Birabongse Bhanudej

Birabongse Bhanudej
Birabongse в 1944 году
Рожденный	(1914-07-15)15 July 1914 Grand Palace , Бангкок, Сиам
Died	23 December 1985(1985-12-23) (aged 71) London, England
Spouse	Ceril Heycock (1938–1949) Celia "Chelita" Howard (1951–1956) Salika Kalantananda (1957) Arunee Chuladakoson (1959–1964) Chuanchom Chaiyananda (1967–1980)
Issue	Biradej Bhanubandh Rabibara Bhanubandh Biranubongse Bhanubandh
Names His Serene Highness Prince (Mom Chao) Birabongse Bhanudej Bhanubandh (15 July 1914 – 8 November 1927) His Highness Prince Birabongse Bhanudej (8 November 1927 – 23 December 1985)
House	Bhanubandh (Chakri Dynasty)
Father	Prince Bhanubandhubongse Voradej
Mother	Mom Lek Bhanubandh na Ayudhya (née Yongchaiyudh)
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Thai
Active years	1950–1954
Teams	Enrico Platé, Gordini, Connaught, Maserati, Scuderia Milano, independent
Entries	19
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	8
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	1950 British Grand Prix
Last entry	1954 Spanish Grand Prix
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Years	1939, 1954
Teams	Raymond Sommer Aston Martin
Best finish	DNF (1939, 1954)
Class wins	0

Принц Бирабонгсе Бханудея Бханубанд ( Тайский : พีรพงศ์ภาณุเดช ; Rtgs : Phiraphong Phanudet - 23 декабря 1985 г.), его полное название Высочество : 15 июля 1914 г. его ; DE Course B. Bira , был членом королевской семьи , гоночной водителя, моряка и пилота.

Бирабонгсе участвовал в Формулы -1 и Гран -при гонках командах Maserati , Gordini и Connaught . Он был единственным гонщиком юго -восточной азии , который соревновался в Формуле -1, пока Малайзии из Алекс Юн не присоединился к Минарди в 2001 году, и единственный тайский водитель, который соревновался в Формуле -1, пока Алекс Албон дебютировал в 2019 году. Бирабонгсе также участвовал в парусных мероприятиях на четырех Летние олимпийские игры , и вылетели из Лондона в Бангкок в своем собственном самолете Близнецов Близнецов с двумя двигателями в 1952 году.

Ранний период жизни

Prince Birabongse's parents were Prince Bhanurangsi Savangwongse and his second wife. Birabongse's paternal grandfather was King Mongkut, loosely portrayed in the Hollywood movies The King and I and Anna and the King. His mother died when Prince Birabongse was only four years old. Birabongse was sent to Europe in 1927 to complete his education in England at Eton College, where he joined one of his nephews, a grandchild of his father through his first marriage. While he was at Eton Bira's father died, leaving him an orphan. He was placed under the care of his cousin, Prince Chula Chakrabongse, who ultimately became Prince Bira's legal guardian. On leaving Eton at age 18, in early 1933, Prince Bira moved in with Prince Chula in London, while he decided on his future.

Prince Birabongse had been registered to attend Trinity College, Cambridge, but had not passed the Cambridge University entrance examination. Initially, Prince Chula hired a tutor for Prince Bira, to better prepare him for the exam, but Prince Bira changed his mind and expressed a desire to learn sculpture rather than attend university. Prince Chula approached leading sculptor Charles Wheeler, and Wheeler took Prince Bira on as a pupil within his studio. Although Prince Bira showed some talent as a sculptor, in Wheeler's opinion he needed to learn to draw, and so in the autumn of 1934 Prince Bira enrolled at the Byam Shaw School of Art. Prince Birabongse did not attend the Byam Shaw School for very long, but while there he became friendly with a fellow student, Ceril Heycock, and he began courting her in earnest only a few weeks later. However, both Prince Chula and her parents placed severe limitations on their relationship, and it was not until 1938 that they were able to marry.

Auto racing

Prince Bira with Franco Comotti and René Dreyfus at the 1938 Cork Grand Prix

Prince Bira at Zandvoort in 1948, a race which he ended up winning.

