29 Jul Alberto Ascari

Alberto Ascari was a double Italian Formula One World Champion who won the Drivers’ Title in 1952 and 1953. Along with Nino Farina, he is the only Italian racing driver to have won the Formula One World Championship but uniquely the only one to have won it more than once and with back-to-back titles. During his career he won 13 F1 races and claimed 14 pole positions. He was a double winner of the German Grand Prix, the Italian Grand Prix, the Belgian Grand Prix, the British Grand Prix and the Dutch Grand Prix. During the 1952 season, which Juan-Manuel Fangio missed due to injury, Ascari was virtually unbeatable in the Ferrari, winning every race he took part in, apart from the 1952 Indianapolis 500. Having miraculously survived a spectacular watery accident during the 1955 Monaco Grand Prix which saw his Lancia plunge into the harbour, Ascari was killed less than a week later on 26 May in a testing accident at Monza, aged 36. By strange coincidence, his father and pre-war racing legend Antonio Ascari was also killed at the age of 36, on the same day of the month.