PAST IMPERFECT:Nicknamed the iceman almost 80 years ago, Italy's Achille Varzi was a racing enigma, writes Bob Montgomery.
WHILE FINLAND'S world champion F1 driver, Kimi Raikkonen, has become known as the "Ice-man", there was an earlier driver to whom this title was given, the Italian Achille Varzi. Born in 1904, by the time he reached adulthood he was racing motorcycles and had begun a rivalry with another motorcyclist, Tazio Nuvolari. By 1926, Varzi turned to motor racing, driving a Bugatti Type 37. Nuvolari also switched to motor racing, and it was suggested that they should form a team.
This was agreed and the team made its debut at Tripoli in 1928. Varzi finished third, while Nuvolari won. Nuvolari won their next three races, causing Varzi to feel that Nuvolari had the better car. Varzi left the team in mid-season and bought a P2 Alfa Romeo, coming second in the 1928 Italian Grand Prix, and in 1929 won at the Coppa Montenero at Livorno, the Circuit of Alessandria, the Monza Grand Prix and the Rome Grand Prix.
Asked to partner Nuvolari in the Alfa Romeo factory team, the rivalry deepened. Nuvolari's victory in the Mille Miglia contributed to the bitterness between them. Varzi then scored perhaps his greatest victory in the Targa Florio race.
Bugatti then signed Varzi for 1931, but the partnership was not a success, with just one win in 1932. He stayed with Bugatti for 1933, and fought a memorable duel with his arch-rival at Monaco. The race that followed is remembered as one that may have been fixed. Combined with a state lottery, the 1933 Tripoli Grand Prix drivers agreed that Varzi would win and the winnings would be shared. Except that Varzi and Nuvolari went at each other hammer and tongs. Varzi won - by two-tenths of a second. For 1935 he was signed by Germany's Auto Union team, but became drug addicted. Despite this he had some success, but parted company with Auto Union at the end of 1936.
After only sporadic drives in 1937 Varzi did not reappear until 1946 and planned a comeback. Alfa Romeo signed him and he finished second in the Milan Grand Prix. In 1948, while practising for the Swiss Grand Prix at Berne, he crashed in the wet, dying from head injuries.