Bira first raced with his cousin Prince Chula's team, White Mouse Racing, driving a Riley Imp at Brooklands in 1935. In this car Bira established the national motor racing colours of Siam: pale blue with yellow. He later lived near Geneva, Switzerland, and in the south of France.

Later in 1935, Prince Chula gave him one of the new ERA voiturette racing cars—R2B, which was nicknamed Romulus. Bira finished second in his first ever race in Romulus, despite needing to stop for repairs. The remaining races of the season saw Bira consistently placing among the more powerful Grand Prix vehicles, with another second place, and fifth at the Donington Grand Prix.

For 1936 the princes decided that the previous season's results merited a second ERA. They purchased chassis R5B (which Bira named Remus) to use in British events and retained Romulus for international races. Chula also purchased a Maserati 8CM to complete the White Mouse roster. Bira's expertise behind the wheel earned him the Coupe de Prince Rainier at Monte Carlo. Bira won a further four races in the ERAs that season, and took the Grand Prix Maserati to 5th at Donington and 3rd at Brooklands. This was the high point for Bira and the White Mouse team.

Following Dick Seaman's move to Mercedes for 1937, the Thais purchased his Grand Prix Delage and all of its spare parts, along with a second Delage. Despite several upgrades, and hiring experienced race engineer and future Jaguar team manager Lofty England, the cars underperformed, and on many occasions Bira raced in the older and by now substantially inferior ERAs. In addition, the money spent on the Delage upgrades had sapped the resources of the team and corners were being cut in the ERA's race preparations. Later in the year White Mouse did invest in a newer C-Type ERA, chassis R12C. R12C came to be known as Hanuman, and Bira attached a large, embossed, silver badge depicting the Hindu deity after whom he had named the car. Following a major accident in 1939 Hanuman was rebuilt back to B-Type specifications, and in light of this major overhaul Bira renamed the car Hanuman II.

While Bira maintained a respectable results tally in British events, the more costly international races were largely a disaster.

After the war, Bira returned to racing with several teams. In 1951 he raced in an old Maserati 4CLT fitted with a newer V12 Osca engine. No results were obtained this year as a result of the poor performance of the car combined with a severe accident. By 1954, with a newer car, a Maserati 250F, he won the Grand Prix des Frontières on the Chimay road circuit and then finished fourth in the 1954 French Grand Prix with his own Maserati. In January 1955, he won the New Zealand Grand Prix at Ardmore; he retired at the end of that season.

Sailing

Bira competed in sailing events at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics in the Star, 1960 Rome Olympics in the Star, 1964 Tokyo Olympics in the Dragon and the 1972 Munich Olympics in the Tempest. In the 1960 Games he competed against another former Formula One driver, Roberto Mieres, who finished seventeenth, ahead of the prince at nineteenth.

Death

Prince Bira died at Barons Court tube station in London on 23 December 1985. He collapsed and died having suffered a major heart attack, but as he carried no identification with him, his body could not initially be identified. A handwritten note was found in his pocket by the Metropolitan Police and was sent for analysis at the University of London, where it was shown as being written in Thai and addressed to Prince Bira. The Thai Embassy was notified, and realised his significance. A Thai funeral service was held at the Wat Buddhapadipa in Wimbledon, and he was later cremated according to Thai and Buddhist tradition and customs.

Other honors

Bira Circuit, based just outside Pattaya, Thailand, is named after Prince Bira.

In 2016, in an academic paper that reported a mathematical modeling study that assessed the relative influence of driver and machine, Prince Bira was ranked the forty-third best Formula One driver of all time.

Development of the Thai racing colours

Prince Bira was instrumental in developing and setting the national racing colours of Thailand. The base colour for the scheme, a mid to pale powder blue, was adopted by Bira in 1934, and was derived from the evening dress of a young woman that Bira met during his early years in London. Initially the cars were painted solely in blue, but gradually Bira added in some yellow to offset the base colour. He started painting the cars' chassis rails yellow in 1939.

