Alberto Alberto Ascari

By Emilio Lezcano / carsNtravel 

Alberto 'Ciccio' Ascari, born in Milan on July 13, 1918, was just seven years old when his famous father Antonio, the star of the Alfa Romeo Team and the reigning European champion, was killed while leading the French Grand Prix at Montlhery in 1925.

When he was 19 years old was hired to ride for the Bianchi motorcycle team.  His four-whell drive came in the 1940 Mille Miglia, where Enzo Ferrari gave him a ride in a Ferrari Tipo 815 Spyder.

His partner was Luigi 'Gigi' Villoresi, a racing driver with whom he developed a father-son relationship.  At the end of the war Alberto was a family man, having married Maria Antonietta Tavola (Mietta) and become the father of Patrizia y Antonio (Tonino), who was named after his famous grandfather.

He began winning races in 1948 and joined Alfa Romeo, his father's old team.  In 1949 he went to Maserati but soon switched with Villoresi to join Enzo Ferrari's team.

In 1952 he drove his Ferrari 500 to victory in six of the seven championship races.  In 1953 he again overpowered the opposition, winning five times to a second successive driving tittle.

The Lancia would be a challenger in 1955.  In the Monaco Grand Prix Ascari's leading
Lancia D50 suddenly sweved out of control in the harbour chicane and flew into the Mediterranean.  Half a minute later, the familiar light blue helmet bobbe to the surface and Ascari was hauled aboard a rescue launch  by frogmen.  In the Monaco hospital, he was treated for a broken nose and bruises.

Four days later he appeared at Monza to watch a practice session in which his friend Eugenio Castellotti was testing a Ferrari sports car they were schedule to share in a forthcoming endurance race.

He was wearing a jacket and tie and had left his lucky blue helmet at home, so he borrowed Castellotti's white and black helmet and set off around the track.  On the third
lap the Ferrari crashed inexplicable and Alberto Ascari was killed.  The accident had no eyewitnesses and has never been fully explained.

The eerie certainties were that Alberto Ascari died on May 26, at the age of 36.
Antonio Ascari was also 36 when he died, on July 26, 1925.
Both father and son had won 13 championship Grands Prix.
Both were killed four days after surviving serious accidents.
Both has crashed fatally at the exit of fast but easy left-hand corner and both left behing
a wife and two children.

A distraught Mietta Ascari told Enzo Ferrari that were it not for their children she would glady have joined her beloved Alberto in Heaven.