Rudi Fischer Explained

Rudi Fischer

Birth Name:

Rudolf Fischer

Birth Date:

19 April 1912

Birth Place:

Stuttgart, Württemberg, German Empire

Death Place:

Lucerne, Switzerland

Module:

Embed:	yes
Nationality:	Swiss
Years:	–
Team(S):	Privateer SVA, privateer Ferrari
Races:	8 (7 starts)
Championships:	0
Wins:	0
Podiums:	2
Points:	10
Poles:	0
Fastest Laps:	0
First Race:	1950 Swiss Grand Prix
Last Race:	1952 Italian Grand Prix

Rudolf "Rudi" Fischer (19 April 1912 – 30 December 1976) was a Swiss racing driver, who competed in Formula One at seven Grands Prix from to .

Fischer debuted in Formula One at the in . He achieved two podium finishes, and scored a total of 10 championship points. He also participated in numerous non-championship Formula One and Formula Two races.

Career

Fischer finished third in a race which marked the reopening of the AVUS, a German motor racing circuit. It had been closed for a 14-year period and was damaged during World War II. A crowd of 350,000 watched Paul Greifzu of Suhl, Thuringia, win in a car he built himself. Fischer drove a Ferrari to third place over a distance of 207.5 kilometres. His time was 1 hour, 10 minutes, 27.5 seconds.^[1] In the 1952 Swiss Grand Prix, in Bern, Fischer finished second to Piero Taruffi; both drivers were in Ferraris.^[2]

Écurie Espadon/Scuderia Espadon

Fischer was the leader of the "Écurie Espadon",^[3] the entrant name for most of his racing career.

Écurie Espadon was composed of a group of Swiss amateur gentleman racers. The word "Écurie" was used at the beginning as most of the team's cars were French, generally Gordinis. Later the team's equipment changed to Ferraris and other Italian vehicles, thus the name of the team changed to use the equivalent Italian word "Scuderia".

The team was involved in several races all over Europe, as the presentation document described.^[4]

The team was composed of:

Rudolf Fischer: a successful restaurant owner.
Rudolf Schoeller
Peter Hirt: a wealthy businessman from Küssnacht, near Zürich, involved in precision tool manufacturing.
Peter (Pierre) Staechelin from Basel.
Max de Terra
Paul Glauser

Racing record

Post WWII Grandes Épreuves results

(key)

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8		Pts
	Écurie Espadon	SVA 1500	Fiat 1.5 L4 s	GBR	MON	500	SUI DNA	BEL	FRA	ITA		NC	0
	Écurie Espadon	Ferrari 212	Ferrari 212 2.5 V12	SUI	500	BEL	FRA	GBR	GER	ITA	ESP	NC	0
1952	Écurie Espadon	Ferrari 500	Ferrari 500 2.0 L4	SUI	500	BEL	FRA	GBR	GER	NED	ITA	4th	10
1952	Écurie Espadon	Ferrari 212	Ferrari 166 2.0 V12				FRA					4th	10

Entered and practiced in his Ferrari 500, but engine failure meant that he reverted to the previous season's 212 model for the race.^[5] Drive shared with Peter Hirt.

References

350,000 See Reopening of Motor RaceWay In Berlin After an Interval of 14 Years, The New York Times, July 2, 1951, Page 31.
Swiss Auto Race to Taruffi, Los Angeles Times, May 19, 1952, Page 24.
Web site: Presentation document Ecurie Espadon . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20080410120800/http://www.axos.nl/retrorace/temp/Scuderia-Espadon.doc . 10 April 2008 . 4 March 2016.
Web site: Scuderia Espadon and its background . forums.autosport.com . 4 March 2016.
Web site: Diepraam . M . German F2 specials taking on Ferrari . June 2001 . 8W . 30 April 2008 .