR Fuel Tank 16 
Hans Stuck AFM-Kuchen  Engine 14 
12 Louis Rosier Ferrari 500 Accident 20 
50 Max de Terra Simca Gordini-Gordini T11 Magneto 21 
ns 14 Maurice Trintignant Ferrari 166  Engine 22