#9 – Alberto Ascari

Although he is perhaps the more forgotten top driver of the early 1950s, there is certainly an argument to be made that Alberto Ascari had even greater outright speed than his rival, Juan Manuel Fangio. Comparing qualifying times to the other top drivers of the 1950s in a simple mathematical model puts Ascari about 0.15% faster than Fangio, (although qualifying times were less important than they are today, Fangio arguably faced teammates at weaker points, and this is a flawed model). Enzo Ferrari once said that once he was leading, it was virtually impossible to overtake Ascari and he often managed to dominate races from the front. But Ascari wasn’t quite as strong in racecraft as Fangio, and was also slightly more error-prone, so ranks slightly below him in this list. Ascari also doesn’t really have any particular standout drives, unlike Fangio. But he certainly warrants a place among the greats, he and Fangio being clearly a class above anyone else from the early 1950s.

In 1952, Ascari put in the most dominant season in Formula 1 history as he won every world championship race he competed in (excluding the Indy 500 which was run to different regulations), despite having a world champion as a teammate in Giuseppe Farina, as well as taking pole or matching the pole time on every occasion and leading every lap bar the first in Spa and half the race in Monza due to Gonzalez’s alternate strategy. Ascari won nine consecutive world championship races between 1952 and 1953, a record not matched until 2013 and not broken until 2023. This is testament to his exceptional consistency, never being beaten on pace by his teammates while at his peak and similarly always being fastest in the non-championship races at this time.

His following campaign was almost as dominant, Ascari winning five of eight races but being beaten on merit in both slipstreaming races (Monza and Reims), and with two world championships, Ascari had the potential to be as successful as Fangio in the 1950s. However, this never came to be due to his misjudged move to Lancia for 1954, who weren’t ready to start the season and never built a reliable car, and his early death in a testing crash in Monza in 1955. Had Ascari survived and returned to the Lancia-Ferrari team for 1956, he would have been in contention for each of the next four championships, and would surely be better remembered by history.

Alberto Ascari’s first links to motorsport came from the 1920s as his father, Antonio Ascari, was one of the top drivers at the time for Alfa Romeo but was killed in the 1925 French Grand Prix, causing Ascari to be highly superstitious throughout his career. He was mentored by Luigi Villoresi during his early career, who also persuaded him to continue racing after the Second World War, when Ascari was prepared to quit.

In the late 1940s, Alberto Ascari was one of the rising stars of Grand Prix racing. His first Grand Prix was at Reims in 1947, for Maserati, where he fought for the lead before retiring with engine problems. After losing more potential podiums to mechanical failures in following races, including second in Nice and third in Strasbourg, he drove particularly well in Sempione Park, the only driver to challenge the Alfa Romeos which dominated on the relatively rare occasions that they turned up. Ascari was perhaps the most exciting prospect for the future based on the 1947 season.

In 1948, Ascari drove for Maserati again in San Remo, where he passed Villoresi at the start and held him off for his first Grand Prix victory. He then raced for Alfa Romeo, a one-off, in Reims, battling Wimille for the lead initially but dropping to third, perhaps due to team orders. Back with Maserati, he finished second to teammate Villoresi in Silverstone, but didn’t win another race in 1948 and was still generally second-best to Villoresi.

The 1949 season started in Argentina and Ascari won the first race in Buenos Aires from pole, beating initial challengers Luigi Villoresi and Juan Manuel Fangio. He then retired from the second race while leading, after Villoresi had already retired ahead of him, and suffered more mechanical problems in the following races. In Rio, Ascari collided with another car and broke his ribs, putting him out for some time. He returned in Spa, now driving for Ferrari for the first time and ran second to Villoresi after Fangio and Farina retired, before both Ferraris had to pit and lost the win to Louis Rosier of Talbot. In Bremgarten, Ascari took the lead early, dispelled the early challenge from Farina and won the race from Villoresi. He was battling his teammate for the lead in Zandvoort before a wheel came off, but won in Silverstone after a close battle with Farina, on aggregate after beating him in the first heat. In Lausanne, Farina beat Ascari to victory, but in Monza, Ascari took a comfortable victory after the other Ferraris retired. Had the ‘Grand Epreuves’ counted for a world championship in 1949, Ascari would have been champion, and he and Fangio had been the two strongest drivers of the season, although they hadn’t raced each other much as Ascari had been injured while Fangio was winning, and by the time he returned, Fangio’s team had run out of money. But their rivalry would begin properly in the following years.

