Unforgettable Car Geniuses: Rudolf Uhlenhaut – The Engineer Who Beat His Drivers

Those who create great things do not always have the ability to experience their quality and content. Most creators do not resemble what they make. Some do, however, and in this field, the automobile has an example that is as shining as it is little known.
Born with the fire of the automobile, at just 30 years of age already technical manager of the Mercedes racing department where, under his leadership, the W 154 Grand Prix single-seater was created that dominated the races of the late 1930s, Rudolf Uhlenhaut not only designed the Grand Prix cars but tested them personally!
The drivers of those days, even the very talented ones, were quite different from those of today who are able, thanks to new technologies, to interpret the faults or possible improvements of single-seaters. This lack put the German engineer (even though he was born in London where his family had temporarily moved) in a position to understand how he could improve the car. Without any hesitation whatsoever, one day he had a W 125 Grand Prix car, a single-seater that had been made before his arrival and that did not shine in racing, brought to the Nurburgring racetrack - not an easy track with few bends - and started to run. He drove so well that in a few weeks he reached professional levels and, and this was what he was looking for, he understood how to improve the car, something his drivers had not been able to do. This experience contributed to the birth of the unbeatable W 154.