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Alberto Ascari
Ascari last photo in car.jpg
Ascari before a test in Montecarlo
Born (1918-07-13)13 July 1918
Milan, Kingdom of Italy
Died 26 May 1955(1955-05-26) (aged 36)
Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Italy
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality Italy Italian
Active years 19501955
Teams Ferrari, Maserati, Lancia
Entries 33 (32 starts)
Championships 2 (1952, 1953)
Wins 13
Podiums 17
Career points 107 914 (140 17)
Pole positions 14
Fastest laps 12
First entry 1950 Monaco Grand Prix
First win 1951 German Grand Prix
Last win 1953 Swiss Grand Prix
Last entry 1955 Monaco Grand Prix
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Years 1952–1953
Teams Scuderia Ferrari
Best finish DNF (1952, 1953)

Alberto Ascari (13 July 1918 – 26 May 1955) was an Italian racing driver and a two time Formula One World Champion. He was a multitalented racer who competed in motorcycle racing before switching to cars. Ascari won consecutive world titles in 1952 and 1953 for Scuderia Ferrari. He was the team's first World Champion and the last Italian to date to win the title. This was sandwiched by an appearance in the 1952 Indianapolis 500. Ascari also won the Mille Miglia in 1954. Ascari was noted for the careful precision and finely-judged accuracy that made him one of the safest drivers in a most dangerous era until his death.

Ascari remains along with Michael Schumacher Ferrari's only back-to-back World Champions, and he is also Ferrari's sole Italian champion. As the first driver to win multiple World Championship titles, he held the record for most World Championship titles in 1952–54; as a result he is one of 4 drivers to have held the record for most World Championship titles. Juan Manuel Fangio held the record in 1954-2002 (jointly with Ascari in 1954) and Michael Schumacher has held the record since 2002, although Schumacher now also shares that record with Lewis Hamilton.

When Alberto was a young child, his father, Antonio, who was also a famous racing driver, died in an accident at the 1925 French Grand Prix. Alberto once admitted that he warned his children not to become extremely close to him because of the risk involved in his profession. Unfortunately, his warning proved true when he was killed during a test session for Scuderia Ferrari at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza. Ascari was notoriously superstitious and took great pains to avoid tempting fate. His unexplained fatal accident – at the same age as his father's, on the same day of the month and in eerily similar circumstances – remains one of Formula One racing's great tragic coincidences.

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. Just a fortnight before Alberto's seventh birthday, Antonio was killed while leading the French Grand Prix in 1925 at the Autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry, but the younger Ascari had an interest in racing in spite of this. Such was his passion to become a racing driver like his father, twice he ran away from school.

He raced motorcycles in his earlier years. At the age of just 19, Ascari was signed to ride for the Bianchi team. It was after he entered the prestigious Mille Miglia in an Auto Avio Costruzioni 815, supplied by his father's close friend, Enzo Ferrari, in 1940 that he eventually started racing on four wheels regularly. He also married a local girl the same year.

When Italy entered World War II, the family garage, now run by Alberto, was conscripted to service and maintain vehicles of the Italian military. it was during this period, he established a lucrative transport business, supplying fuel to army depots in North Africa. His partner in the enterprise was a fellow racing driver, Luigi Villoresi. The pair did survive being capsized in Tripoli harbour along with a shipment of lorries. As their business supported the Italian war effort, it made them exempt from being called up during the war.

Career

Following the end of World War II Alberto Ascari began racing in Grands Prix with Maserati 4CLT. His teammate was Villoresi, who would become a mentor, teammate and friend to Ascari. The pair were successful on the circuits in the North of Italy. Soon he was bestowed with the nickname Ciccio, meaning "Tubby". 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, the Gran Premio di San Remo in 1948 and took second place in the RAC International Grand Prix the same year, at Silverstone.

Ascari argentina 1949
Ascari at the 1949 Buenos Aires Grand Prix (I), 29 Jan 1949

Ascari won another race with the team the following year, Gran Premio del General Juan Perón de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. His biggest success came when he and Villoresi signed for Scuderia Ferrari. The team boss, Enzo Ferrari, had been a great friend and teammate to Antonio Ascari, and had taken a keen interest in Alberto's successes. That year, 1949 with Ferrari team and won three more races that year.

