How Alberto Ascari won his second - and final - F1 world driver's championship

Alberto Ascari was, alongside rival Juan Manuel Fangio, one of the early superstars of Formula 1 racing. Fangio saw Ascari as the man who always posed the biggest threat to him. And it is easy to understand why. Ascari won back to back world driver’s championships in 1952 and 1953, thus becoming the first driver to officially notch up that feat. Ascari holds a number of other accolades in that regard. He remains one of two Ferrari drivers to have ever won back to back titles, the other of course being Michael Schumacher. He is also the team’s only Italian world champion, which is mad if you think about it.

And it was on this very day in 1953 that Ascari would win his final world championship. With 68 years having since passed, let us look back at how the feat was accomplished.

The background

The 1953 season’s format is one that most modern F1 fans would find harder to comprehend. For one, the season only consisted of 9 races.

For the other, one of those nine races was an Indianapolis 500 race that adhered to AAA Championship car regulations. The remaining 8 Grand Prix races were held under Formula 2 regulations.

The 1953 season was also more global than it’s predecessors. The reason? That year, an F1 race was held outside of America or Europe for the first time in history.

That race was the Argentine Grand Prix, which was the season opener that year. However, the race is remembered more for an incident that killed 9 spectators.

Ferrari driver Giuseppe Farina crashed into the crowd that was not protected by anything at that point, leading to a tragic loss of lives.

Ascari was the favourite coming into the season, having won last year’s championship and also the last six Grand Prix races of 1952.

Alberto Ascari – F1’s first double world champion

Indeed, Ascari began the season by picking up where he left off, winning the Argentine GP and leading home a Ferrari 1-2. Luigi Villoresi was the Ferrari driver who finished second.

Crucially for Ascari, Fangio retired from the race after only 36 laps due to transmission issues. That meant Ascari had an 8-point lead over his closest title rival.

The next race was the Indy500 at Indianapolis, which was won by American legend Bill Vukovich. It was to be his only win of the season, given he did not race in Grand Prix races and focused exclusively on Indy500 racing.

Ascari, who did not take part in the Indy500 race, then won Dutch and Belgian Grand Prix races. Fangio, who at that time was racing in an unreliable Maserati, failed to finish both these races too. This is despite starting on pole at Belgium.

Ascari’s nine-race winning streak came to an end at the French GP, but Ferrari notched another win thanks to Mike Hawthorn winning the race.

This race is notable for the battle between Hawthorn and Fangio, who battled for the lead throughout the race. The Argentine would eventually finish second, merely 5 seconds behind Hawthorn.

Ascari would then take wins at England and Switzerland, with teammate Farina winning a race at Germany between those two wins.

Ascari’s win at Switzerland guaranteed him the world title, but the win was not without incident. He managed to overtake Fangio, who started the race on pole.

However, engine problems saw him pit and emerge behind teammates Farina and Hawthorn, respectively. Ferrari asked the drivers to not race one another; Ascari disobeyed team orders, overtook both drivers and led him a Ferrari 1-2-3.

The aftermath

The final race of the season was won by Fangio, his only win of the season. And unbeknowst to many at the time, it was to be the final championship Alberto Ascari won.

He only notched 1 and 1/7 points in 1954 and he would leave Ferrari to join Lancia. In 1955, he would meet with an accident during an impromptu testing session for Ferrari at Monza that killed him.

Nevertheless, Ascari’s legendary status in the sport remains intact despite a premature death.