http://www.formula1.com/teams_and_drivers/hall_of_fame/265/
Alberto Ascari
| World Championships | 2 |
| Grand Prix Entries | 32 |
| Grand Prix Wins | 13 |
| Pole Positions | 14 |
| Nationality | Italian |
History
The son of one of Italy's great pre-war drivers, Alberto Ascari went on to become one of Formula One racing's most dominant and best-loved champions. Noted for the careful precision and finely-judged accuracy that made him one of the safest drivers in a most dangerous era, he was also notoriously superstitious and took great pains to avoid tempting fate. But his unexplained fatal accident - at exactly the same age as his father’s, on the same day of the month and in eerily similar circumstances - remains one of Formula One racing’s great unsolved mysteries.
Alberto Ascari, born in Milan on July 13, 1918, was just seven years old when his famous father Antonio, the reigning European champion, was killed while leading the French Grand Prix at Montlhery. By that time little Alberto was already immersed in his father's milieu, having met the many big names in racing, including Antonio's close friend Enzo Ferrari, who frequented the thriving Ascari Fiat dealership in Milan. Despite the tragic loss of his beloved father Alberto succumbed to the lure of racing. His famous name helped get him started, though it was on two wheels, not four, when, as a 19-year-old he was hired to ride for the Bianchi motorcycle team. His first four-wheel foray came in the 1940 Mille Miglia, where Enzo Ferrari gave him a ride in a Tipo 815 Spyder. When Italy entered World War II the Ascari garage in Milan, now run by Alberto, was conscripted to service and maintain military vehicles. During the war years he also established a transport business, supplying fuel to Italian army depots in North Africa. His partner in this enterprise was Luigi Villoresi, a racing driver with whom he developed a father-son relationship. By the end of the war Alberto was a family man, having married Mietta and become the father of Patrizia and Antonio, who was named after his celebrated grandfather.
Given his family responsibilities Alberto was prepared not to race again, but Villoresi persuaded him to continue. In 1949 they became team mates in Enzo Ferrari's team, where Ascari's dominance would make him Formula One racing’s first back-to-back champion. 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 and cruising to a second successive driving title. A great driver admired by his peers, Ascari was also a charming man idolised by a legion of admirers.
His illustrious heritage helped, as did his superlative driving skill, but his winning persona also contributed to his huge popularity. It was easy to like a hero who was so obviously no prima donna, the driver with the plump physique whom the Italian fans nicknamed 'Ciccio' (chubby), and whose open and friendly disposition was apparent from his genial smile. Even his idiosyncratic superstitions were endearing, an entirely human response to the dangers of racing. He avoided black cats like the plague, had a horror of unlucky numbers and never allowed anyone else to handle the briefcase that contained his racing apparel: the lucky blue helmet and T-shirt, the goggles and gloves.
But perhaps he also had inner demons, for he was a chronic insomniac and prone to stomach ulcers. Enzo Ferrari, who knew Ascari was deeply devoted to his family, once asked him why he didn't demonstrate his affection. "I prefer to treat them the hard way," Alberto said. "I don't want them to love me too much. Because they will suffer less if one of these days I am killed."
Such an eventuality seemed most unlikely for a driver who always strictly observed self-imposed safety margins, who studiously avoided exceeding the limits of his car or himself, and whose relaxed and smooth style looked so effortless as to suggest he would have plenty of skill in reserve to correct any rare mistake.
Following his runaway championships he moved to Lancia for, he admitted, more money than Ferrari was prepared to pay him. Having been sidelined for most of 1954 because the Lancias were not yet raceworthy he embarked on an ill-fated 1955 campaign. In the Monaco Grand Prix Ascari's leading Lancia D50 suddenly swerved out of control in the harbour chicane, flew into the Mediterranean and sank, its disappearance marked only by a stream of bubbles and an oil slick. Half a minute later, the familiar light blue helmet bobbed to the surface and Ascari was hauled aboard a rescue launch manned by frogmen. In the Monaco hospital, where he was treated for a broken nose, bruises and shock, Ascari seemed as embarrassed as he was thankful for his miraculous escape.
Four days later he unexpectedly appeared at Monza to watch a practice session in which Eugenio Castellotti was testing a Ferrari sports car they were scheduled to share in a forthcoming endurance race. Ascari surprised everyone by announcing he wanted to do a few laps to make sure he had not lost his nerve. He was wearing a jacket and tie and had left his lucky blue helmet at home, so he borrowed Castellotti's white helmet and set off around Monza. On the third lap the Ferrari crashed inexplicably and Alberto Ascari was killed.
Had he suffered a blackout, a legacy of his Monaco accident? Was there a sudden gust of wind, had his flapping tie momentarily obscured his vision? Had he swerved suddenly to avoid a wandering track worker, or an animal, perhaps a black cat?
The eerie certainties were that Alberto Ascari died on May 26, 1955, 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 had crashed fatally at the exit of fast but easy left-hand corners and both left behind a wife and two children. A distraught Mietta Ascari told Enzo Ferrari that were it not for their children she would gladly have joined her beloved Alberto in heaven.