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 famous French driver Raymond Sommer on the team. The team had a mixed year – their supercharged Tipo 125 was too slow to challenge the dominant Alfa Romeo team so instead Ferrari began working on an unblown 4.5l car. Much of the year was lost as the team's 2-litre Formula Two engine was progressively enlarged, though when the full 4.5l Tipo 375 arrived for the Gran Premio d'Italia (the final round of the championship) Ascari gave Alfa Romeo their sternest challenge of the year before retiring; he then took over teammate Dorino Serafini's car to finish second. The new Ferrari then won the non-championship Gran Premio do Penya Rhin.

Throughout 1951, Ascari was a threat to the Alfa Romeo team though initially he was undone by unreliability. However, after winning at the Nürburgring and Monza he was only two points behind Juan Manuel Fangio in the championship standings ahead of the climactic Gran Premio de España. Ascari took pole position, but a disastrous tyre choice for the race saw the Ferraris unable to challenge, Ascari coming home 4th while Fangio won the race and the title.

Ferrari500F2
Ascari and Villoresi in action at the 1952 Gran Premio d'Italia

For 1952 the World Championship season switched to using the 2-litre Formula Two regulations, with Ascari driving Ferrari's Tipo 500 car. He missed the first race of the championship season as he was qualifying for the Indianapolis 500, at the time a World Championship event. He was the only European driver to race at Indy in its 11 years on the World Championship schedule, but his race ended after 40 laps without having made much of an impression, as a result of a wheel collapse. Returning to Europe he then won the remaining six rounds of the series to clinch the world title (also taking five non-championship wins) and recording the fastest lap in each race. He scored the maximum number of points a driver could earn since only the best four of eight scores counted towards the World Championship. Fangio missed most of the season after a crash in the Gran Premio dell'Autodromo di Monza in June.

He won three more consecutive races to start the 1953 season, giving him nine straight championship wins (not counting Indy) before his streak ended when he finished fourth in France, although it was a close fourth as the race was highly competitive. He earned two more wins later in the year to give himself a second consecutive World Championship, already becoming Formula One's first two-time champion.

Following a dispute over his salary, Ascari left Ferrari at the end of the season and switched to Lancia for the 1954 campaign. However, as their car was not eventually ready for the final race of the season, Gianni Lancia allowed him to drive twice for Maserati (sharing fastest lap at the RAC British Grand Prix) and once for Ferrari. Ascari did at least get to win the Mille Miglia that year, driving a Lancia sportscar, surviving the dreadful weather and the failure of a throttle spring, which was temporarily replaced with a rubber band. When the Lancia D50 was ready, Ascari took pole position on its debut and led impressively early on (and set fastest lap) before retiring with a clutch problem, meaning a full season of competing against Fangio's previously dominant Mercedes was much anticipated.

D50 003
Ascari in the Lancia D50 in 1954

His 1955 season started promisingly, the Lancia taking victories at the non-championship races in Turin and Naples, where the Lancias took on and beat the hitherto all-conquering Mercedes. though in world championship event, he retired in Gran Premio de la Republica Argentina.

22 May 1955, the Grand Prix Automobiles de Monaco, it was late in the race when he crashed into the harbour, through hay bales and sandbags after missing a chicane while leading, reportedly distracted by either the crowd's reaction to Stirling Moss' retirement or the close attentions of the lapped Cesare Perdisa behind. Whatever distracted him, he approached the chicane too quickly, and chose the only way out and took his D50 clean through the barriers into the sea, narrowly missing a small barrel-sized iron bollard by about 30 cm. His car disappeared into the Mediterranean Sea and sank, marked only by an oil slick and stream of bubbles and steam. Three seconds passed before Ascari's pale blue helmet appeared bobbing on the surface. He was hauled into a boat and escaped with a broken nose.

Death

Ascari curva monza
The site of Ascari's fatal accident

On 26 May, he went to Monza to watch his friend Eugenio Castellotti test a Ferrari 750 Monza sports car. They were to co-drive the car in the 1000 km Monza race, having been given special dispensation by Lancia. Ascari was not supposed to drive that day but decided to try a few laps. In his jacket and tie, shirt sleeves, ordinary trousers and Castellotti's white helmet he set off. As he emerged from a fast curve on the third lap the car inexplicably skidded, turned on its nose and somersaulted twice. Thrown out onto the track, Ascari suffered multiple injuries and died a few minutes later. The crash occurred on the Curva del Vialone, one of the track's challenging high-speed corners. The corner where the accident happened, renamed in his honour, has been subsequently replaced with a chicane, now called Variante Ascari.