When the world championship started in 1950, the Alfa Romeo was by far the quickest car and Giuseppe Farina, Juan Manuel Fangio and Luigi Fagioli dominated the season. However, before the season started, Ascari raced for Ferrari in the Argentine rounds, which Alfa Romeo didn’t enter. He won the first race in Buenos Aires ahead of Fangio, also driving a Ferrari, but crashed out of second in the second race on the same track while chasing Fangio, who later crashed himself. In race three, Ascari won again as Villoresi took out Fangio, while he retired from the fourth round with overheating while second to Fangio. There were more non-championship races run before the championship started and in San Remo, Ascari spun out of the lead under pressure from Fangio, now in an Alfa Romeo, then crashed again while chasing him.

Ferrari didn’t enter the British Grand Prix, so Ascari’s first championship race was the Monaco Grand Prix. He qualified seventh, behind Villoresi, but made his way through the first lap carnage to second and finished there after a battle with Villoresi ended with his teammate retiring. In Bremgarten, he qualified fifth alongside Villoresi but retired early after a car failure. Ascari started seventh in Spa but moved up to fifth in the race, finishing as the top Ferrari but behind the three Alfa Romeos and Louis Rosier’s Talbot-Lago. Ferrari withdrew from the French Grand Prix, concerned about how uncompetitive the cars were and wanting to wait for the 4.5 litre engine to be debuted in the Italian Grand Prix.

Before that race, Ascari finished an impressive third in an F2 Ferrari at a non-championship race in Zandvoort, then fought Fangio’s Alfa Romeo in Geneva but had been beaten by it before he retired. In the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, the final race of the world championship, Ascari qualified second, just two tenths behind Fangio, and in the race fought with the Alfa Romeos until his car failed, but he still managed to take over teammate Dorino Serafini’s car and hunt down Luigi Fagioli for second. Ascari finished only fifth in the championship but the competitive final showing in Monza was the prelude to a closer title battle in 1951. He ended the year with an utterly dominant victory in Pedralbes, albeit a race that Alfa Romeo.

Ferrari and Alfa Romeo were far more evenly matched in 1951, allowing Fangio and Ascari to have a proper championship battle. Ferrari were more active in the pre-season non-championship races, Ascari retiring from the lead in Syracuse with engine failure and in Pau with transmission failure, but he managed to win in San Remo after principle challenger, teammate Villoresi, crashed out.

The world championship season started in Bremgarten, and Alfa Romeo initially had the fastest car as Fangio took a commanding victory, while Ascari struggled to sixth with burns. In Spa-Francorchamps, Fangio was on pole again but effectively dropped out with a problem in the pits, allowing Farina to take a relatively unchallenged victory as Ascari finished second after passing Villoresi in the second Ferrari. In Reims, Ascari managed to get ahead of the Alfa Romeos and lead the first stint of the race, before he retired with gearbox problems. He then took over teammate Jose Froilan Gonzalez’s car and took the lead after Fangio pitted and Farina suffered a tyre failure. He then had to pit to adjust the brakes which were failing, and Fangio took the race victory back.

In Silverstone, Gonzalez was in the form of his life and took a brilliant pole position from Fangio, Farina and Ascari who was two seconds slower than his teammate. Gonzalez fought Fangio for victory while Ascari retired early, and when Gonzalez opened up a gap, Ferrari offered Ascari the chance to take over his teammate’s car and win the race. Ascari refused, saying it was Gonzalez’s day. It was Ferrari’s first world championship victory, and the first time that Alfa Romeo had been beaten, prompting Enzo Ferrari to say, ‘I have killed my mother.’

