33 Facts About Alberto Ascari

Alberto Ascari was an Italian racing driver and a two time Formula One World Champion.

Alberto Ascari was a multitalented racer who competed in motorcycle racing before switching to cars.

Alberto Ascari was the team's first World Champion and the last Italian to date to win the title.

Alberto 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.

Alberto Ascari remains along with Michael Schumacher Ferrari's only back-to-back World Champions, and he is Ferrari's sole Italian champion.

Alberto Ascari once admitted that he warned his children not to become extremely close to him because of the risk involved in his profession.

Alberto Ascari's warning proved true when he was killed during a test session for Scuderia Ferrari at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza.

Alberto Ascari was notoriously superstitious and took great pains to avoid tempting fate.

Just a fortnight before Alberto's seventh birthday, Antonio was killed while leading the French Grand Prix in 1925 at the Autodrome de Linas-Montlhery, but the younger Ascari had an interest in racing in spite of this.

At the age of just 19, Alberto Ascari was signed to ride for the Bianchi team.

When Italy entered World War II, the family garage, now run by Alberto Ascari, was conscripted to service and maintain vehicles of the Italian military.

Alberto Ascari's partner in the enterprise was a fellow racing driver, Luigi Villoresi.

Alberto Ascari's teammate was Villoresi, who would become a mentor, teammate and friend to Ascari.

Alberto Ascari 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.

Alberto Ascari won another race with the team the following year, Gran Premio del General Juan Peron de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires.

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 Alberto Ascari gave Alfa Romeo their sternest challenge of the year before retiring; he then took over teammate Dorino Serafini's car to finish second.

Alberto Ascari took pole position, but a disastrous tyre choice for the race saw the Ferraris unable to challenge, Alberto Ascari coming home 4th while Fangio won the race and the title.

For 1952 the World Championship season switched to using the 2-litre Formula Two regulations, with Alberto Ascari driving Ferrari's Tipo 500 car.

Alberto Ascari missed the first race of the championship season as he was qualifying for the Indianapolis 500, at the time a World Championship event.

Alberto Ascari 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.

Alberto Ascari scored the maximum number of points a driver could earn since only the best four of eight scores counted towards the World Championship.

Alberto Ascari won three more consecutive races to start the 1953 season, giving him nine straight championship wins before his streak ended when he finished fourth in France, although it was a close fourth as the race was highly competitive.

Alberto Ascari 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.

Alberto 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.

Alberto Ascari's car disappeared into the Mediterranean Sea and sank, marked only by an oil slick and stream of bubbles and steam.

Alberto Ascari was hauled into a boat and escaped with a broken nose.

Alberto Ascari was not supposed to drive that day but decided to try a few laps.

Motor racing fans from all over mourned, as Alberto 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.

Alberto Ascari's 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, handing his team, drivers, cars and spare parts over to Enzo Ferrari.

The British supercar manufacturer Alberto Ascari Cars is named in his honour.

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

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

In 2009, an Autosport survey taken by 217 Formula One drivers saw Alberto Ascari voted as the sixteenth greatest F1 driver of all time.