Alberto Ascari

Alberto Ascari

Nation:	Italy
Automobile world championship
First start:	Monaco Grand Prix 1950
Last start:	1955 Monaco Grand Prix
Constructors
1950–1953  Ferrari  • 1954  Maserati  • 1954–1955  Lancia
statistics
World Cup balance:	World Champion ( 1952 , 1953 )
Starts Victories Poles SR 32 13 14th 12
World Cup points :	140.14
Podiums :	17th
Leadership laps :	927 over 5902.0 km

Alberto Ascari (born July 13, 1918 in Milan , † May 26, 1955 in Monza ) was an Italian racing driver . He started in the automotive world championship ( Formula 1 ) in the early 1950s , where he was one of the most successful drivers with 13 Grand Prix victories and two world championship titles. Ascari had an accident in 1955 during a test drive. The Ascari chicane, a combination of corners of the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, was named after him .

life and career

Childhood and first beginnings

Ascari was just seven years old when his father, Antonio Ascari , a well-known racing driver from the 1920s, was killed in a racing accident in Montlhéry . Nevertheless, Alberto decided to become a racing driver too. From 1937 he started on Bianchi - motorcycles , and in 1940 he came racing race car to his first, him as Enzo Ferrari the first he built cars for the Mille Miglia offered. This did not take place on the traditional Brescia - Rome - Brescia route , but on a circuit in northern Italy : nine laps of 167 km each . Ascari led in his class for a short time, but retired after a defect.

the post war period

After the forced break caused by the Second World War , Alberto Ascari caused a sensation in 1947 when he finished second in a race in Cairo in which all drivers had identical Cisitalia cars. This placement ensured his commitment to Maserati , where he met his fatherly friend Luigi Villoresi . Together they contested many races for the Italian team, but often failed due to the unreliability of the car. In 1948 , Ascari was second in the Grand Prix of Great Britain behind Villoresi on a Maserati 4CLT / 48 of the Scuderia Ambrosiana . At the French Grand Prix in 1948 , he joined the Alfa-Romeo - factory team alongside Jean-Pierre Wimille and Consalvo Sanesi on a Tipo 158 on. Behind his two team-mates, Ascari took third place

The Ferrari years (1949–1953)

Alberto Ascari before Luigi Villoresi; both drive a Ferrari 500 at the 1952 Italian Grand Prix

From the 1949 season , Ascari and Villoresi drove for Scuderia Ferrari . Since the dominant team of the post-war period, Alfa Romeo, took a break in 1949, Ascari was one of the best drivers of the year with victories at the Swiss Grand Prix and the Italian Grand Prix .

In the 1950 season , when the drivers' world championship was held for the first time, Ascari in the Ferrari was not yet able to keep up with the regained Alfa Romeos, he finished fifth in the championship. However, he won several races that were not part of the world championship .

1951 Ascari celebrated his first victory in World Cup races, he won the Grand Prix of Germany and Italy and delivered with Juan Manuel Fangio a heated battle for the World Championship, which he by the wrong tire choice in the decisive race, the Spanish Grand Prix the on Circuit de Pedralbes lost in Barcelona .

Ferrari and Ascari completely dominated the seasons 1952 and 1953 , in which the World Cup was held according to the rules of Formula 2 . In 1952, Ascari won every world championship race in which he competed, with one exception: The 500 miles from Indianapolis , which Enzo Ferrari also wanted to win for PR reasons, failed because Ascari's car was eliminated after a spoke broke - the Americans, however already rode with modern magnesium wheels . In 1953, Ascari won five of the nine races and defended his world title.

At the end of 1953 there was a break with Enzo Ferrari, who wanted to dismiss Ascari's friend and teammate Villoresi. Ascari remained loyal to his friend and also resigned from the Scuderia.

The Lancia period (1954–1955)

Ascari and Villoresi signed with Lancia , which wanted to enter Formula 1 in the 1954 season . Since the car, the D50 designed by Vittorio Jano , was not finished until the end of the season, Ascari drove for Maserati at times without achieving any success. In the Lancia sports car, however, he won the world's most famous road race , the Mille Miglia . Lancia's debut at the Spanish Grand Prix was sensational: Ascari took pole position and led until lap 17 before retiring due to a defect.

The 1955 season should have been the breakthrough for Lancia. Ascari led the Argentine Grand Prix , but retired after an accident. After victories in two smaller races that did not belong to the World Cup, the Monaco Grand Prix came : after the leading Mercedes had retired, he was in the lead for a short time, but skidded at a chicane and fell into the harbor basin, from which he took off Sailors of the shipowner Onassis was recovered. Four days later he privately tested a Ferrari sports car in Monza . For some inexplicable reason, he went off the track, rolled over and suffered fatal injuries. There are various speculations about the cause. More recent statements suggest that he had to avoid workers who crossed the route carelessly.