It seemed a shame for Ascari not to have won Ferrari’s first championship Grand Prix, having been their lead driver, but on the Nurburgring he annexed a dominant pole position and fought Fangio for the lead in the opening laps, losing it initially and then passing the Alfa Romeo. Fangio, on a two-stop, pitted early and Ascari went longer on a one-stop and came out behind him, before retaking the lead after Fangio’s second stop. Fangio then struggled with overheating and Ascari pulled out enough of a gap to pit again and claim his first championship victory by half a minute, a great drive that put him back in title contention.

After two non-championship races in Pescara and Bari, both ending in retirement for Ascari, the world championship returned in Monza and Ascari qualified third behind the Alfa Romeos. He fought Fangio for the lead in the first stint, taking it then losing it again, but when Fangio made his first stop for tyres, Ascari took a lead he would never relinquish, nearly a minute ahead of Gonzalez and closing to just two points behind Fangio with one race to go, his rival having retired from the previous race after a plethora of issues.

In Pedralbes, Ascari took another pole position by over a second and a half over Fangio, and a win would give him the championship. He led for three laps before Fangio took over and his title challenge ended on lap eight when his Ferrari, along with all the others, threw a tread. This was due to a mistake by the team of choosing 16-inch wheels, smaller than the 18-inch ones used by Alfa Romeo and not suited to the track. So Fangio won the race and the championship, and Ascari finished runner up having had a very strong season. Ferrari were clearly improving quickly and Alfa Romeo, realising they didn’t have the funds to compete, withdrew from Grand Prix racing at the end of the season, leaving Ascari as the championship favourite going into 1952.

The 1952 world championship season was run to Formula 2 regulations, although this does not devalue the season as the top teams still entered, more than if it had been won to Formula 1 regulations, and the 2 litre engines were still larger than those used in the early 1960s. Ferrari were the dominant team of 1952, but Ascari had former champion Giuseppe Farina as a teammate. He took a dominant win in the first non-championship race in Syracuse ahead of Taruffi, Farina and Villoresi in other Ferraris, which would set the tone for the season to come. Ascari led again in Turin before his fuel tank split, but won by three laps in Pau and by five laps in Marseille, as the other Ferraris retired, Farina crashing while battling Ascari in the latter.

The first world championship race was in Bremgarten, but Ascari was absent, attempting to conquer Indianapolis, so Piero Taruffi took victory. The Indy 500 was technically part of the world championship but had zero relevance to it, being run to totally different regulations and with totally different drivers and teams. This attempt by Ascari in 1952 was the only one by a Formula 1 driver while the Indy 500 was part of the championship, and he qualified 19^th and retired while running eighth, the Ferrari far less competitive in this setting than on European tracks. Ascari returned to Europe for a non-championship race in Monza, where he won the first heat easily but lost victory due to mechanical problems in the second. The race was also significant due to Fangio in a Maserati crashing out and breaking his neck, putting him out for the season and reducing Ascari’s competition in 1952 further.

Spa-Francorchamps was the second championship race of the season (or the third counting Indianapolis), and Ascari claimed pole by three seconds from Farina. On the first lap, he was overtaken by Jean Behra’s Gordini, which led for one lap before spinning, the last lap of a world championship race that Ascari would fail to lead for six races, and thereafter Ascari put in a dominant performance to win by two minutes from Giuseppe Farina, in wet conditions.

After a rare defeat at a non-championship race in Reims for Ascari, retiring while second behind Jean Behra, the championship returned in Rouen-Les-Essarts and Ascari took another dominant pole position and won, this time by just under a minute, ahead of Farina as the race was again affected by rain and stopped after three hours. Ascari had led every lap and took the lead of the world championship.

Ascari led again from pole in a non-championship race in Sables, but retired as he was taken out while lapping a spinning Harry Schell. But in the championship races, he could do no wrong, losing pole just on countback in Silverstone to Farina as laps were timed to the nearest second, but taking the lead on the first lap and lapping the entire field on the way to another dominant, processional victory after leading every lap, this time over Taruffi as Farina pitted with misfires.

