Early life

Born in Milan, Ascari was the son of Antonio Ascari, a talented Grand Prix motor racing star in the 1920s, racing Alfa Romeos. Antonio was killed while leading the French Grand Prix in 1925 but the younger Ascari had an interest in racing in spite of it. He raced motorcycles in his earlier years; it was after he entered the prestigious Mille Miglia in a Ferrari sports car that he eventually started racing on four wheels regularly.

Formula One/World Championship career

Alberto Ascari at the wheel of a Maserati 4CLT/48, on his way to second place in the 1948 British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Following the end of World War II Alberto Ascari began racing in Grands Prix with Maserati. His team-mate was Luigi Villoresi, who would become a mentor and friend to Ascari. Formula One regulations were introduced by the FIA in 1946, with the aim of eventually replacing the pre-war Grand Prix structure. During the next four transitional years, Ascari was at the top of his game, winning numerous events around Europe. He won his first Grand Prix race in Sanremo, Italy in 1948 and took second place in the British Grand Prix the same year. Ascari won another race with the team the following year. His biggest success came after he joined Villoresi on the Ferrari team; he won three more races that year with them. The first Formula One World Championship season took place in 1950, and the Ferrari team made its World Championship debut at Monte Carlo with Ascari, Villoresi, and the popular French driver Raymond Sommer on the team. Ascari finished 2nd in the race and later in the year shared a 2nd place at the first World Championship race at Monza. He was only 5th in the championship standings however. He won his first World Championship F1 race the following season on the Nrburgring circuit and added a win at Monza, finishing runner up in the championship to Juan Manuel Fangio.

With success in Europe, Enzo Ferrari supplied a car for Ascari in the Indianapolis 500, at the time a World Championship event, in 1952. He was the only European driver to race at Indy in its 11 years on the World Championship schedule, but his day ended after 40 laps. That was the only World Championship event in which he competed that season that he didn’t win. Ascari’s Ferrari Tipo 500 dominated 1952, winning all six races in Europe that season and recording the fastest lap in each race. He nearly scored the maximum amount of points a driver could earn, but drivers were given points for fastest laps at the time, and he had to share a half point with another driver in one race.

He won three more consecutive races to start the 1953 season, giving him nine straight wins (not counting Indy) before his streak ended when he finished 4th in France, although it was a close 4th as the race was highly competitive. He earned two more wins later in the year to give himself a second consecutive World Championship. Ascari switched to Maserati and Lancia in 1954 but did not continue his dominance as he failed to finish a race in his four attempts at F1, although he made up for it by winning the Mille Miglia.

Death

His 1955 season started similarly, retiring twice more, the latter of which was a spectacular incident in Monaco where he crashed into the harbour after missing a chicane. Four days later, on May 26, he went to Monza to watch his friend Eugenio Castellotti test a Ferrari 750 Monza sports car, which they were to co-race in the Supercortemaggiore 1000 km race (having been given special dispensation by Lancia). Just before going home to have lunch with his wife Mietta, he decided to try a few laps with the Ferrari. In shirt sleeves, ordinary trousers and Castellotti helmet he set off. As he emerged from a fast curve on the third lap the car unaccountably skidded, turned on its nose and somersaulted twice. Thrown out on the track, Ascari suffered multiple injuries and died a few minutes later.

The crash occurred on the Curva di Vialone, one of the track’s challenging high-speed corners. The corner where the accident happened, renamed in his honour, no longer exists, having been replaced with a chicane, the Variante Ascari.

Legend has it that Ascari was a very superstitious man and would always insist on using his distinct pale blue crash helmet. On the day he died, his helmet wasn available, so he borrowed Castellotti white one. The helmet was at the repair shop, having new chin strap fitted after the incident in Monte Carlo which saw Ascari’s Lancia take a dip in the Monaco harbour.

The eerie similarities between the deaths of Alberto and his father still haunt his fans to this day. Alberto Ascari died on May 26, 1955, at the age of 36. Antonio Ascari was also 36 when he died, on July 26, 1925 (Alberto was only 4 days older). Both father and son had won 13 championship Grand Prix and drove car number 26. Both were killed four days after surviving serious accidents and on the 26th day of the month. Both had crashed fatally at the exit of fast but easy left-hand corners and both left behind a wife and two children. Fans from all across the globe mourned as Alberto Ascari was laid to rest next to the grave of his father in the Cimitero Monumentale cemetery in Milan, to be forever remembered as one of the greatest racers of all time.