All of Italy mourned the loss and on the day of the funeral in Milan the whole city fell silent, as a solemn procession carrying the fallen hero moved slowly through the streets lined with an estimated one million silent mourners dressed in black. It required 15 carriages to carry the profusion of wreaths and flowers, and in the hearse, drawn by a team of plumed black horses, his familiar light blue helmet lay on top of the black coffin. And in the Milan cemetery Alberto Ascari was laid to rest next the grave of his father.
http://www.formula1.com/teams_and_drivers/hall_of_fame/268/
Juan Manuel Fangio
| World Championships | 5 |
| Grand Prix Entries | 51 |
| Grand Prix Wins | 24 |
| Pole Positions | 29 |
| Nationality | Argentinean |
History
Many consider him to be the greatest driver of all time. In seven full Formula One seasons (he missed one recovering from a nearly fatal injury) he was World Champion five times (with four different teams) and runner-up twice. In his 51 championship Grands Prix he started from the front row 48 times (including 29 pole positions) and set 23 fastest race laps en route to 35 podium finishes, 24 of them victories. His superlative track record was achieved by some of the greatest displays of skill and daring ever seen. Fangio did it all with style, grace, nobility and a sense of honour never seen before or since.
Fangio flourished in Formula One racing when the world championship was in its infancy and he was a comparatively 'Old Man' - which is what his admiring rivals called the aging genius who won his last driving title in 1957, when he was 46. Most of his challengers were young enough to be his sons, and nearly all of them came from privileged backgrounds far removed from Fangio's humble origins in a remote corner of Argentina, in the dusty frontier town of Balcarce. His father and mother, hard-working immigrants from the Abruzzi region of Italy to whom Fangio was deeply devoted, raised their six children (three boys and three girls) to believe in God and the dignity of labour. Fangio credited his parents with instilling in him the virtues of honesty and integrity, self-discipline, respect for others and the sense of responsibility that characterized his approach to life.
Eleven years after his birth on June 24, 1911, Fangio started working as a mechanic and then spent nearly four decades in that trade, while also racing primitive self-prepared cars in incredibly arduous South American long distance races that made Formula One events seem like child's play. By his superhuman efforts in these marathons of madness (held over thousands of miles for weeks at a time) Fangio overcame astonishing hardships and astronomical odds to score many victories. When he went racing in Europe, at 38, he brought with him an unrivalled repertoire of mechanical understanding, competitive experience and clever racecraft.
Formula One competition in much more sophisticated cars also enabled Fangio to hone his driving skills to the highest degree. A pioneering exponent of the four-wheel drift, he was wonderfully entertaining to watch, negotiating corners in fearsomely spectacular, yet completely controlled tyre-smoking powerslides that thrilled onlookers. Beyond his brilliant car control, Fangio's sheer brute strength and astonishing stamina enabled him to excel in an era that required heavy, hard-to-handle cars to be hauled around rough-hewn tracks for the three hour-plus endurance tests that were then the Grand Prix norm. Fangio's exceptional staying power was also the product of superior mental fortitude, patience and perseverance, enormous levels of concentration and an unflagging competitive spirit. Needless to say, in those desperately dangerous days, Fangio in common with his peers possessed degrees of steely nerve and raw courage that modern Formula One drivers can hardly imagine.
He had very few accidents and his only serious injury was a by-product of impaired judgement caused by extreme fatigue following an all-night drive in 1952 through the Alps to race in a pre-season non-champship event at Monza. On the second lap he lost control of his Maserati and crashed heavily, suffering a broken neck that left him with a permanently stiff upper torso.
Balding, short, stocky and nicknamed 'El Chueco' (bow-legged), his unprepossessing physique belied a personal magnetism that together with his driving exploits made him a figure of worldwide adulation. Women found him enormously attractive and while he never married (though he had one 20-year relationship), he never lacked female companionship. In 1958 he became even more of an international celebrity when he was kidnapped in Cuba by members of Fidel Castro's revolutionary movement to draw attention to their cause. As was the case with everyone who met him, his captors were charmed by Fangio and they released him unharmed.
He was a true gentleman in every sense of the word, proving the exception to the supposed rule that nice guys finish last. His generosity of spirit, sense of fair play, invariable courtesy, surprising humility and sheer humanity were universally praised and appreciated, especially by his peers.
"Most of us who drove quickly were bastards," according to his rival (and Mercedes team mate) Stirling Moss, who called him 'Maestro' and said he loved Fangio like a father. "But I can't think of any facets of Juan's character which one wouldn't like to have in one's own."
Seldom was heard a disparaging word, though a few of them were uttered by Enzo Ferrari, who criticized him after Fangio had the temerity to forsake Scuderia Ferrari following his 1956 championship to return to Enzo's arch-enemy Maserati. "Fangio did not remain loyal to any marque," Ferrari said, "and he invariably used every endeavour to ensure that he would always drive the best car available."
Stirling Moss is quick to point out why Fangio (who won championships with Alfa Romeo, Mercedes (twice), Ferrari and Maserati) always had the best car: "Because he was the best bloody driver! The cheapest method of becoming a successful Grand Prix team was to sign up Fangio."
Fangio's strengths included being both a team player and a team leader of the highest order, providing inspirational qualities (he always befriended his mechanics) and making practical contributions (he often wielded wrenches himself) that invariably improved morale and brought the best out of the personnel.
Even on those occasions when his team let him down, Fangio's driving prowess enabled him to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Indeed, his most sensational performance - and many, including Moss, regard it as the greatest drive in Formula One history - came after a botched Maserati pit stop in the 1957 German Grand Prix at the mighty Nurburgring. Having lost nearly a minute to the Ferraris of Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins, the Old Man flung his Maserati around the mother and father of all tracks, smashing the lap record to smithereens and beating the British youngsters into second and third.
This epic drive that secured his fifth driving title was his last victory. A few months later, weary from pushing himself so hard for so long and saddened by the loss of so many of his peers (over 30 of them were killed during his career), Fangio retired, leaving behind a championship record that endured for 46 years and a legend that remains undiminished. He died in 1995, aged 84, at home in Argentina.
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