On the Nurburgring, Ascari put in his best drive of the 1952 season, as his win was threatened by bad luck for the first time, but he overcame the malady perfectly. He took another dominant pole ahead of Farina and initially it looked to be a similar procession to Silverstone, Rouen and Spa. But on the penultimate lap, Ascari had to pit for fuel and Farina took the lead on the final lap as a result. Ascari started the last lap ten seconds behind his teammate but managed to easily hunt him down and claim yet another victory, almost 25 seconds faster on the final lap, to confirm his world championship. During this run of dominance, Ascari took a record that still stands today, for the most laps, and the most miles, led consecutively. But he didn’t actually lead all those miles consecutively, and was fortunate in this regard that his fuel issue came on a ten-minute track so he could recover the lead without ever failing to lead across the line.

In Comminges, Ascari took another pole and led comfortably in the non-championship race, before he retired with steering problems. He then took over Andre Simon’s Ferrari and fought back from 12^th to retake the lead and win the race. Zandvoort was the next championship round of the season and Ascari took pole by over two seconds, his greatest percentage margin over second place of the season given the shortness of the track. The race was wet once again and Ascari took yet another dominant grand slam, seeing off an early challenge from Mike Hawthorn in a Cooper, and winning by forty seconds from Giuseppe Farina. He followed this up with another win at a non-championship race in Baule.

The final race of the 1952 world championship season came in Monza, and Alberto Ascari took his customary pole. However, at the start of the race he lost the lead to Jose Froilan Gonzalez, racing a Maserati for the first time in the season. He had led all of the last five championship races bar the first lap of the first, but now had to follow Gonzalez for half the race until the Maserati pitted for fuel, and thereafter Ascari had a comfortable race victory. It was his sixth win of the season and he had won every world championship Grand Prix he had entered in 1952, the most dominant season by one driver in Formula 1 history. He may not have had any competition from other teams, the Gordinis and Coopers considerably less competitive, but Ascari had still managed to totally see off any kind of challenge from a former champion, Giuseppe Farina, in the same car. I think this qualifies as one of the finest season performances in Formula 1 history from Ascari, even if all bar one of his wins had been so dominant and processional that they had not required him to perform at his best to win. There are certain parallels with Max Verstappen’s 2023 campaign.

For the 1953 season, Ferrari continued to have the best car although Maserati returned for a full season to give them some kind of competition again, and they had a strong lineup with the returning Juan Manuel Fangio, the only driver in the world who could claim to be Ascari’s equal at this time, and Jose Froilan Gonzalez. The season started immediately with a world championship race in Buenos Aires, the first outside of Europe other than the Indy 500. Ascari took pole ahead of Fangio and, as usual, led every lap of the race to record a dominant victory ahead of Villoresi and Gonzalez, as Fangio and Farina retired.

The race was followed by a series of non-championship races, where Ascari either retired from the lead (in Syracuse and Napoli), or won dominantly (in Pau and Bordeaux), Ferrari more keen than Alfa Romeo had been to extend their dominance to all the major Grands Prix and the consistent Ascari never being outperformed by his teammates. The next world championship race was in Zandvoort and, in similar fashion to Buenos Aires, Ascari led every lap from pole position and won ahead of Farina, while both lead Maseratis retired early but Gonzalez drove a great comeback to third in Felice Bonetto’s car, showing that Ferrari wouldn’t have it all their own way for long.

Indeed, in Spa-Francorchamps, it was Juan Manuel Fangio who claimed pole for Maserati, and Ascari was demoted to third at the start as Gonzalez initially led. Both Maseratis pulled out a significant gap to Ascari and would have won had they stayed healthy, but throttle failure for Gonzalez and engine failure for Fangio allowed Ascari to take a thereafter unchallenged victory from Villoresi. It was his ninth consecutive win, a record that would stand for 60 years until Sebastian Vettel equalled it in 2013.

