Nuvolari vs Varzi: grand prix racing’s first great rivalry

They wore matching jumpers. Not, you understand, their official Moto Bianchi attire – unusually, they were team-mates and class rivals on two wheels – but fashionable V-necked Fair Isle sweaters, picked out for their first race together in cars: the Tripoli GP of March 1928. 

Tazio Nuvolari had purchased four Bugatti Type 35Cs for his new team, keeping two and selling two, one of which Achille Varzi bought. Although Varzi went on to finish third in Tripoli, in only his second race on four wheels – and his first since September 1926 – he was underwhelmed and suspicious.

The victorious Nuvolari had gained 13 minutes in 260 miles, passing at will after pitstops. Were some Bugattis more equal than others? After all, it was Nuvolari’s name above the door, and his mechanic who prepared the cars. 

At the following month’s Circuit of Alessandria, Nuvolari won by six minutes, his car faultless. An ignition problem delayed runner-up Varzi. This dapper young man from Galliate, west of Milan, expected better.

No matter that Nuvolari, 12 years his senior, had much more experience with racing cars. No matter that they had been friends since 1923. Two bulls; one field. Eclipsed, Varzi drove a Delage at the Rome GP in June, and thereafter self-entered his Bugatti, albeit without an uptick in results. 

A family fortune accrued in textiles allowed Varzi options denied to the affluent rather than wealthy Nuvolari. For September’s European GP at Monza, Italy’s most prestigious race, he bought a stake in the Alfa Romeo P2 with which Giuseppe Campari had won Pescara’s Coppa Acerbo.

Nuvolari is regarded as the finest pre-Second World War driver, with a European title and Le Mans win on his CV

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Varzi didn’t win at Monza but, co-driven by Campari, he beat Nuvolari into second place. They were duelling so intently, so intensely, that the Bugatti of Louis Chiron caught and passed them. 

Varzi did win the corresponding race the following year, lapping runner-up Nuvolari, to complete a fruitful season that included victories at Alessandria, Rome and the Coppa Ciano at Livorno. 

Nuvolari was realising how unsuited he was to being a team boss – disaffected Varzi’s departure had left a hole in the budget – and he shut up shop mid-season. His foremost skill was still in demand at least, and he drove for Alfa Corse and in Scuderia Materassi’s Talbot.

Italy was seeking a new speed king in the aftermath of Pietro Bordino’s fatal accident while practising at Alessandria in 1928

Seeking consistency for 1930, however, he signed with Alfa, and (from June) also for fledgling semi-works team Scuderia Ferrari.

Italy was seeking a new speed king in the aftermath of Pietro Bordino’s fatal accident while practising at Alessandria in 1928. The resultant argument between Nuvolariani and Varziani, fans fed breathless back-page stories, had become a soap opera verging on mythic.

Nuvolari beat Varzi’s sister works Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 GS to win the 1930 Mille Miglia. That he did so by dousing his headlights to catch his quarry unawares was a tale pedalled by his riding mechanic, and repeated in Johnny Lurani’s Nuvolari book of 1959.

Varzi was one of the greats, but addiction hurt his career and reputation while at Auto Union in the 1930s

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It is overplayed. The overtake indeed occurred on the run-in to the Brescia finish – no doubt Nuvolari enjoyed rubbing it in – but he had started 10 minutes later than Varzi, and was easily ahead on time. Plus, dawn had broken, the pair having battled through the night.

It is indicative, nevertheless, that the story was/is believed. Nuvolari’s all-action/never-say-die style and attitude fired the imagination. Varzi’s calculating, cynical approach engendered only admiration. He was the cognoscenti’s choice. Nuvolari was a man of the people – and Il Duce’s choice.

Populism and propaganda were becoming tightly entwined with motor racing, the poster sport of the Speed Age. Benito Mussolini, a car enthusiast, understood how Nuvolari’s driving for Alfa Romeo, state-owned from 1933, was a potent symbol of Italian manhood and industrial clout. A partnership red in tooth and claw. 

The bloody-minded Varzi, meanwhile, raced in the French blue of Bugatti from 1931, although his personal, as opposed to works, Type 51 was red. Realpolitik. This followed on from his bold mid-season switch of 1930 to Maserati, Bologna’s promising newcomers, after another fraught battle with Nuvolari, both in P2s, had caused their retirements in August from the Coppa Ciano, handing victory to Maserati’s Luigi Fagioli.

The Coppa Acerbo would have fallen to Fagioli too, but for CWP failure on the last lap. New team-mate Varzi swept by instead. 

There was nothing fortunate about Varzi’s subsequent Monza GP victory. His recovery from a stop for spark plugs was Nuvolari-esque, the crowd going wild when he took the lead on the final lap. Mobbed, the new champion of Italy deadpanned it. Overt acclaim was anathema.

Nuvolari celebrates beating Varzi at the 1930 Mille Miglia

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So, too, was the fact that Nuvolari had started the race despite talk of withdrawal because of a tyre issue – and in response to threats from upon high to do no such thing. This rivalry was spilling over.

