On This Day – June 26th

On June 26th 1906 the first ever motor racing Grand Prix was held, or at least began.

The Grand Prix de l'Automobile Club de France, commonly known as the '1906 French Grand Prix', ran over two days on closed public roads outside the city of Le Mans. The Grand Prix was organised at the prompting of the French automobile industry as an alternative to the Gordon Bennett races, which limited each competing country's number of entries regardless of the size of its industry. France had the largest automobile industry in Europe at the time, and in an attempt to better reflect this the Grand Prix had no limit to the number of entries by any particular country.

The organising club chose a 103.18km circuit, composed primarily of dust roads sealed with tar, which would be lapped six times on both days by each competitor, a combined race distance of 1,238.16 kilometres. Lasting for more than 12 hours overall, the race was won by Ferenc Szisz driving for the Renault team. FIAT driver Felice Nazzaro finished second, and Albert Clément was third in a Clément-Bayard.

Paul Baras of Brasier set the fastest lap of the race on his first lap. He held on to the lead until the third lap, when Szisz took over first position, defending it to the finish. Hot conditions melted the road tar, which the cars kicked up into the faces of the drivers, blinding them and making the racing treacherous.

Punctures were common; tyre manufacturer Michelin introduced a detachable rim with a tyre already affixed, which could be quickly swapped onto a car after a puncture, saving over ten minutes compared to manually replacing the tyre which involved removing the old tyre with a knife before stretching the new one onto the wheel. This helped Nazzaro pass Clément on the second day, as the FIAT – unlike the Clément-Bayard – made use of the rims.

Quick tyre-changing during pit stops were one of the key elements of Grand Prix strategy right from day the very start!

Renault's victory contributed to an increase in sales for the French manufacturer in the years following the race. Despite being the second to carry the title, the race has become known as the first Grand Prix. The success of the 1906 French Grand Prix prompted the ACF to run the Grand Prix again the following year, and the German automobile industry to organise the Kaiserpreis, the forerunner to the German Grand Prix, in 1907.

Whilst nowhere near as quick as modern-era GP cars, the cars (whose engine capacities were between 7.4 and 18.2 litres!) were certainly not slow. What was the highest speed achieved during the race?

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