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Alberto Ascari
Nationality	Italian
World Championship Career
Active years	1950 - 1955
Team(s)	Ferrari, Maserati, Lancia
Races	33
Championships	2
Wins	13
Podium finishes	15
Pole positions	14
Fastest laps	12
First race	1950 Monaco Grand Prix
First win	1951 German Grand Prix
Last win	1953 Swiss Grand Prix
Last race	1955 Monaco Grand Prix

Alberto Ascari (July 13, 1918 – May 26, 1955) was an Italian racing driver, the first great Ferrari driver and one of only two Italian Formula One World Champions in the history of the sport.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Formula One career 3 Death 4 Legacy 5 Complete Formula One World Championship results 6 Formula One Records 7 Indy 500 results 8 References 9 Other References 10 External links

Born in Milan, Ascari was the son of Antonio Ascari, a talented Grand Prix motor racing star in the 1920s, racing Alfa Romeos. Antonio was killed while leading the French Grand Prix in 1925 but the younger Ascari had an interest in racing in spite of it. He raced motorcycles in his earlier years; it was after he entered the prestigious Mille Miglia in a Ferrari sports car that he eventually started racing on four wheels regularly.

His racing career was interrupted by World War II, after which he began racing in Grand Prix with Maserati. His team-mate was Luigi Villoresi, who would become a mentor and friend of Ascari. He won his first Grand Prix race in Sanremo, Italy in 1948 and won another race with the team the following year. His biggest success came after he joined Villoresi on the Ferrari team; he won three more races that year with them.

The first official Formula One season took place in 1950, and the Ferrari team made its debut at Monte Carlo with Ascari, Villoresi, and the popular French driver Raymond Sommer on the team. Ascari finished 2nd in the race and later in the year shared a 2nd place at F1's first race in Monza. He was only 5th in the championship standings however. He won his first F1 race the following season on the Nürburgring circuit and added a win at Monza, finishing runner up in the championship to Juan Manuel Fangio.

With success in Europe, Enzo Ferrari supplied a car for Ascari in the Indianapolis 500, at the time an F1 event, in 1952. He was the only European driver to race at Indy in its 11 years on the F1 schedule, but his day ended after 40 laps. That was the only time he didn't win an F1 race that season. Ascari's Ferrari Tipo 500 dominated 1952, winning all six races in Europe that season and recording the fastest lap in each race. He nearly scored the maximum amount of points a driver could earn, but drivers were given points for fastest laps at the time, and he had to share a half point with another driver in one race.

He won three more consecutive races to start the 1953 season, giving him nine straight wins (not counting Indy) before his streak ended when he finished 4th in France, although it was a close 4th as the race was highly competitive. He earned two more wins later in the year to give himself a second consecutive World Championship. Ascari did not continue his dominance in 1954 as he failed to finish a race in his four attempts at F1, although he made up for it by winning the Mille Miglia.

His 1955 season started similarly, retiring twice more, the latter of which was a spectacular incident in Monaco where he crashed into a harbour after missing a chicane. A week later, on May 26, he went to Monza to test a Ferrari sports car (Eugenio Castellotti's car) and crashed on the Curva di Vialone, one of the track's challenging high-speed corners. He was killed in the accident. The corner where the accident happened, renamed in his honor, no longer exists, having been replaced with a chicane, the Variante Ascari.

Alberto Ascari is interred next to his father in the Cimitero Monumentale in Milan. The British manufacturer, Ascari Cars of the Ascari KZ1 supercar is named in his honour.

In 1992, he was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame.

(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	Points
1950	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 125	Ferrari V12	GBR	MON 2	500	SUI Ret		FRA DNS				5th	11
		Ferrari 125/275						BEL 5
		Ferrari 375								ITA 2*
1951	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 375	Ferrari V12	SUI 6	500	BEL 2	FRA 2*	GBR Ret	GER 1	ITA 1	ESP 4		2nd	25
1952	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 375	Ferrari V12		500 Ret								1st	36
		Ferrari 500		SUI		BEL 1	FRA 1	GBR 1	GER 1	NED 1	ITA 1
1953	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 500	Ferrari V12	ARG 1	500	NED 1	BEL 1	FRA 4	GBR 1	GER 8*	SUI 1	ITA Ret	1st	34.5
1954	Officine Alfieri Maserati	Maserati 250F	Maserati Straight-6	ARG	500	BEL	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER	SUI			25th	1.14
	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 625	Ferrari Straight-4								ITA Ret
	Scuderia Lancia	Lancia D50	Lancia V8									ESP Ret
1955	Scuderia Lancia	Lancia D50	Lancia V8	ARG Ret	MON Ret	500	BEL	NED	GBR	ITA			-	0

* Indicates Shared Drive

• During the 1952 season, Ascari set 6 fastest laps in series, an achievement that was never matched and only Michael Schumacher got close in the 2004 season with 5 fastest laps in series.
• During the 1952 and 1953 seasons, Ascari won 9 races in series.

Year[1] Car Start Qual[2] Rank Finish Laps Led Retired 1952 12 19 134.308 25 31 40 0 Spun T4 Totals 40 0

Starts 1 Poles 0 Front Row 0 Wins 0 Top 5 0 Top 10 0 Retired 1

• Ascari was the only regular F1 driver to participate in the Indianapolis 500 while the race was part of the FIA World Championship (1950-1960).

• Most Fastest Laps in Series in One Season. Formula 1 Review. Retrieved on 10 October, 2006.

• Grand Prix History - Hall of Fame, Alberto Ascari
• Alberto Ascari statistics
• Alberto Ascari on Find-A-Grave

Preceded by Juan Manuel Fangio	Formula One World Champion 1952-1953	Succeeded by Juan Manuel Fangio
Preceded by inaugural winner	BRDC International Trophy winner 1949	Succeeded by Giuseppe Farina