1937 Grand Prix season

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 boasting 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 1960s, and European Grand Prix cars did not have this kind of power again until the early 1980s (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
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

Date	Name	Circuit	Winning driver	Winning constructor	Report
January ?	Grosnevor Grand Prix	Grosnevor, South Africa	Ernst von Delius	Auto Union	Report
14 February	Flatenloppet	Flaten, Stockholm	Eugen Bjørnstad	Alfa Romeo	Report
18 April	Valentino Grand Prix	Turin	Antonio Brivio	Alfa Romeo	Report
25 April	Naples Grand Prix	Posillipo	Giuseppe Farina	Alfa Romeo	Report
1 May	Campbell Trophy	Brooklands	Prince Bira	Maserati	Report
9 May	Tripoli Grand Prix	Mellaha	Hermann Lang	Mercedes-Benz	Report
9 May	Eläintarhan ajot	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
5 July	Vanderbilt Cup	Roosevelt Raceway	Bernd Rosemeyer	Auto Union	Report
25 July	San Remo Grand Prix	San Remo Circuit	Achille Varzi	Maserati	Report
25 July	Vila Real Circuit	Vila Real	Vasco 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

Pos	Driver	BEL	GER	MON	SUI	ITA	Pts
1	Rudolf Caracciola		1	2	1	1	13
2	Manfred von Brauchitsch	Ret	2	1	3	Ret	15
3	Hermann Lang	3	7		2	2	19
=	Christian Kautz	4	6	3	6	Ret	19
5	Hans Stuck	2	Ret	4	4	9	20
6	Raymond Sommer	5	Ret	7	8		27
7	Rudolf Hasse	1	5	Ret			28
=	Bernd Rosemeyer		3	Ret	Ret	3	28
=	Tazio Nuvolari		4		5	7	28
=	Giuseppe Farina		Ret	6	Ret	Ret	28
11	László Hartmann		Ret	Ret	9		29
12	Hans Rüesch		8	8	Ret		31
13	Vittorio Belmondo		12			10	32
14	Hermann Paul Müller	Ret	Ret			5	33
15	Richard Seaman		Ret			4	34
=	Clemente Biondetti			Ret		Ret	34
17	Luigi Soffietti		Ret	Ret			35
=	Carlo Felice Trossi	Ret				8	35
=	Paul Pietsch		Ret		10		35
20	Kenneth Evans		9				36
=	Ernõ Festetics		10				36
=	Attilio Marinoni		11				36
=	Giovanni Minozzi		Ret		Ret		36
=	Goffredo Zehender			5			36
=	Carlo Maria Pintacuda			9			36
=	Luigi Fagioli				7		36
=	Achille Varzi					6	36
28	Henri Simonet				Ret		37
=	Adolfo Mandirola				Ret		37
30	Franco Cortese		Ret				38
=	Ernst von Delius		Ret				38
=	Giovanbattista Guidotti					Ret	38
33	Francesco Severi		Ret				39
=	Renato Balestrero		Ret				39
=	Edoardo Teagno		Ret				39
=	Antonio Brivio			Ret			39
=	Max Christen				Ret		39
Pos	Driver	BEL	GER	MON	SUI	ITA	Pts

Colour	Result	Points
Gold	Winner	1
Silver	2nd place	2
Bronze	3rd place	3
Green	Completed more than 75%	4
Blue	Completed between 50% and 75%	5
Purple	Completed between 25% and 50%	6
Red	Completed less than 25%	7
Black	Disqualified	8
Blank	Did not participate	8

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. Archived from the original on 2022-05-05. Retrieved 2007-08-05.
Galpin, Darren. "1937 Grands Prix". The GEL Motorsport Information Page. Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2007-08-05.