Ascari funeral
Ascari's funeral

Motor racing fans from all over mourned, as Ascari was laid to rest next to the grave of his father in the Cimitero Monumentale in Milan, to be forever remembered as one of the greatest racers of all time. His distraught wife Mietta Ascari told Enzo Ferrari that "were it not for their children she would gladly have joined her beloved Alberto in heaven". His death is often considered to be a contributing factor to the withdrawal of Lancia from motor racing in 1955, just three days after his funeral (though the company was also in considerable financial trouble, needing a government subsidy to survive), handing his team, drivers, cars and spare parts over to Enzo Ferrari.

Legacy

A street in Rome (in the Esposizione Universale Roma area) is named in his honour, while both the Autodromo Nazionale Monza and Autodromo Oscar Alfredo Gálvez have chicanes named after him. In 1992, he was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame. The British supercar manufacturer Ascari Cars is named in his honour.

Italian-born American racing legend Mario Andretti counts Ascari as one of his racing heroes, having watched him at the Monza circuit in his youth.

Alberto Ascari also appears in Mark Sullivan's novel Beneath a Scarlet Sky.

In 1972 one of the chicanes at the Monza circuit was named in his honor Variante Ascari.

Ascari was inducted into the FIA Hall of Fame in December 2017.

In 2009, an Autosport survey taken by 217 Formula One drivers saw Ascari voted as the sixteenth greatest F1 driver of all time. In 2020, Carteret Analytics used quantitative analysis methods to rank Formula One drivers. According to this ranking, Ascari is Formula 1's fourth best driver of all time.

Racing record

Career highlights

Season Series Position Team Car
1947 Sehab Almaz Bey Trophy 2nd Cisitalia-Fiat D46
1948 Gran Premio di San Remo 1st Maserati 4CLT/48
Circuito di Pescara 1st Maserati A6GCS
RAC International Grand Prix 2nd Maserati 4CLT/48
Grand Prix de l'ACF 3rd Alfa Romeo 158
1949 Gran Premio del General Juan Perón y de la Ciudad Buenos Aires 1st Scuderia Ambrosiana Maserati 4CLT
Gran Premio di Bari 1st Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 166C
Grand Prix de Suisse 1st Ferrari 125
Coupe des Petites Cylindrées 1st Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 166C
Daily Express BRDC International Trophy 1st Ferrari 125
Lausanne Grand Prix 1st
Gran Premio d'Italia 1st
Gran Premio del General Juan Perón y de la Ciudad Buenos Aires 1st Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 166 FL
Copa Acción de San Lorenzo 3rd Scuderia Ambrosiana Maserati 4CLT
Grand Prix de Belgique 3rd Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 125
Gran Premio dell'Autodromo di Monza 3rd Ferrari 166C
1950 Gran Premio Internacional del General San Martín 1st Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 166 FL
Gran Premio di Modena 1st Ferrari 166 F2/50
Grand Prix de Mons 1st
Grand Prix de Luxembourg 1st Ferrari 166 MM
Gran Premio di Roma 1st Ferrari 166 F2/50
Coupe ds Petites Cylindrées 1st
Großer Preis von Deutschland 1st
Circuito del Garda 1st
Grand Premio do Penya Rhin 1st Ferrari 375
Grand Prix de Marseilles 2nd Ferrari 166 F2/50
Grand Prix Automobile de Monaco 2nd Ferrari 125
Gran Premio dell'Autodromo di Monza 2nd Ferrari 166 F2/50
Gran Premio d'Italia 2nd Ferrari 125
Grote Prijs van Nederland 3rd Ferrari 166
FIA Formula One World Championship 5th Ferrari 125
Ferrari 166 F2/50
Ferrari 275
Ferrari 375
1951 Rallye del Sestriere 1st Lancia Aurelia
Gran Premio di San Remo 1st Ferrari 375
Gran Premio dell'Autodromo di Monza 1st Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 166 F2/50
Gran Premio di Napoli 1st
Großer Preis von Deutschland 1st Ferrari 375
Gran Premio d'Italia 1st
Gran Premio di Modena 1st Ferrari 500
FIA Formula One World Championship 2nd Ferrari 375
Grote Prijs van Belgie 2nd
Grand Prix de l'A.C.F. 2nd
Carrera Panamericana 2nd Centro Deportivo Italiano Ferrari 212 Inter Vignale
1952 FIA Formula One World Championship 1st Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 500
Grand Prix de France 1st
Gran Premio di Siracusa 1st
Grand Prix Automobile de Pau 1st
Grand Prix de Marseille 1st
Grote Prijs van Belgie 1st
Grand Prix de l'ACF 1st
RAC British Grand Prix 1st
Großer Preis von Deutschland 1st
Grand Prix du Comminges 1st
Grote Prijs van Nederland 1st
Grand Prix de La Baule 1st
Gran Premio d'Italia 1st
Grand Prix de la Marne 3rd
Gran Premio di Modena 3rd
1953 FIA Formula One World Championship 1st Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 500
Gran Premio de la Republica Argentina 1st
Grand Prix Automobile de Pau 1st
Grand Prix de Bordeaux 1st
Grote Prijs van Nederland 1st
Grote Prijs van Belgie 1st
RAC British Grand Prix 1st
Großer Preis der Schweiz 1st
Internationales ADAC-1000 km Rennen Weltmeisterschaftslauf Nürburgring 1st Automobili Ferrari Ferrari 375 MM Vignale Spyder
12 Hours of Casablanca 2nd Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 500 Mondial
1954 Mille Miglia 1st Scuderia Lancia Lancia D24
FIA Formula One World Championship 25th Officine Alfieri Maserati
Scuderia Ferrari
Scuderia Lancia
Maserati 250F
Ferrari 625
Lancia D50
1955 Gran Premio del Valentino 1st Scuderia Lancia Lancia D50
Gran Premio di Napoli 1st Scuderia Lancia Lancia D50

