Alberto Ascari’s Fatal Crash @ Monza 1955 (Aftermath)

Alberto Ascari was the son of Antonio Ascari, one of the greatest Italian drivers in history, who was killed at Linas-Montlhéry in 1925. At the time Alberto was only seven. Alberto Ascari started his career racing motorcycles in pre-war era, before moving to four wheels. In 1940 he drove the first race car ever built by Enzo Ferrari, the “Auto Avio Costruzioni tipo 815“, in the Mille Miglia co-driven by his cousin Giovanni Minozzi- retired. During the World War II Ascari started a road transportation business with a partner and hauled fuel to Italian army bases in North Africa. After the war he resumed his career, winning forty-seven international races over fifty-six starts, including two Formula 1 World Championships in 1952 and 1953 driving for Scuderia Ferrari. For two years he was almost unbeatable. He missed the opening Swiss Grand Prix at Bremgarten in 1952 because that same weekend he was qualifying his “Ferrari Special“ for the Indianapolis 500, but thereafter he was undefeated, winning nine consecutive Grands Prix, until the 1953 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps. He took part in two edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans for Ferrari, in 1952 and 1953, setting the fastest lap of the race in both occasions. When Alberto Ascari and his close friend and fellow Ferrari driver Luigi Villoresi left Maranello at the end of 1953 to join Scuderia Lancia Corse, there was considerable disconcert in racing circles. They signed contracts in Turin with Gianni Lancia whose company was about to challenge Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Maserati in the hardest category of motorsport, Formula 1, with a magnificent Lancia D50, designed by the engineer Vittorio Jano, one of the greatest race car designers in motorsport history. Jano created the innovative car with its V8 engine used as a stressed chassis member, with off-centre positioning of the engine to allow a lower overall height, and pannier fuel cells for better weight distribution and aerodynamics. The car was race-ready only by the time of the last event of 1954, the Spanish Grand Prix at Pedralbes street course in Barcelona, in which Ascari managed to win the pole position and to set the best lap of the race. In sight of the 1955 season, Mercedes-Benz remained firm favorite for the title but Lancia seemed to trouble them. Alberto Ascari was leading in the Argentine Grand Prix on 16 January when he crashed on 21th lap, then he won a couple of non-championship races in Italy, at the Valentino Park, Turin and in the Naples Grand Prix. And he was once again leading by far the Monaco Grand Prix, the European season’s opener, on 22 May before his spectacular flight into the harbor, on the 80th of 100 laps. He came through the tunnel faster than ever, placed his Lancia for the Chicane as he had done on 79 occasions and to the orror of onlookers suddenly lost control on an oil patch from Stirling Moss’ blown engine. The car swerved sideway into the hay bales, hit a flimsy barrier, flipped into the Mediterranean sea and sank, narrowly missing an anchored yacht. Its disappearance was marked only by an oil slick and a stream of bubbles on the water. To the relief of spectators, his pale blue helmet popped above the water less than half a minute later and Alberto was seen to be tearing it off and swimming towards a rescue boat. Frogmen rushed to his rescue and pulled him aboard a boat. He was taken to hospital with shock and a nose injury. Only four days later Alberto Ascari lost his life. It happened at Monza, on Thursday, 26 May 1955, during a private testing session of the Ferrari 750S Monza sportscar that he was originally scheduled to share with his friend and protégé Eugenio Castellotti in the Gran Premio Supercortemaggiore, the 1000kms race to be held the next Sunday. On his third lap, his car crashed and rolled, leaping into the air and plunging off the road at the incredibly fast Vialone left-hander - later named Curva Ascari, after him and in recent years preceded by a chicane. Alberto Ascari was thrown onto the track and suffered fatal injuries. Alberto Ascari’s fatal crash was only the beginning of the most tumultuous period in motorsport history. In two weeks, the American star Bill Vukovich perished while leading the Indianapolis 500, on 30 May, and during the 24 Hours of Le Mans, on 11 June, the Mercedes-Benz of French driver Pierre Levegh flew into the grandstand killing not only its driver but also more than 80 spectators. During opening ceremonies for the infamous 24-hour race, Alberto Ascari was memorialized at Le Mans with the Italian national anthem. Alberto Ascari.