page_title: 1913 Grand Prix season
section_title: Season review
hierarchical_section_title: 1913 Grand Prix season / Season review
caption_attribution_description: English: Théodore Pilette at the 1913 Grand Prix de France at Le Mans.
context_page_description: The 1913 Grand Prix season consisted of Grand Prix races in Europe and the United States. Once again, the Peugeot works cars were the team to beat, continuing their success. This year the French Grand Prix was held in Amiens. The ACF introduced a fuel-economy formula for the race to discourage bigger-engined cars. Peugeot drivers Georges Boillot and Jules Goux claimed a 1-2 victory for the company after Zuccarelli had been killed in practice.
  In the United States, the growing expense of hosting the Vanderbilt Cup and American Grand Prize meant they were not held this year. So it was that the Indianapolis 500 became the premier American event this year. The Europeans crossed the Atlantic for the race and Goux had a comfortable 13-minute margin of victory for Peugeot ahead of Spencer Wishart’s new Mercer.
  Peugeot did not contest the Coupe de la Sarthe at Le Mans where Paul Bablot and Albert Guyot, in the new Delage Type Y, had a 1-2 victory themselves. However, with the new 3-litre EX-5 variant, Peugeot won the last major race of the year with Boillot and Goux finishing 1-2 at the Coupe des Voiturettes.
context_section_description: For the second year the Targa Florio was not held on the Madonie circuit, but as the Giro di Sicilia – going clockwise on the coastal roads around Sicily. This year, the cars would stop at Agrigento and be locked up overnight before resuming the race back to Palermo. A big field of 33 cars was at the Palazzo Villarosa for the start. At the end of the first day, it was Giovanni “Gigi” Marsaglia in an Aquila Italiana, who held a half-hour lead over Felice Nazzaro, the long-time works driver for FIAT, now driving a car of his own making. In a curious incident, a driver following another car’s dust saw a child on the road. When he then hit a curbstone he was convinced he had hit the child. He stopped and fled the scene, catching a ferry from Messina to the mainland. Only sixteen cars started the second day. Marsaglia held his lead until near the end when engine issues stopped him. Nazzaro came through for the victory an hour ahead of the unlucky Marsaglia.
  With the Vanderbilt Cup and American Grand Prize not being held this year, it meant the Indianapolis 500 became the premier event in the United States. This year the maximum engine permitted was reduced from 600 to 450 cubic inches (7.4-litres). Carl Fisher, on the organising committee, sent an invitation to Peugeot to attend, and they accepted sending two cars (with engines modified down to 7.3 litres) with Goux and Paolo Zuccarelli. Other Europeans were drawn to the big money on offer: Isotta-Fraschini had three cars for Italian Vincenzo Trucco and Americans Teddy Tetzlaff and Harry Grant. Theodore Pilette, Belgian agent for Mercedes, ran a Mercedes as did Ralph Mulford. Albert Guyot raced a 4.5-litre Sunbeam.
  More and more American drivers were moving to the specialised racing cars: Ralph DePalma and Spencer Wishart had moved from Mercedes to Mercer with Caleb Bragg. Stutz ran cars for Gil Andersen and Charlie Merz while Jack Tower had one of the three Masons from the Duesenberg brothers.
  During practice the Peugeots had problems adapting to the brick surface, burning through their tyres. Fisher suggested they work with local racer Johnny Aitken. Tower posted the fastest lap in practice, but in the random draw for grid positions started from the back row while Caleb Bragg drew the pole position. From the start rookie Robert Evans got his Mason into the lead. On the 51st lap Towers crashed, rolling his car. Towers suffered a broken leg and his mechanic broken ribs. DePalma and Zuccarelli both retired early with engine trouble. Goux won comfortably for Peugeot, with a 13-minute margin over Wishart’s Mercer and Merz third with in his Stutz. He was supposed to have consumed champagne during his pit-stops and arrived home in Paris to great fanfare.
  The Grand Prix was held in July at a new venue: a 31km circuit based at Amiens in Picardie where it was hoped the shorter circuit would attract more spectators in the industrial north-east. This year the French Automobile Club (ACF) organisers stipulated a fuel-economy formula. Cars would be issued sufficient fuel the 917km race (29 laps) at an average of 20 litres per 100km (14.1 mpg). They also had to weigh between 800 and 1100kg. With a maximum of three cars per team, the entry list was still strong enough that the ACF did not need to include a voiturette category this year. Peugeot arrived with the new model EX-3 with a 5.6-litre engine (115 bhp), to be driven by its three regular works drivers: Boillot, Goux and Zuccarelli. French entries also came from Th. Schneider and Mathis. Delage came with their fast, new Type Y (110 bhp) to be driven by Albert Guyot and Paul Bablot.
  Foreign entries came from Itala (Italy), Opel (4.0L, 88 bhp) (Germany), Excelsior (6.1L, 120 bhp) (Belgium) and Sunbeam (4.5L, 95 bhp) (Great Britain). Once again Theodore Pilette was rebuffed when he tried to enter a Mercedes team. The ACF demanded entries from manufacturers alone, not agents or privateers.
  Racing on public roads was dangerous. Itala engineer Guido Bigio and his mechanic had been killed in May while testing. Then during a Peugeot test to t
caption: Théodore Pilette, Mercedes
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