Complete Formula One 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 Pts
1950 Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 125 Ferrari 125 1.5 V12s GBR MON
2
500 SUI
Ret
5th 11
Ferrari 275 Ferrari 275 3.3 V12 BEL
5
FRA
DNS
Ferrari 375 Ferrari 375 4.5 V12 ITA
2*
1951 Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 375 Ferrari 375 4.5 V12 SUI
6
500
BEL
2
FRA
2†
GBR
Ret
GER
1
ITA
1
ESP
4
2nd 25 (28)
1952 Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 375S Ferrari 375 4.5 V12 500
Ret
1st 36 (53 12)
Ferrari 500 Ferrari 500 2.0 L4 SUI BEL
1
FRA
1
GBR
1
GER
1
NED
1
ITA
1
1953 Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 500 Ferrari 500 2.0 L4 ARG
1
500 NED
1
BEL
1
FRA
4
GBR
1
GER
8‡
SUI
1
ITA
Ret
1st 34 12 (46 12)
1954 Officine Alfieri Maserati Maserati 250F Maserati 250F1 2.5 L6 ARG 500 BEL FRA
Ret
GBR
Ret
GER SUI 25th 1 17
Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 625 Ferrari 625 2.5 L4 ITA
Ret
Scuderia Lancia Lancia D50 Lancia DS50 2.5 V8 ESP
Ret
1955 Scuderia Lancia Lancia D50 Lancia DS50 2.5 V8 ARG
Ret
MON
Ret
500 BEL NED GBR ITA NC 0
Source:

* Indicates shared drive with Dorino Serafini
† Indicates shared drive with José Froilán González
‡ Indicates shared drive with Luigi Villoresi

