The Unforgettable Raymond Sommer 1906-1950

Like Scuderia Ferrari, Sommer made his Formula 1 Championship debut in the 1950 Monaco Grand Prix. Long before that, in 1932, he won the Marseille Grand Prix at the 5 km Miramas oval driving an Alfa Romeo Monza.

Sommer was joined on the podium by the legendary Italian Tazio Nuvolari, second in another Alfa, and Bugatti’s Algerian driver Guy Moll. Decades later, Enzo Ferrari would compare his young charge, Gilles Villeneuve, to Moll.

Long Haul at Le Mans. The same year Sommer drove his Alfa Romeo 8C at the Sarthe Circuit for over 20 hours to win the Le Mans 24 Hour race. His co-driver was Luigi Chinetti, who would go on to become Ferrari importer in the United States.

Sommer would repeat his Le Mans success in 1933, again in an Alfa Romeo 8C, but this time with a different Italian co-driver, Nuvolari. In September, Sommer won the Grand Prix at Montlhéry near Paris.

In 1934, driving a Maserati, he was on the podium in third place for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps. The following year he won the Grand Prix du Comminges at St Gaudens—about an hour from Pau—at the wheel of an Alfa Romeo P3.

His other achievements before the outbreak of war were winning the 1936 Spa 24 Hour race with Alfa Romeo. The 1000km French Grand Prix run as a sports car event at Montlhéry, co-driving a Bugatti T57 with Jean-Pierre Wimille.

In 1937, at the wheel of a Talbot, sports car Grand Prix races were won at Carthage in Tunisia and in Marseille at the Miramas track. His final pre-war victory came in July 1939 at Angoulême, driving an Alfa Romeo 308.

Sommer resumed his racing activities after the war was over. Milan has Monza Park. Turin has Valentino Park. It used to hold races from 1935–1955. It was here in the 1947 Turin Grand Prix that Sommer gave the first taste of (non-championship) Grand Prix success to a new Italian racing car manufacturer, Ferrari.

Both Sommer and Scuderia Ferrari jointly made their Formula 1 debut in the 1950 Monaco Grand Prix, where the French driver finished fourth. This would be his best and only point-scoring finish in five F1 starts. His final race in the 1950 F1 Championship was his home Grand Prix in July at Reims.

The Last Lap. Two months later he entered the Haute Garonne Grand Prix, a Formula 2 race at Cadours, near Toulouse. Sadly, the steering on his Cooper failed while leading the race, and he crashed to his death on September 10, 1950.

Raymond Sommer, the French “Coeur de Lion," was 44 years old. A memorial was built in Cadours and in his hometown, Mouzon, located in the French Ardennes.