Nuvolari edged it in 1931, winning a mud-caked Targa Florio, the Italian GP (having commandeered Campari’s 8C) and the Coppa Ciano. Varzi’s best was a victory in a Bugatti shared with Chiron at Montlhery’s GP de l’ACF. Leading by three laps, he equalled his best lap on the last tour of this 10-hour marathon. He liked to rub it in, too.

The pendulum continued to swing. Bugatti’s T51 was no match for Alfa Romeo’s Tipo B/P3, the first fully resolved monoposto GP car, in 1932, and Nuvolari won the European Championship. Whereupon cash-strapped Alfa Corse withdrew and put its Tipo Bs in storage. Nuvolari would have to make do with a ‘stretched’ Scuderia Ferrari 8C in 1933. 

They waged the greatest dice, swapping the lead at least 21 times before Varzi prevailed due to a penultimate lap three seconds better than his qualifying best

Varzi was fastest in practice in April at the Monaco GP, and so occupied the first pole position earned by effort rather than gifted by ballot. Nuvolari qualified fourth.

From there, they waged the greatest dice, swapping the lead at least 21 times before Varzi prevailed due to a penultimate lap three seconds better than his qualifying best. Even so, he was upstaged by the theatrical Nuvolari, who pushed his car aflame into the pits.

They were at it again a fortnight later. This time, however, both were upstaged: by controversy. Italy’s national lottery was to be decided by the result of the Tripoli GP. Varzi, Nuvolari and Baconin Borzacchini, therefore, met with their ticket holders to strike a deal: the money was to be shared equally between ‘The Six’, no matter which of the three drivers won.

Revenge after the Mille Miglia? Varzi won 1930 Targa Florio

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This was no secret. No law was broken. A written agreement was notarised. And no decision was made as to the finishing order.

That changed as the start approached, Varzi calling correctly at an impromptu coin-toss with Nuvolari. In the event, of course, they fought like cat and dog. They couldn’t help themselves. The money was forgotten as well as guaranteed. The stain, however, proved permanent, and Varzi, the winner by 0.2s, shouldered the shame.

It was a fractious season. Nuvolari, despite winning the Mille Miglia, split from Scuderia Ferrari to drive Maserati’s response to Tipo B: the 8CM. Varzi waited with mounting impatience for Bugatti’s T59. Outdated upon its delayed arrival, he gave it a subdued debut at the Spanish GP in September. Nuvolari, in contrast, drove like the devil, crashing from a healthy lead. Performances indicative of mindsets.

Varzi joined Ferrari in 1934 – finicky, he was never Enzo’s cup of espresso. Nuvolari unexpectedly agreed to drive a (usually red) T59 at the major races. The biggest news, however, was that Fagioli had beaten them to the punch by landing a Mercedes-Benz for the new 750kg Formula. As good as he was, dark arts were surely involved in this decision. 

Varzi enjoyed a successful season. He got his revenge for 1930 by winning the Mille Miglia. Ferrari, better organised and supplied than Scuderia Siena, which was running Nuvolari’s sister 8C, fitted Pneugrippa’d tyres for the rain that lashed the closing stages.

Varzi also became national champion for a second time, thanks to wins in Tipo B – released midway through 1933 to counter Nuvolari’s Maserati – at Tripoli, Alessandria, and Sicily’s Targa Florio. He also won Barcelona’s Penya Rhin GP, and in Nice. 

One of the greatest GP wins: Nuvolari on way to shock Alfa success at 1935 German GP

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Nuvolari, left leg fractured in Alessandria – a racing incident with Varzi in bad weather – struggled with reliability. His consolation was beating Varzi in October at the Modena GP. Enzo was enraged by this defeat on home turf, especially because his number one appeared unconcerned. Was an Auto Union contract burning a hole in Varzi’s pocket?

Both he and Nuvolari had sampled Ferdinand Porsche’s radical Type A in 1934. Nuvolari grabbed some laps during practice sessions for September’s Spanish and Czechoslovakian GPs, whereas Varzi had been awarded a private, no doubt more extensive, test at Monza in August. There, he drove Hans Stuck’s car. Did Stuck and Varzi connive to blackball Nuvolari? Highly likely.

Varzi began this 1935 chapter by qualifying – in Stuck’s miffed absence – on pole, comfortably faster than Nuvolari’s Alfa, before dominating May’s Tunis GP. He would lead August’s Coppa Acerbo from start to finish, too.

Nuvolari had vowed never again to drive for Ferrari. But he had been persuaded to. Designer Vittorio Jano was the go-between – and Mussolini ‘put in a word’

But the huge potential evinced by team newcomer Bernd Rosemeyer, another graduate from two wheels, put these into perspective. And all was dwarfed by Nuvolari’s win at the German GP.

Nuvolari had vowed never again to drive for Ferrari. But, gazumped at Auto Union, and queered by Rudolf Caracciola’s return to fitness and form at Mercedes-Benz, he had been persuaded to. Designer Vittorio Jano was the go-between – and Mussolini ‘put in a word’. 

Jano’s new car ran late. So Nuvolari drove a Tipo B, engine stretched to 3.2 litres, chassis modified to accept independent front suspension, to his most miraculous victory. Varzi, never at his best at the Nurburgring, was a footnote in eighth. Upset at having run over Stuck’s mechanic on the grid, he eventually handed over to a reserve driver.

