Alberto Ascari was a legendary Italian racing driver known for his remarkable talent and achievements in Formula One racing during the 1950s.
Ascari’s most noteworthy successes came in Formula 1. He won the World Drivers’ Championships in 1952 and 1953, driving for Scuderia Ferrari.
He was the first double-world champion of the Formula 1 era.
He won nine consecutive Grand Prix races between 1952 and 1953, a record for over 60 years until Sebastian Vettel broke it in 2013.
Enzo Ferrari once said, ‘When Alberto was in the lead, it was as good as impossible to catch him’.
Even the illustrious Juan Manuel Fangio couldn’t stop him.
On 22 May 1956, whilst racing at Monaco, driving a Ferrari-Lancia D50, after sudden braking, he crashed through the flimsy barriers into the harbour; he swam ashore.
He was very superstitious; if a black cat crossed the road, he would never use that road again unless a second black cat crossed the road from the left.
Alberto died on the 26 May 1955, and his father also died on the 26th in 1925); both were 36 years old, and both died after severe accidents on the exit of fast left-hand bends.
Both had achieved 13 Grand Prix victories; both left a wife and two children.
The other driver who finished up in the harbour in Monaco, Paul Hawkins, also died on the 26 May in 1969.
Following the Monaco disaster, Alberto confided in Fangio, ‘My game is going wrong, the star is setting.
Four days later, he was dead.