• 
  Bira's 1936 Maserati 8CM, seen in his original all blue livery with Siamese flags on the tail and the White Mouse emblem just ahead of the cockpit
• 
  Bira's second ERA racing car, R5B Remus, in an intermediate livery of blue with yellow wheels only. The UK flag is placed in the position of honour, at the right leading edge of the car's bonnet, to represent its manufacturer
• 
  Bira's third ERA, chassis R12B Hanuman II, in the final Thai racing scheme of pale blue with yellow chassis rails and wheels. The Thai flag is placed in the subsidiary position, at the left leading edge of the car's bonnet, to represent the driver (it is also on the tail)
• 
  Bira's 1954 Maserati A6GCM Inter in a looser interpretation of his racing colours. Post-WWII, and particularly outside Grand Épreuve events, national racing colour schemes were not strictly enforced
• 
  Bira driving his 1954 Maserati 250F in the 1954 French Grand Prix. The adaptations to the official racing scheme needed for post-WWII cars that lacked visible chassis rails are clearly seen: the yellow now forms a broad band around the lower part of the car's bodywork

Racing record

Complete European Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	EDC	Pts
1938	Squadra Sabauda	Maserati 8CM	Maserati 3.0 L8	FRA	GER	SUI 141	ITA	—1
Source:

Notes

• ^1 – As a co-driver Bira was ineligible for championship points

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1939	Raymond Sommer	Raymond Sommer	Alfa Romeo 6C 2500SS	3.0	173	DNF	DNF
1954	Aston Martin Lagonda	Peter Collins	Aston Martin DB3S Coupé	S 3.0	138	DNF	DNF
Source:

Post WWII Grandes Épreuves results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5
1947	Enrico Platé	Maserati 4CL	Maserati 4CL 1.5 L4 s	SUI 8
	Ecurie Souris Blanche	ERA B	ERA 1.5 L6 s		BEL DNS
	Scuderia Milano	Maserati 4CL	Maserati 4CL 1.5 L4 s			ITA Ret	FRA
1948	Equipe Gordini	Simca Gordini T15	Simca-Gordini 15C 1.5 L4 s	MON Ret
	Enrico Platé	Maserati 4CL	Maserati 4CL 1.5 L4 s		SUI Ret
	Prince Chula	ERA B	ERA 1.5 L6 s			FRA DNS
	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 125	Ferrari 125 F1 1.5 V12 s				ITA Ret
1949	Prince Chula	Maserati 4CLT/48	Maserati 4CLT 1.5 L4 s	GBR Ret	BEL
	Enrico Platé					SUI 5	FRA 2	ITA 3
Source:

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	WDC	Pts
1950	Enrico Platé	Maserati 4CLT/48	Maserati 4CLT 1.5 L4 s	GBR Ret	MON 5	500	SUI 4	BEL	FRA	ITA Ret			8th	5
1951	Ecurie Siam	Maserati 4CLT/48	Maserati 4CLT 1.5 L4 s	SUI	500	BEL	FRA DNA	GBR	GER DNA	ITA			NC	0
			OSCA 4500 4.5 V12								ESP Ret
1952	Equipe Gordini	Gordini T15	Gordini 1500 1.5 L4	SUI Ret	500	BEL 10							NC	0
		Gordini T16	Gordini 20 2.0 L6				FRA Ret	GBR 11	GER	NED	ITA
1953	Connaught Engineering	Connaught Type A	Lea-Francis 2.0 L4	ARG	500	NED	BEL	FRA Ret	GBR 7	GER Ret	SUI		NC	0
	Scuderia Milano	Maserati A6GCM	Maserati A6 2.0 L6									ITA 11
1954	Officine Alfieri Maserati	Maserati A6GCM	Maserati A6 2.0 L6	ARG 7	500								17th	3
	Prince Bira	Maserati 250F	Maserati 250F1 2.5 L6			BEL 6	FRA 4	GBR Ret	GER Ret	SUI	ITA	ESP 9
1955	Prince Bira	Maserati 250F	Maserati 250F1 2.5 L6	ARG	MON	500	BEL DNA	NED	GBR	ITA			NC	0