Varzi on his way to winning the 1935 Coppa Acerbo for Auto Union

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He continued to shine, however, on Tripoli’s sweeping, sand-swept Mellaha circuit. His third win in four years – it might have been four but for an unnecessary dice in 1935 with Nuvolari’s lapped Alfa Romeo Bimotore – was gained despite using only fourth gear for the majority.

Red and green team order flags fluttering, Varzi set the fastest lap on the last lap by way of insurance. A formidable effort. His anger at Marshal Balbo, Italy’s Governor-General of Libya, for toasting Stuck as the moral victor was understandable. A mood hardly improved one week later when he suffered the first crash of his career, a 150mph tumble from which he was lucky to escape.

It was during this unsettling period that Varzi began his rapid descent into morphine addiction. Already in discomfort from an appendectomy, physical bruising was now added to the mental anguish of Tripoli.

His private life was in turmoil, too. He was having an affair with Ilse, the German wife of former Auto Union junior Paul Pietsch. This blonde femme fatale is said to have been his supplier. She was not, however, at Tripoli. But, for sure, squiring a divorcee made Varzi a pariah with the Roman Catholic Church.

His relationship with Auto Union soured, too. In June, he refused to drive its short-wheelbase car, created at his suggestion, at the Penya Rhin GP. Though still capable of fast laps and strong races – third and second at the Hungarian GP and Milan GP (scenes of more giant-killing by Nuvolari), plus third and second in the Coppa Acerbo and Swiss GP (wins for Rosemeyer) – his bosses became mistrustful. They found drug paraphernalia when secretly searching Varzi’s Berne hotel room. 

This previously model professional almost missed the start of the Italian GP due to oversleeping, and quickly cooked his brakes before handing over to another reserve driver. He went to ground thereafter – spending time in a sanatorium, according to some – and would not race again until July 1937.

1938 Donington GP: Nuvolari masters the tricky Auto Union

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Based on this comeback victory in a minor voiturette race, some testing at the Nurburgring, and assurances that he had given up Ilse and morphine – likely he was galvanised by Nuvolari’s debut for the team at August’s Swiss GP – Varzi was re-signed on a race-by-race basis. At the second of these, the Czech GP, he arrived with fingers bandaged, and asked to be excused. He had a train to catch: to Vienna! Auto Union was done with him.

Nuvolari was also wounded, mourning his elder son, Giorgio, who had succumbed, aged 18, to myocarditis in June. Though essentially a loner like his rival, Nuvolari’s drug of choice was speed, so he pressed on.

Remaining with a reconstituted Alfa Corse, misguidedly hopeful of beating the German cars due to a change of GP formula, he called time after a car fire at the 1938 Pau GP hospitalised him.

With the restoration of peace emerged a new Varzi – almost his old self, indeed – whereas Nuvolari appeared grey around the gills as well as the temples

By the middle of the season, he was back, driving for an Auto Union shorn of Rosemeyer, killed in a speed record attempt in January. As had Varzi, Nuvolari adapted quickly, and scored victories at the Italian and Donington Park GPs. He would also win the last major race before the Second World War, the 1939 Belgrade GP.

With the restoration of peace emerged a new Varzi – almost his old self, indeed – whereas Nuvolari appeared grey around the gills as well as the temples. It was obvious which of them would be handed a 158 Alfetta, the GP car to beat.

Varzi’s schedule was spare. He knew his limits and parcelled his effort. Though outpaced by a younger team-mate, Jean-Pierre Wimille, he was impressive.

Varzi recovered and drove for Alfa after WW2 but would die at Bern in 1948

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Nuvolari was busier, racing both to forget – his second son, Alberto, also 18, had died of nephritis in April 1946 – and because his compatriots demanded it.

Epic performances in the Mille Miglia – second place in 1947 aboard a 1100cc Cisitalia; and a big lead lost to a Ferrari falling apart around him in 1948 – had Italy glued to its radio. Though these added to his legacy, they likely clipped years from him. Yet he would outlive Varzi.

At a Formula 2 race in Mantova in June 1948, held to commemorate Nuvolari’s sons, the warhorses embraced before the start. The end was nigh. They knew it. Nuvolari led, but pulled in after eight laps, his lungs wracked by more than 20 years of inhaling muck and fumes. Varzi finished third in a Cisitalia, and drew on his post-race Lucky Strike more wistfully than ever.

Three weeks later, practising for the Swiss GP, Varzi lost control on a downhill ess slicked by rain, oil and sap. He fought the slide and scrubbed off speed before the Alfetta struck a bank. Pitched into a slow roll, the upper edge of its aero-screen struck him an unsurvivable blow.

Nuvolari, who died in August 1953, aged (a very old) 60, missed all of his many friends claimed by the sport, but admitted to missing Varzi the most. Of the many achievements of the man who privately referred to Nuvolari as Il Maestro, the most notable was his having forced the greatest to be even greater.

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Nuvolari’s Alfa Romeo (44) beat Auto Union of Varzi in the 1936 Milan GP

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