A distraught Mietta Ascari told Enzo Ferrari that “were it not for their children she would gladly have joined her beloved Alberto in heaven”.

Another curiosity is that the only other driver to crash into the harbour at Monaco in the circuit’s history, Paul Hawkins, also died on the 26th of May. Hawkins crashed into the harbour 10 years after Ascari, before dying when his Lola crashed into a tree at a Tourist Trophy race at Oulton Park.

Legacy

The British manufacturer, Ascari Cars of the Ascari KZ1 supercar is named in his honour.

In 1992, he was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame.

There is a street in Rome (in the EUR region) named in his honour.

The Ascari Chicane at Autodromo Nazionale Monza is named after him.

Complete World Championship 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

WDC

Points

1950

Scuderia Ferrari

Ferrari 125

Ferrari V12

GBR

MON

2

500

SUI

Ret

FRA

DNS

5th

11

Ferrari 125/275

BEL

5

Ferrari 375

ITA

2 *

1951

Scuderia Ferrari

Ferrari 375

Ferrari V12

SUI

6

500

BEL

2

FRA

2
GBR

Ret

GER

1

ITA

1

ESP

4

2nd

25 (28)

1952

Scuderia Ferrari

Ferrari 375

Ferrari V12

500

Ret

1st

36 (53.5)

Ferrari 500

Ferrari Straight-4

SUI

BEL

1

FRA

1

GBR

1

GER

1

NED

1

ITA

1

1953

Scuderia Ferrari

Ferrari 500

Ferrari Straight-4

ARG

1

500

NED

1

BEL

1

FRA

4

GBR

1

GER

8
SUI

1

ITA

Ret

1st

34.5 (46.5)

1954

Officine Alfieri Maserati

Maserati 250F

Maserati Straight-6

ARG

500

BEL

FRA

Ret

GBR

Ret

GER

SUI

25th

1.14

Scuderia Ferrari

Ferrari 625

Ferrari Straight-4

ITA

Ret

Scuderia Lancia

Lancia D50

Lancia V8

ESP

Ret

1955

Scuderia Lancia

Lancia D50

Lancia V8

ARG

Ret

MON

Ret

500

BEL

NED

GBR

ITA

NC

0

* Indicates shared drive with Dorino Serafini

Indicates shared drive with Jos Froiln Gonzlez

Indicates shared drive with Luigi Villoresi

World Championship Records

During the 1952 and 1953 World Championship seasons, Ascari set the fastest lap in 7 successive races, an achievement that has not been matched to date. The driver to have come closest is Kimi Rikknen with 6 (in 2008).

During the 1952 and 1953 World Championship seasons, Ascari won 9 World Championship Grands Prix in succession. Note that to arrive at the statistic of 9 successive races requires the exclusion of the 1953 Indianapolis 500. This caveat is usually permitted on the basis that the Indianapolis 500, whilst a round of the World Championship, was run to a different formula from the other World Championship events, and very few of the regular World Championship teams and drivers competed at Indianapolis and vice versa (Ascari’s participation in the 1952 Indianapolis race being one of the few exceptions).

Indy 500 results

Year

Car

Start

Qual

Rank

Finish

Laps

Led

Retired

1952

12

19

134.308

25

31

40

0

Spun T4

Totals

40

0

Starts

1

Poles

0

Front Row

0

Wins

0

Top 5

0

Top 10

0

Retired

1

Ascari was the only regular F1 driver to participate in the Indianapolis 500 while the race was part of the FIA World Championship (19501960).

References

^ a b Up until 1990, not all points scored by a driver contributed to their final World Championship tally (see list of pointscoring systems for more information). Numbers without parentheses are Championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored.

^ Alberto Ascari Indy 500 Race Stats

Other references

“Most Fastest Laps in Series in One Season”. Formula 1 Review. http://www.formula1review.com/content/view/341/30/. Retrieved 10 October 2006. 

