Alfred Neubauer

Born on March 29 1901, Alfred Neubauer fell in love with the automobile as a young boy.

After WWI, he became a racecar driver for Astro-Daimler. He then moved with Ferdinand Porsche to Mercedes, where he would find his life-long professional home. By 1926, it was apparent that Neubauer was a much better manager than driver. He was soon recruiting quality drivers such Rudolf Caracciola to the team.

While manager of the race team, he brought into play various ways to communicate to the drivers during the races, such as hand signals and pit-boards, presenting them with useful information like race position, laps remaining, when to pit for fuel, etc. These communications methods have been adopted for races worldwide.

As a large man with a booming voice, Neubauer commanded attention and respect from his team and the officials. He was strict but fair on the track, and incredibly entertaining as a dinner host.

He led his team to great success before and after WWII, with Mercedes winning the Mille Miglia (1931, 1955), the Targa Florio (1955), six European and Grand Prix Championships (1935, 1937, 1938, 1954, 1955), along with wins at Le Mans (1952) and La Carrera Panamericana (1952).

Neubauer retired as race team manager in 1955, and passed away in 1980.

1934 Eifelrennen Formule Libre

At the Nurburgring track, bad weather delayed this important race by a few hours.

Mercedes-Benz was making its first official entry into the Grand Prix season at this event after extensive testing and adjustment of the new W25.

Team manager Alfred Neubauer was feeling the pressure to succeed in their homeland. Their star driver had not yet fully recovered enough from his 1933 Monaco crash to participate so Mercedes brought in a new driver Manfred Georg Rudolf von Brauchitsch, along with Luigi Fagioli to drive their new racer.

Pen&ink, markers, and pencil on archival white stock 12”x 9” 
© Paul Chenard 2010

Original art & limited editions available.
Auto Union had Hans Stuck, Hermann zu Leiningen and August "Bubi" Momberger to drive their Type A.

Scuderia Ferrari had Louis Chiron and Mario Tadini driving the Alfa Romeo P3. Bugatti had no entries in the race, and nor did Maserati.

Three classes of cars were racing together, flagged off one class after another, a total of forty-four cars in all.

Italian Fagioli took an early lead until he was ordered by team manager Neubauer to let his German teammate von Brauchitsch by. Later in the pits for fueling, Fagioli argued furiously with Neubauer over this. He started off again, but with only one lap remaining in the race, he pulled over and abandoned his race car in protest.

With two Auto Unions out of the race, Stuck had taken the sole remaining Type A to a sizeable lead over von Brauchitsch. Some believed he would go non-stop and win the race. He finally did have to come in for fuel and tires, and the Mercedes driver took the lead, which he would keep to the checkered flag.

The win was a stunning debut for both the Mercedes-Benz team and their new driver.