But the streak had to end sometime, and surprisingly it ended not because of a mechanical failure but instead a strange sub-par performance in Reims. Ascari took pole position but Gonzalez, the only leading runner planning to pit at half-distance, took the lead at the start and pulled away. But rather than following him and inheriting first place when he stopped, as he had done in Monza 1952, Ascari fell behind Fangio’s Maserati and Hawthorn’s Ferrari and was unable to join their brilliant battle, for the lead after Gonzalez had stopped. It was Mike Hawthorn who beat Fangio to deal Ascari his first defeat in a championship race since Pedralbes 1951, thus keeping Ferrari’s streak going, while Fangio finished second and Gonzalez third, and Ascari was fourth, around five seconds behind his teammate at the flag. It was a disappointing way for his brilliant run of nine consecutive wins to end.

In Silverstone, Ascari was back on pole, seeing off a challenge from Fangio at turn one and pulling away for the rest of the race to win by a minute despite his principle challenger finishing healthily in second, which was almost enough to claim the championship. He looked set to do it in the Nurburgring after taking his customary dominant pole and opening up a 40 second lead in just four laps before his wheel flew off, and he had to limp back to the pits and retire. Farina took his first victory with Ferrari as a result ahead of Fangio and the championship went on to Bremgarten.

Fangio took pole position for Maserati in Bremgarten ahead of Ascari, and the two big rivals battled for the lead in the first stint of the race before Fangio dropped away with gearbox problems. Ascari later dropped back himself after a pitstop to clean his engine, but quickly repassed Hawthorn, Marimon and Farina to take the lead and win by over a minute, thus claiming his second consecutive world championship, again in dominant fashion albeit not to the extent of his first due to more competition from a rival team in Maserati.

There was still one race to run in Monza, with extra importance as the home race of both Ferrari and Maserati. Ascari claimed pole ahead of Fangio and was involved in a thrilling Monza slipstreamer, perhaps the first of its kind but similar to the Reims edition, the battle being between Ascari, Fangio, Farina and Marimon who all swapped the lead multiple times although Ascari held it for the majority of the race. Marimon had to pit but rejoined the battle after returning to the track. On the final lap, Ascari entered the Parabolica in the lead but spun on oil, a costly mistake as he was then hit by Marimon and Fangio, who had overtaken Farina, claimed Maserati’s first world championship victory, and dealt Ferrari their first defeat since Pedralbes 1951 after a 14-race winning streak again only surpassed by Red Bull in 2023. Ascari’s spin was the first time in the Formula 1 world championship that a driver had made a race-ending mistake that had cost them the lead. However, it had still been a great season for him, and despite not quite being as perfect as 1952 due to Reims and Monza, Ascari was probably still just ahead of Fangio at this time as the greatest driver in the world.

For 1954, Ascari made the surprise decision to leave Ferrari, joining Lancia due to the promise of a better salary. However, although he was able to race for them in sports cars, it proved to be a bad move as Lancia’s Grand Prix car was not ready for the start of 1954, also the return to F1 regulations, and Ascari was left on the sidelines at the start of the year, watching as Fangio dominated the world championship. Ascari still had some great success in sports cars, winning the Mille Miglia, an endurance road race in Italy that was one of the biggest events in motorsport but which Ascari himself despised due to the dangers.

Lancia agreed to loan Ascari to other teams during the season, so he raced for Maserati in Reims, replacing Fangio who had moved to Mercedes after winning the first two world championship races with Maserati. Ascari qualified third, quickest of the non-Mercedes, but retired straight away with transmission failure. Ascari returned for a second round with Maserati in Silverstone, but started at the back and made his way back to seventh before his engine failed. He had at least been one of seven drivers to record the fastest lap, still timed to the nearest second, giving him 0.14 points.

