History of Formula 1 – 1922 Grand Prix de l’ACF

1922 Grand Prix de l’Automobile Club de France

The Grand Prix of the French Automobile Club, the world’s most prestigious race at the time, was held on the 16th of July 1922. Such a select audience hadn’t been seen even at the famous GP of 1914. Le Figaro praised everyone present for the race in a whole column describing their rich backgrounds. We’ll have to make do by mentioning Mr. Maginot, France’s Minister of War and the creator of the famous line of fortifications that bear his name, which would unfortunatly for France, prove utterly useless in the face of the German blitzkrieg, Le Trocqueur – the Minister of Public Affairs, Count De Vogue, president of the French Automobile Club and M. Alapetite – high commissioner of the Government of Alsace and Loraine, all of them getting mixed with the rest of this colorful array of VIPs that stood in the official grand stand which was dominated by many veterans of the Great War that had just finished four years prior.

To further underline the importance of the event, commander Pietro Fabre, the president of the Italian Automobile Club came accompanied by Gianni Agnelli, the almighty president of the Fiat business empire. Other resounding names of the automobile industry that gathered that day near Strasbourg were P. Panhard, Roland Ballot, Rene de Knyff, John Pugh (General Manager of Ridge-Withworth), the latter enjoying the company of the great swordsman Lucien Gaudin. I’ve decided to do this detailed overview because, as always when discussing Bordino’s races, there isn’t much to say about the race itself. The chosen venue was located, as previously stated, near Strasbourg and was made up entirely out of public roads measuring 13,38km (8.55mi). The race was scheduled for 60 laps making up a grand total of 802,88km that the drivers had to endure in order to reach the checkered flag.