Christian Werner
Christian Werner ( born May 19, 1892 in Stuttgart, † June 17, 1932 in Stuttgart- Cannstatt ) was a German racing driver.
He won on April 27, 1924 with a supercharged Mercedes both the Targa Florio and the Coppa Florio, which were considered to be the most difficult European road race.
After an apprenticeship as a mechanic in 1911 Werner began his career at Daimler -Motoren-Gesellschaft. After the master's examination, he served as a test driver, especially for the vote of racing cars. His first race was the 1922 Targa Florio, which he finished in second place in the 4.5 -liter class. With the victory of the Romanian tour itinerary in the same year he won his first major title.
1923 Werner reached at the Indy 500 in Indianapolis in eleventh place overall, by the riders German car he was runner-up and among European brands of third parties.
1924 Werner drove to his probably biggest success the first four rounds of 108 km in 6:32:37 hours, winning the Targa Florio. To the Coppa Florio, which was carried out jointly with the Targa to win, he still had to do another round. He finally came up with an end time of 08:17:01 hours to the finish. He also set the fastest lap of the race with 01:35 h.
In 1928 he won together with Rudolf Caracciola at the Nürburgring Grand Prix of Germany. Caracciola had suffered a heat stroke, after which Werner replaced him despite an injury to the arm and after 4:54:24,0 hours and with an average of 103.80 km / h the race over 508.752 km ended as the winner.
Due to the global economic crisis, Mercedes -Benz eventually withdrew more and more from the world of motorsport and Werner were made generous offers from abroad. Nevertheless, he decided to stay with Mercedes. In 1930 he drove in Le Mans with a Mercedes -Benz SSK his last race in which he temporarily led together with Caracciola, but had to retire prematurely.
On June 17, 1932 Werner died in Cannstatt from heart paralysis.