The next race that Ascari entered was the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, now driving a Ferrari as the Lancia still wasn’t ready, and he did well to qualify second, a second faster than Gonzalez and Hawthorn in the other Ferraris. He then had a great battle for the lead with Fangio’s Mercedes and Moss’s Maserati, the three top drivers of the 1950s, with Ascari leading most of the way before engine trouble intervened and caused him to retire.

The Lancia D50 was finally ready for the season finale in Pedralbes, and on its debut, Ascari took a dominant pole position, a second ahead of Fangio’s Mercedes. After briefly losing out to Harry Schell’s Maserati, he took the lead back and pulled out ten seconds on the chasing pack by lap nine, setting fastest lap along the way and earning another point, before he retired with clutch failure. Ascari’s part-season and zero race finishes meant he earnt just 1.14 points for the 1954 season for his one and a seventh fastest laps, and finished 25^th in the world championship, the worst title defence in Formula 1 history from anyone who competed the following season. But with the Lancia clearly a quick car, Ascari would hope to take the fight to Fangio’s Mercedes in the championship in 1955.

The first race of the season was in Buenos Aires in extremely hot conditions, but Ascari qualified second for Lancia. He fought Fangio and Gonzalez for the lead in the opening stint and pulled out a lead himself until lap 21 when he spun on oil and crashed out. For the rest of the race, conditions were so hot that most drivers had to swap cars multiple times and only Fangio and Mieres were able to complete the distance solo. Ascari had now raced twice for Lancia, and both times had retired from the lead.

Ascari raced again in Turin, a non-championship race, and initially dropped to fourth but made his way back to the front after passing Behra, Mieres and Musso for the lead, and then pulled away to take Lancia’s first Grand Prix victory. In Pau, he was on pole again and saw off the challenge of teammates Castellotti and Villoresi to dominate the race until he had to pit due to a split brake-pipe. Ascari’s next race was in Napoli, another non-championship race and again he took a dominant win from pole. So far, Ascari had competed in five races for Lancia, with two wins and three retirements from the lead, although in these non-championship races he had not had to battle Mercedes. It still looked as though Lancia had sorted their reliability and he would be able to fight Fangio and Mercedes for the title.

The second world-championship race was in Monaco and Ascari recorded an identical practice time to Fangio to start on the front row alongside his rival. However, in the race, he did not have the pace of the leading Mercedes pair and ran third behind Fangio and Moss until Fangio retired. Moss later suffered an engine failure as well so Ascari would have inherited the lead, had he not suffered a brake failure on the same lap and famously crashed into the harbour, a serious accident which he survived unscathed. Again, he would have taken the lead and perhaps won the race.

But, as it transpired, Ascari’s Formula 1 career had ended in the harbour that day. Four days later, he went to Monza to test a sportscar. Ascari had not planned to drive the car, but changed his mind during the lunch break and took over Eugenio Castellotti’s car and helmet, his own ‘lucky’ helmet damaged in the Monaco crash. A few laps into the test, he went off on the corner now known as Variante Ascari, crashing fatally. Ascari had been very superstitious, and there were many similarities with the death of his father, Antonio Ascari. Both had died four days after surviving another serious accident, at the same age, on a fast left-hander not generally considered to be a challenging corner.

On hearing of Ascari’s death, Juan Manuel Fangio said, ‘I have lost my greatest opponent,’ and had he survived, Ascari would surely have challenged Fangio for the 1955, 1956 and 1957 championships. Lancia pulled out of Formula 1 at the end of the season, Ascari’s death likely playing a role in the decision although they were also low on finances. As Ferrari bought their cars, Ascari may have returned to the team he had won his two titles with, so would have had a good chance at the 1958, 1959 and 1961 championships as well. He was one of the greatest drivers of all time, perhaps even faster than Juan Manuel Fangio if not quite as complete, and could have been far more successful, and left a greater legacy, had he lived longer. Alberto Ascari’s greatest achievement is his 1952 season, the most dominant by one driver in Formula 1 history.

Wins: 13

Podiums: 17

Pole Positions: 14

Race Starts: 32

Points: 421

*World Champion of 1952 and 1953*

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