The Variante Ascari
Countless drivers have contended with the bends of the Monza circuit during the course of their career. The 1950 Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix was the race of champions: different teams, same tyres, all Pirelli. There were Juan Manuel Fangio and Nino Farina with Alfa Romeo, the winner of the World Championship, and Felice Bonetto and Louis Chiron in Maserati. And then there was Alberto Ascari, a young driver for Ferrari, who returned to the spotlight on the track where he had already won the previous year: yet another “Pirelli driver”. Ascari triumphed at Monza in 1951: the world title was getting closer and closer and in the 1952 season, after six consecutive wins, Monza was the perfect place to don the crown of World Champion, ahead of his teammate Nino Farina. His victory meant that, for the third consecutive year, the world title went to Pirelli Stella Bianca tyres.
The yellow vans of the Pirelli racing service become the symbol of “a team of specialists, engineers and workers, who assist and advise the masters of speed in all races, on all roads”. Again in Monza, on 13 September 1953, Ascari started from pole position in the Italian Grand Prix in his Ferrari 735, but had an accident and was forced out of the race, leaving victory to Fangio’s Maserati. But now the die was cast: the five victories of the season gave him and Ferrari their second consecutive World title. For Pirelli tyres – the Stella Bianca underwent some modifications and emerged as the Stelvio – the Formula 1 World Champion title was already the fourth in a row. On 26 May 1955, Alberto Ascari was back in Monza, at a Ferrari test session with Eugenio Castellotti. At the end of the tests, he asked his friend to let him try the single-seater.
The crash came on his third lap, on a bend in the Vialone that, ever since, has since been known as the “Variante Ascari” in his memory. Pirelli magazine recalled him like this: “At Pirelli, everyone liked him. More than just a liking – true affection; an affection that went far beyond simple gratitude for him being the man who won the world championship twice, associating his name and that of Ferrari with the name of the company that fitted its tyres on his cars…”.
Countless drivers have contended with the bends of the Monza circuit during the course of their career. The 1950 Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix was the race of champions: different teams, same tyres, all Pirelli. There were Juan Manuel Fangio and Nino Farina with Alfa Romeo, the winner of the World Championship, and Felice Bonetto and Louis Chiron in Maserati. And then there was Alberto Ascari, a young driver for Ferrari, who returned to the spotlight on the track where he had already won the previous year: yet another “Pirelli driver”. Ascari triumphed at Monza in 1951: the world title was getting closer and closer and in the 1952 season, after six consecutive wins, Monza was the perfect place to don the crown of World Champion, ahead of his teammate Nino Farina. His victory meant that, for the third consecutive year, the world title went to Pirelli Stella Bianca tyres.
The yellow vans of the Pirelli racing service become the symbol of “a team of specialists, engineers and workers, who assist and advise the masters of speed in all races, on all roads”. Again in Monza, on 13 September 1953, Ascari started from pole position in the Italian Grand Prix in his Ferrari 735, but had an accident and was forced out of the race, leaving victory to Fangio’s Maserati. But now the die was cast: the five victories of the season gave him and Ferrari their second consecutive World title. For Pirelli tyres – the Stella Bianca underwent some modifications and emerged as the Stelvio – the Formula 1 World Champion title was already the fourth in a row. On 26 May 1955, Alberto Ascari was back in Monza, at a Ferrari test session with Eugenio Castellotti. At the end of the tests, he asked his friend to let him try the single-seater.
The crash came on his third lap, on a bend in the Vialone that, ever since, has since been known as the “Variante Ascari” in his memory. Pirelli magazine recalled him like this: “At Pirelli, everyone liked him. More than just a liking – true affection; an affection that went far beyond simple gratitude for him being the man who won the world championship twice, associating his name and that of Ferrari with the name of the company that fitted its tyres on his cars…”.
