Alberto Ascari

Italian racing driver

Ferrari's first world champion

Alberto Ascari won back to back titles for Ferrari in 1952 and 1953 and remains the last Italian to be crowned world champion.

Alberto Ascari was born in Milan, Italy, on July 13, 1918, the son of the Grand Prix driver Antonio Ascari. He raced motorcycles before cars, joining the Bianchi team at 19, and his first race on four wheels was the 1940 Mille Miglia in a car supplied by Enzo Ferrari. After the war he raced Maseratis alongside his mentor Luigi Villoresi, then moved with him to Ferrari.

Ferrari entered the first World Championship at the 1950 Monaco Grand Prix, and Ascari marked the occasion with second place behind Juan Manuel Fangio. The team's early cars could not match Alfa Romeo, but Ascari took his first victory at the 1951 German Grand Prix and won the Italian Grand Prix soon after.

The next two seasons belonged to him. In 1952 he won six championship races and the title, and he also started that year's Indianapolis 500 for Ferrari. In 1953 he won five more and was champion again, making him the first driver to win the title twice and the first to win it in a Ferrari. He and Michael Schumacher are still the only drivers to win consecutive titles for the team, and no Italian has been champion since.

Ascari moved to Lancia for 1954, a year in which he also won the Mille Miglia, and he raced the Lancia into 1955. His final start was the 1955 Monaco Grand Prix. Days later he was killed while trying a Ferrari sports car during a test session at Monza. Our record lists 36 starts, 13 wins, 14 pole positions, 12 fastest laps and 17 podiums over six seasons, with titles in 1952 and 1953.

2 world titles, 13 wins, 14 pole positions, 36 starts.

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