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
1950 Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 166 F2-50 Ferrari 166 F2 2.0 V12 PAU
Ret
RIC BAR
Ret
JER NED
3
Ferrari 125 Ferrari 125 1.5 V12s SRM
Ret
PAR EMP ALB
Ret
NAT
4
NOT ULS PES STT INT
DNQ
GOO
Ferrari 375 Ferrari 375 4.5 V12 PEN
1
1951 Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 375 Ferrari 375 4.5 V12 SYR
Ret
PAU
Ret
RIC SRM
1
BOR INT PAR ULS SCO NED ALB PES
Ret
BAR
Ret
GOO
1952 Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 500 Ferrari 500 2.0 L4 SYR
1
PAU
1
IBS MAR
1
AST INT ELÄ NAP EIF PAR ALB FRO ULS MNZ
Ret
LAC ESS MAR
3*
SAB
Ret
CAE DMT COM
1†
NAT BAU
1
MOD
3‡
CAD SKA MAD AVU JOE NEW
Ferrari 375 Ferrari 375 4.5 V12 VAL
5
RIC LAV
1953 Scuderia Ferrari Ferrari 500 Ferrari 500 2.0 L4 SYR
Ret
PAU
1
LAV AST BOR
1
INT ELÄ NAP
5
ULS WIN FRO COR EIF
Ferrari 375 Ferrari 375 4.5 V12 ALB
DNQ
PRI ESS MID ROU CRY AVU USF LAC BRI CHE SAB NEW CAD RED SKA LON MOD MAD JOE CUR
1955 Scuderia Lancia Lancia D50 Lancia DS50 2.5 V8 VAL
1
PAU
5
GLO BOR INT NAP
1
ALB CUR COR LON DRT RED DTT OUL AVO SYR
Source:

* Indicates shared drive with Luigi Villoresi
† Indicates shared drive with André Simon
‡ Indicates shared drive with Sergio Sighinolfi

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps Pos. Class
Pos.
1952 Italy Scuderia Ferrari Italy Luigi Villoresi Ferrari 250 S Berlinetta Vignale S3.0 DNF DNF
1953 Italy Scuderia Ferrari Italy Luigi Villoresi Ferrari 340 MM Pininfarina Berlinetta S5.0 229 DNF DNF

Complete 12 Hours of Sebring results

Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps Pos. Class
Pos.
1954 Italy Scuderia Lancia Co. Italy Luigi Villoresi Lancia D24 S5.0 87 DNF DNF

Complete 24 Hours of Spa results

Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps Pos. Class
Pos.
1953 Italy Scuderia Ferrari Italy Luigi Villoresi Ferrari 375 MM Pininfarina Berlinetta S 216 DNF DNF

Complete Mille Miglia results

Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Pos. Class
Pos.
1940 Italy Alberto Ascari Italy Giovanni Minozzi Auto Avio Costruzioni 815 1.5 DNF DNF
1948 Italy Scuderia Ambrosiana Italy Guerino Bertocchi Maserati A6GCS S2./+2.0 DNF DNF
1950 Italy Scuderia Ferrari Italy Senesio Nicolini Ferrari 275 S Barchetta Touring S+2.0 DNF DNF
1951 Italy Scuderia Ferrari Italy Senesio Nicolini Ferrari 340 America Barchetta Touring S/GT+2.0 DNF DNF
1954 Italy Scuderia Lancia Lancia D24 S+2.0 1st 1st

Complete Carrera Panamericana results

Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Pos. Class
Pos.
1951 Mexico Centro Deportivo Italian Italy Luigi Villoresi Ferrari 212 Inter Vignale IC 2nd 2nd
1952 Mexico Industrias 1-2-3 Italy Giuseppe Scotuzzi Ferrari 340 Mexico Vignale Spyder S DNF DNF

Complete 12 Hours of Casablanca results

Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Pos. Class
Pos.
1953 Italy Scuderia Ferrari Portugal Casimiro de Oliveira Ferrari 375 MM S+2.0 DNS DNS
Italy Scuderia Ferrari Italy Luigi Villoresi Ferrari 500 Mondial S2.0 2nd 1st

Indianapolis 500 results

Year Chassis Engine Start Finish Team
1952 Ferrari 375 Special Ferrari 19 31 Scuderia Ferrari

Formula One records

Ascari holds the following Formula One records:

Record Achieved
Highest percentage of wins in a season 75% race wins in 1952, winning 6 out of 8 races
Highest percentage of fastest laps in a season 75% fastest laps in 1952, setting the fastest lap in 6 out of 8 races
Most consecutive fastest laps 7 fastest laps: Belgian, French, British, German, Dutch, Italian / '53 Argentine
Highest percentage of possible championship points in a season 100% in 1952
Most hat tricks (pole, win & fastest lap in same race) in a season 5 in 1952
Most consecutive laps in the lead 304 laps in the lead between 1952 Belgian Grand Prix and 1952 Dutch Grand Prix

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Alberto Ascari para niños

  • Walk of Fame of Italian sport
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