With Alberto Ascari, motorsport lost one of its best drivers and one of the first to prepare for the races with physical training. Lancia, which also struggled with considerable financial difficulties, decided not to continue motorsport after Ascari's death and handed over the car and material to Ferrari in July 1955.

For winning the German Grand Prix in 1950 , Ascari was awarded the Silver Laurel Leaf in the same year (August 20, 1950) .

Trivia

In 1950, Ascari and his driver colleague Luigi Villoresi played a key role in persuading Enzo Ferrari to give motorboat racing driver Achille Castoldi an engine from the Ferrari 375 F1 for his Arno XI project , with which Castoldi set a world record that is still valid today .

statistics

Statistics in the automobile world championship

Grand Prix victories

1951 Germany ( Nürburg )  1951 Italy ( Monza )  1952 Belgium ( Spa-Francorchamps )  1952 France ( Rouen )  1952 Great Britain ( Silverstone )

1952 Germany (Nürburg)  1952 Netherlands ( Zandvoort )  1952 Italy (Monza)  1953 Argentina ( Buenos Aires )  1953 Netherlands (Zandvoort)

1953 Belgium (Spa-Francorchamps)  1953 Great Britain (Silverstone)  1953 Switzerland ( Bremgarten )

general overview

season	team	chassis	engine	run	Victories	Second	Third	Poles	nice Race laps	Points	WM-Pos.
1950	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 125F1	Ferrari 1.5 V12s	2	-	1	-	-	-	11	5.
		Ferrari 275F1	Ferrari 3.3 V12	1	-	-	-	-	-
		Ferrari 375	Ferrari 4.5 V12	1	-	1	-	-	-
1951	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 375	Ferrari 4.5 V12	7th	2	2	-	2	-	25 (28)	2.
1952	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 375S	Ferrari 4.5 V12	1	-	-	-	-	-	36 (53.5)	1.
		Ferrari 500	Ferrari 2.0 L4	6th	6th	-	-	5	6th
1953	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 500	Ferrari 2.0 L4	8th	5	-	-	6th	4th	34.5 (46.5)	1.
1954	Officine Alfieri Maserati	Maserati 250F	Maserati 2.5 L6	2	-	-	-	-	1	1.14	25th
	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 625F1	Ferrari 2.5 L4	1	-	-	-	-	-
	Scuderia Lancia	Lancia D50	Lancia 2.5 V8	1	-	-	-	1	2
1955	Scuderia Lancia	Lancia D50	Lancia 2.5 V8	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
total				32	13	4th	-	14th	13	107.64 (140.14)

Single results

season	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9
1950
		2		DNF	5		DNF / DNF
1951
	6th		2	DNF / 2	DNF	1	1	(4)
1952
		31	1	1	1	1	(1)	(1)
1953
	1		1	(1)	(4)	1	DNF / (8)	1	DNF
1954
				DNF	DNF / DNF			DNF	DNF
1955
	DNF	DNF

Legend
colour	abbreviation	meaning
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1952	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 250S Berlinetta Vignale	Luigi Villoresi	failure	Clutch damage
1953	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 340MM Berlinetta Pininfarina	Luigi Villoresi	failure	Clutch damage

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1954	Scuderia Lancia	Lancia D24	Luigi Villoresi	failure	Brakes

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th
1953	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 340MM Ferrari 375MM	SEB	MIM	LEM	SPA	ONLY	RTT	CAP
					DNF	DNF	1
1954	Lancia	Lancia D24 Lancia D25	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	CAP
				DNF	1		DNF

Web links

Commons : Alberto Ascari  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Nigel Roebuck: Alberto Ascari: The last great Italian Grand Prix star. motorsportmagazine.com, July 1, 2012, accessed April 24, 2020 . 
• Leif Snellman: Alberto Ascari (I). www.kolumbus.fi, January 28, 2015, accessed March 15, 2015 . 
• Alberto Ascari. www.24h-en-piste.com, accessed on March 28, 2020 (French). 
• Alberto Ascari in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sports report of the Federal Government of September 29, 1973 to the Bundestag, printed matter 7/1040 page 67
2. ^ Mathias Brunner: Crazy: racing boat with Formula 1 engine from Ferrari. SPEEDWEEK, August 19, 2019, accessed on January 12, 2020 .