1939 Grand Prix season

1939 AIACR European Championship season
European Champion None Officially undeclared due to outbreak of war^[1]
Previous: 1938	Next: none

1939 Grand Prix season
Previous: 1938	Next: 1940–1945
Last full season before wartime.

The 1939 Grand Prix season was the seventh AIACR European Championship season. The championship winner was never officially announced by the AIACR due to the outbreak of [World War II less than two weeks after the final event in Switzerland. The Italian GP initially had been a fifth event, but it became clear well before the war that it would be cancelled due to construction work. At that time, it was also undecided which scoring system would be used, the old minimum points system that basically counted positions, or the French maximum points system similar to the modern one. Although Hermann Paul Müller would have won the championship on points according to the old system, the president of Nazi Germany's highest motorsports organisation declared Hermann Lang the champion.^[1] Lang was clearly the dominating driver in that season, which was acknowledged by the international press. In the first two of the four championship events, both Lang and Müller won once while the other failed to complete 75% of the distance. The German round saw Lang retiring early, and Müller finishing 2nd behind Carraciola. This left Müller in the lead in both scoring systems, as published in magazines, with the Swiss round deciding the outcome. Müller finished 4th behind three Mercedes, which gave him the lead in the old point system, while in front, Lang had beaten Carraciola for the lead in the maximum points system.

Season review[]

European Championship Grands Prix[]

Rd	Name	Circuit	Date	Winning drivers	Winning constructor	Report
1	Belgian Grand Prix	Spa-Francorchamps	June 25	Hermann Lang	Mercedes-Benz	Report
2	French Grand Prix	Reims-Gueux	July 9	Hermann Paul Müller	Auto Union	Report
3	German Grand Prix	Nürburgring	July 23	Rudolf Caracciola	Mercedes-Benz	Report
4	Swiss Grand Prix	Bremgarten	August 20	Hermann Lang	Mercedes-Benz	Report

Non-championship Grands Prix[]

Grandes Épreuves are denoted by a yellow background.

Name	Circuit	Date	Winning driver	Winning constructor	Report
Pau Grand Prix	Pau	April 2	Hermann Lang	Mercedes-Benz	Report
Road Championship	Brooklands	April 10	Arthur Dobson	ERA	Report
Paris Cup	Montlhéry	May 7	Jean-Pierre Wimille	Bugatti	Report
Finnish Grand Prix	Eläintarharata	May 7	Adolf Westerblom	Alfa Romeo	Report
Eifelrennen	Nürburgring	May 21	Hermann Lang	Mercedes-Benz	Report
Grand Prix des Frontières	Chimay	May 28	Maurice Trintignant	Bugatti	Report
Bucharest Grand Prix	Bucharest	June 25	Hans Stuck	Auto Union	Report
Remparts Grand Prix	Angoulême	July 30	Raymond Sommer	Alfa Romeo	Report
Campbell Trophy	Brooklands	August 7	Raymond Mays	ERA	Report
Belgrade City Race	Belgrade	September 3	Tazio Nuvolari	Auto Union	Report
Gávea Nacional Circuit	Gávea	October 29	Manuel de Teffé	Maserati	Report

Unofficial Championship Standings[]

Pos	Driver	BEL	FRA	GER	SUI	Pts^[2]
1	Hermann Paul Müller	Ret	1	2	4	12
2	Hermann Lang	1	Ret	Ret	1	14
3	Rudolf Caracciola	Ret	Ret	1	2	17
4	Manfred von Brauchitsch	3	Ret	Ret	3	19
=	Tazio Nuvolari	Ret	Ret	Ret	5	19
6	Rudolf Hasse	2		Ret	Ret	20
=	René Dreyfus		7	4	8	20
8	Georg Meier	Ret	2	Ret		22
9	Raymond Sommer	4	5	Ret		23
=	Hans Stuck		6	Ret	10	23
11	Robert Mazaud	5		6		24
=	"Raph"		9	5		24
13	Giuseppe Farina	Ret			7	25
14	Paul Pietsch			3	Ret	26
15	René Le Bègue		3			27
16	Louis Gérard	6				28
=	Philippe Étancelin		4			28
=	Luigi Chinetti		8			28
=	Leonhard Joa			7		28
=	Hans Hartmann				6	28
=	Clemente Biondetti				9	28
=	Kenneth Evans				11	28
=	John Wakefield				12	28
=	Robert Ansell				13	28
25	Richard Seaman	Ret				29
=	Adolfo Mandirola	Ret		DSQ		29
=	Toulo de Graffenried				Ret	29
28	Yves Matra		Ret			30
=	Luigi Villoresi			Ret		30
30	Raymond Mays		Ret			31
=	Heinz Brendel			Ret		31
=	Giovanni Rocco				Ret	31
Pos	Driver	BEL	FRA	GER	SUI	Pts

Template:EC driver results legend

References[]

Etzrodt, Hans. "Grand Prix Winners 1895-1949 : Part 3 (1934-1949)". The Golden Era of Grand Prix Racing. http://www.kolumbus.fi/leif.snellman/gpw3.htm. Retrieved 2007-08-05.

Leif Snellman and Hans Etzrodt. "1939". The Golden Era of Grand Prix Racing. http://www.kolumbus.fi/leif.snellman/gp39.htm. Retrieved 2007-08-05.

Galpin, Darren. "1939 Grands Prix". The GEL Motorsport Information Page. http://www.teamdan.com/archive/gen/1939.html. Retrieved 2007-08-05.

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Armstrong, Richard. "Unfinished Symphony: Why the 1939 European Championship was never won". 8W. http://8w.forix.com/ec1939.html. Retrieved 2007-08-05.
↑ according to the old minimum points system

Template:European Championship (auto racing)

Grand Prix seasons
Pre-1906 1906 • 1907 • 1908 • 1909 • 1910 • 1911 • 1912 • 1913 • 1914 • 1915 1916 • World War I • 1919 • 1920 • 1921 • 1922 • 1923 • 1924 • 1925 1926 • 1927 • 1928 • 1929 • 1930 • 1931 • 1932 • 1933 • 1934 • 1935 1936 • 1937 • 1938 • 1939 • 1940–1945 (sporadic wartime events) 1946 • 1947 • 1948 • 1949

This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at 1939 Grand Prix season. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Autopedia, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.

[forix-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Armstrong, Richard. "Unfinished Symphony: Why the 1939 European Championship was never won". 8W. http://8w.forix.com/ec1939.html. Retrieved 2007-08-05.

[2] rding to the old minimum points system

[1]

[2]