External links

Grand Prix History – Hall of Fame, Alberto Ascari

Alberto Ascari statistics

Alberto Ascari on Find-A-Grave

Speed circuit in Ronda (Spain)

Sporting positions

Preceded by

inaugural winner

BRDC International Trophy winner

1949

Succeeded by

Giuseppe Farina

Preceded by

Juan Manuel Fangio

Formula One World Champion

1952-1953

Succeeded by

Juan Manuel Fangio

Records

Preceded by

Reg Parnell

38 years, 315 days

(1950 British GP)

Youngest Driver to score a

Podium Position in Formula One

31 years, 312 days

(1950 Monaco Grand Prix)

Succeeded by

Manny Ayulo

29 years, 221 days

(1951 Indianapolis 500)

Preceded by

Reg Parnell

38 years, 315 days

(1950 British GP)

Youngest Driver to score

Points in Formula One

31 years, 312 days

(1950 Monaco Grand Prix)

Succeeded by

Cecil Green

30 years, 242 days

(1950 Indianapolis 500)

Preceded by

Juan Manuel Fangio

6 wins

(1950 – 1952)

Most Grand Prix wins

13 wins,

7th at the 1952 Dutch GP

Succeeded by

Juan Manuel Fangio

24 wins,

14th at the 1955 Argentine GP

Preceded by

Juan Manuel Fangio

40 years, 126 days

(1951 season)

Youngest Formula One

World Drivers’ Champion

34 years, 16 days

(1952 season)

Succeeded by

Mike Hawthorn

29 years, 192 days

(1958 season)

v  d  e

Formula One World Drivers’ Champions

   

1950  G. Farina

1951  J.M. Fangio

1952  A. Ascari

1953  A. Ascari

1954  J.M. Fangio

1955  J.M. Fangio

1956  J.M. Fangio

1957  J.M. Fangio

1958  M. Hawthorn

1959  J. Brabham

1960  J. Brabham

1961  P. Hill

1962  G. Hill

1963  J. Clark

1964  J. Surtees

1965  J. Clark

1966  J. Brabham

1967  D. Hulme

1968  G. Hill

1969  J. Stewart

1970  J. Rindt

1971  J. Stewart

1972  E. Fittipaldi

1973  J. Stewart

1974  E. Fittipaldi

1975  N. Lauda

1976  J. Hunt

1977  N. Lauda

1978  M. Andretti

1979  J. Scheckter

1980  A. Jones

1981  N. Piquet

1982  K. Rosberg

1983  N. Piquet

1984  N. Lauda

1985  A. Prost

1986  A. Prost

1987  N. Piquet

1988  A. Senna

1989  A. Prost

1990  A. Senna

1991  A. Senna

1992  N. Mansell

1993  A. Prost

1994  M. Schumacher

1995  M. Schumacher

1996  D. Hill

1997  J. Villeneuve

1998  M. Hkkinen

1999  M. Hkkinen

2000  M. Schumacher

2001  M. Schumacher

2002  M. Schumacher

2003  M. Schumacher

2004  M. Schumacher

2005  F. Alonso

2006  F. Alonso

2007  K. Rikknen

2008  L. Hamilton

2009  J. Button

v  d  e

 Scuderia Ferrari

Founder: Enzo Ferrari

President: Luca Cordero di Montezemolo

Current personnel: Mario Almondo  Luca Baldisserri  Aldo Costa  Stefano Domenicali  Luca Marmorini  Rob Smedley  Chris Dyer  Andrea Stella   Massimo Rivola   Nicholas Tombazis

Former personnel: John Barnard  Ross Brawn  Gustav Brunner  Rory Byrne  Carlo Chiti  Gioacchino Colombo  Cesare Fiorio  Mauro Forghieri  Vittorio Jano  Aurelio Lampredi  Harvey Postlethwaite  Gilles Simon  Nigel Stepney  Jean Todt

Current drivers:   7. Felipe Massa    8. Fernando Alonso

Test Drivers:  Giancarlo Fisichella   Luca Badoer   Marc Gene   Jules Bianchi

Former drivers

World Champions:  Alberto Ascari   Juan Manuel Fangio   Mike Hawthorn   Phil Hill   Niki Lauda   Jody Scheckter   Kimi Rikknen   Michael Schumacher   John Surtees

Formula One cars: 125  212  166  275  340  375  500  553  625  555  D50  801  246  156  158  1512  312  312B  312T  126C  156/85  F1/86  F1/87  640  641  642  643  F92A  F93A  412T  F310  F300  F399  F1-2000  F2001  F2002  F2003-GA  F2004  F2005  248 F1  F2007  F2008  F60  F10

Categories: 1918 births | 1955 deaths | People from Milan | Grand Prix drivers | Italian racecar drivers | Italian Formula One drivers | Ferrari Formula One drivers | Indy 500 drivers | 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers | International Motorsports Hall of Fame | Racecar drivers killed while racing | Motorcycle racers who have driven F1 cars | Mille Miglia drivers | Sport deaths in Italy

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