Non-championship Formula One results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36
1950	Enrico Platé	Maserati 4CLT/48	Maserati 4CLT 1.5 L4 s	PAU	RIC Ret	SRM Ret	PAR	EMP Ret	BAR Ret	JER Ret	ALB Ret	NED 5	NAT Ret	NOT	ULS	PES Ret	STT	INT	GOO 2	PEN Ret
1951	Enrico Platé	Maserati 4CLT/48	Maserati 4CLT 1.5 L4 s	SYR Ret	PAU
	Ecurie Siam		OSCA 4500 4.5 V12			RIC 1	SRM Ret	BOR 4	INT 17	PAR	ULS	SCO	NED	ALB	PES	BAR	GOO
1952	Equipe Gordini	Gordini T15	Gordini 1500 1.5 L4	RIO	SYR	VAL	AUS	RIC	LAV	PAU	IBS	MAR 2	AST	INT 6	ELA	NAP	EIF	PAR Ret	AGP NC	FRO			LAC 5	WEC		SAB 4	CEA	DMT	COM	NAT	BAU	MOD	CAD	SKA	MAD	AVU	JOE	NEW	RIO
	B Bira	Maserati 4CLT/48	OSCA 4500 4.5 V12																		ULS Ret	MNZ
	Гордини команда	Гордини T16	Гордини 20 2.0 L6																						Марта 4
1953	Ecurie Siam	Maserati A6GCM	Michati A6 2.0 L6	Сэр	БОЛЬШЕ НИКОГДА	НИЗКИЙ	Аст	Инт 4	ОНА	Дремот	Ульс	ПОБЕДИТЬ	Коррекция	Сюда Верно	SNE	Эйф 11	Агп	Куча	WEC	Середина	Ру	ПЛАКАТЬ	Он был Верно	олень	Лак	Бри	МакМ	Серьезный	НОВЫЙ	Атмосфера	КРАСНЫЙ	ВОЛЯ	Лонг	ПРОТИВ	БЕЗУМНЫЙ	ДЖО	Добавлять
1954	Офицер Альфиери Масерати	Maserati A6GCM	Maserati Straight-6	Рио	NZM	ПОКЛОН 7	Сэр	БОЛЬШЕ НИКОГДА	НИЗКИЙ
	Бира Принц	Maserati 250f	Maserati 250f1 2,5 L6							Иметь Верно	Инт Верно	БАР 6	Добавлять	ПЗУ	Сюда 1	С	BAF	ПЛАКАТЬ	Ру 2	CAE 4	Август	С	Ведущий	КРАСНЫЙ	Пес 2	ДЖО	Атмосфера	НЕСТИ	ИДТИ	От
1955	Бира Принц	Maserati 250f	Maserati 250f1 2,5 L6	Дольдо 8	БОЛЬШЕ НИКОГДА	ПОЛАГАТЬ	Иметь 6	Инт 3	Дремот	БЕЛЫЙ	Добавлять	Коррекция	Лонг	НО	КРАСНЫЙ	ЧТО	ВНЕ	Высокий	Сэр
Источник:

Происхождение

showПредки Birabongse Bhanudej
8. King Phutthaloetla (Rama II) 4. King Mongkut (Rama IV) 9. Queen Sri Suriyendra 2. Prince Bhanurangsi 10. Prince Sirivongse, the Prince Matayaphithak 5. Queen Debsirindra 11. Mom Noi 1. Prince Bira 12. Lord (Khun) Chinda Pichitra 6. Phraya Mahindrasakdi Dhamrong 13. Mon Phenkul 3. Mom Lek Bhanubandh na Ayudhya (Yongchaiyudh) 14. Phraya Nakornindra Ramanya 7. Thanpuying Hun Phenkul 15. Unknown

Внешние ссылки

• Bira, Гран -при водителя Текст: сайт AutoCourse
• Малкольм Кэмпбелл и Принц Бира Фото: Сайт Брукленда Общества
• Предварительные фотографии много фотографий: сайт общества Брукленда
• Его личный текст жизни.
• Краткая биография grandprix.com
• Снеллман, Л. 2000. Принц и я , 8W .
• Принц Бира на автомобильной библиотеке Crittenden Archived 3 марта 2016 года на The Wayback Machine , полная статистика F1 Race-By Race
• Bira International Circuit
• «Blue Wings to Bangkok», написанное принцем Бира 1953