Team story
Origins
Willi Krakau provided Harry Merkel with a BMW Eigenbau for the 1952 German Grand Prix: a privately built car using BMW components. Merkel came from motorcycles and sports-car racing; the Nürburgring entry was an excursion into World Championship single-seaters, then admitted under Formula 2 regulations.
The Formula 1 journey
The car did not start. Biographical sources describe the absence of a usable time and a failure to qualify, while the local result is recorded as DNS. The shared fact is clear: there was an entry, not a start, and no World Championship racing lap can be attributed to Krakau.
Historical timeline
Three chapters in the story of Krakau
Three episodes to revisit the people, cars and races that shaped this journey.
First appearance · German Grand Prix
Harry Merkel · German Grand Prix 1952. The recorded outcome is DNS. This is the first recorded race start, or the first entry if the team never started a race.
Sporting landmark · Krakau
No classified race result is documented for this part of Krakau’s record. The entries and cars listed elsewhere on the page provide the available reference points; they should not be read as completed races.
Latest recorded appearance · Krakau
No final race start is documented for this part of Krakau’s record. The entries and cars listed elsewhere on the page provide the available reference points; they should not be read as completed races.
A distinctive way of racing
The designation must be distinguished from the AFM in which Willi Krakau himself was entered. Merkel had the BMW special associated with Krakau’s name, not a works entry by the Bavarian manufacturer. The available sources do not allow a racing department, production series or independent company workforce to be reconstructed.
What remains
Merkel continued in sports cars, mainly of small engine capacity, without returning to the World Championship in a Krakau. The single-seater’s trace remains in the Nürburgring entry list. It is a case in which preserving a name means remembering a genuine attempt, but also the boundary between entering a Grand Prix and contesting it.