Sunday 28th September 1947

Alberto ‘Ciccio’ Ascari recorded his first automobile racing victory at Modena, Italy driving a Maserati. In today’s corporate-driven, spit-and-polish world of Formula 1, Italian champion Alberto Ascari would never make it as a driver. Carrying enough extra pounds to earn the nickname “Ciccio” (Chubby) from his legions of fans, Ascari’s superstitions alone would be enough to keep him out of racing’s highest levels. Things were different in the early 1950s, and Ascari would prove to be a champion of the people, beloved for his flaws as much as for his calm and fearless demeanor behind the wheel. That his superstitions would fail to save his life, and that his death so closely resembled that of his Grand Prix champion father, remains among racing’s oddest stories. His driving career began with the 1940 Brescia Grand Prix, where family friend Enzo Ferrari helped Ascari earn a ride in an Auto Avio Construzioni 815, the first car to be designed and built by Ferrari himself. Ascari’s day would end early with mechanical troubles, but his path was set, and his attention turned to racing automobiles. The outbreak of the Second World War intervened, and Ascari found himself tasked with servicing and repairing military vehicles in the family’s garage in Milan. As a sideline, Ascari formed a transport business with racing driver Luigi Villoresi, another family friend who also served as Ascari’s racing mentor.By the conclusion of the war, Ascari found himself with a wife, Mietta, a daughter, Patrizia, and a son, Antonio, named in honor of Alberto’s beloved father. Racing again beckoned, but Ascari was torn between the desire to drive and the responsibilities of being a father. By 1948, however, the temptation to resume his career proved to be too great. Though the season would produce a single non-championship win, driving a Maserati at San Remo, Ascari seemed to have convinced himself that his cautious ways would reduce the sport’s inherent risks to an acceptable level.
His 1949 season began with Maserati, and he delivered a win in the season-opening Buenos Aires Grand Prix. It was not a championship points race, however, so the victory counted for little more than glory. Shortly after, his old friend Luigi Villoresi lured him to the Ferrari team, where Ascari would produce wins at the Swiss Grand Prix and the Italian Grand Prix, both championship points races. He’d also post a victory at a non-championship race at Silverstone, along with a win at the season-ending race in Argentina. Though Ascari would go winless in 1950, the year that would mark the start of the modern Formula One era, he still posted second-place finishes at Monaco and Monza, solidifying his position with Scuderia Ferrari.
In 1951, Ascari won the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring and the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. Second-place finishes in Belgium and France helped Ascari end the season with 25 championship points, enough for a second-place standing but not enough to overcome championship-winner Juan Manuel Fangio‘s 31 points. Though rule changes for the 1952 season would favor the Ferrari team, which had well-developed normally aspirated 2-liter engines mandated by the new competition rules, Ascari utterly dominated the competition, winning six of eight races and capturing his first World Championship.
Ascari’s winning streak carried over into the 1953 season as well. After producing six consecutive wins in 1952, Ascari opened 1953 with a win in Argentina and back-to-back wins in the Dutch and Belgian Grands Prix. Excluding the Indianapolis 500, which Ascari did not contest, that was an unbroken string of nine consecutive wins, and his lucky streak would have extended beyond this had Mike Hawthorne not won the French Grand Prix. With wins in five of the season’s nine races, Ascari easily accumulated enough points to capture his second World Championship, but all was not well at Scuderia Ferrari.
Unhappy with the salary that Ferrari offered him for the 1954 season, Ascari opted to leave the team in favor of Lancia, which had been working hard on developing a class-leading race car. The team was nowhere near ready for testing by the start of the season, so Lancia permitted Ascari to drive in two races for Maserati and a single race for Ferrari. All three ended in DNFs, as did the season-ending Spanish Grand Prix, from which Ascari also retired early. By anyone’s definition, 1954 was a disastrous year for the two-time champion, and the single bright spot may have been that Ascari’s Lancia took pole position in Spain and set the fastest lap.
That performance set the stage for 1955, and fans began to speculate that Ascari would once again be in a position to challenge Juan Manuel Fangio for the title. Though he retired early at the season-opening Argentine Grand Prix, Ascari took wins at non-championship races at Valentino Park, Italy, and at Posillipo, Italy. Monaco, Ascari fans believed, would be the turning point in the driver’s season, and it may have been had the champion not missed a chicane while leading the race. The ensuing crash saw Ascari’s Lancia tumble over the barrier and into the harbor, and a stunned crowd held its breath until the driver’s familiar blue helmet bobbed to the surface. Despite the severity of the crash, he emerged with only a broken nose, bruising and badly shaken nerves.
Four days later, Ascari showed up at the Monza circuit, where his friend Eugenio Castellotti was testing a Ferrari 750 Monza that the pair would drive in the upcoming Supercortmaggiore 1000 Kilometers. No one expected Ascari to drive, especially not without his lucky blue helmet (damaged in his crash at Monaco) and short-sleeve blue jersey, but the champion wanted to prove that his accident had not shaken his nerve behind the wheel. Dressed in slacks, a sport coat and a tie, Ascari borrowed a helmet from Castellotti and set out for a few laps in the Ferrari. Exiting Curva Del Vialone, a fast left-hand bend, Ascari lost control of the car, which rolled twice and tossed Ascari onto the track. His injuries were severe, and Ascari died on Monza’s asphalt before help could arrive. Ascari’s death bore an eerie resemblance to the death of his father, Antonio. Both died at age 36 (although Alberto did live four days longer than his father); both died on the 26th day of the month (Antonio on July 26, Alberto on May 26); both died exactly four days after experiencing severe crashes; both had amassed 13 championship wins; and both died while exiting high-speed, left-hand corners. Sadly, both left behind a wife and two children as well. Ascari’s superstitions (which reportedly extended to black cats and unlucky numbers) weren’t enough to save him, and it’s unlikely that his “lucky” blue helmet would have made any difference in the outcome of his fatal crash. It was Ascari’s policy to adhere to self-imposed safety margins, always leaving a bit in reserve and never driving a car harder than it needed to be driven to produce a victory. This sensibility likely prolonged Ascari’s life, but it wasn’t enough to save him on that fateful May day in Monza.