The Curse of Ascari - Italy's 70 year wait for a World Champion

Рет қаралды 2,071

14 күн бұрын

Italian drivers won two of the first three F1 World Championships, with Alberto Ascari becoming the first double World Champion, and baring comparison with Juan Manuel Fangio as the greatest driver of his generation. Ascari was incredibly superstitious and following his death, those superstitions seem to have become a curse on Italian drivers.

Пікірлер: 26

@markko17 12 күн бұрын

Mario was once asked about Italian fans and he said, "When I lose, they say I'm an American. When I win they say I'm Italian". So maybe in the minds of some Italian fans they have had an Italian champion. 😉

@WhenF1WasReal 7 күн бұрын

In the same way that every Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish sports person becomes British when they start winning 😀

@cschnauz 12 күн бұрын

Wonderful video, well done. However John surtees won the Belgian Grand Prix at spa in 1966 for Ferrari just before his fallout with the scuderia at Le Mans 2 weeks later

@WhenF1WasReal 7 күн бұрын

Thank you for the correction - was so fixated on the fate of the Italian drivers that I forgot Surtees victory!

@cschnauz 7 күн бұрын

@@WhenF1WasReal love what you’re doing!

@klaseronen7535 9 күн бұрын

Luca Badoer should probably have been added to the list as well. He almost won his first (and only) championship points in a Minardi before the car gave up. His once-in-a-lifetime break came behind the wheel of a Ferrari, but it was a complete disaster. As a Finn we usually say "Feeling pity toward someone is to have a disease", however I felt truly bad for him, like so many other Italians, he should have deserved much better things. 🇫🇮

@WhenF1WasReal 7 күн бұрын

I remember the poor guy in floods of tears at the Nurburgring when that Minardi failed on him. The opportunity at Ferrari was incredibly bad timing - years since his last race, in a car which was difficult to drive and with no testing time to get comfortable with it; he was setup to fail.

@johndonaldson3619 12 күн бұрын

Great storytelling...thank you

@WhenF1WasReal 7 күн бұрын

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it

@paulreilly3904 12 күн бұрын

I notice you are fairly new, 2023, to KZfaq, at least on this channel. What a welcome addition. I'm fascinated by racing in these decades and you tell a good story, helping me to put things in order and fill in my many gaps. Great stuff. Thank you. 😁👍

@WhenF1WasReal 7 күн бұрын

Thank you for you kind words - yes this is my first channel and I’m glad you’re enjoying it.

@marksulloway5669 12 күн бұрын

Nicely done.

@WhenF1WasReal 7 күн бұрын

Thanks!

@buffaloj0e 11 күн бұрын

Wow seems like a lot of Italian drivers die in racing car accidents 😢

@aawwmm 6 күн бұрын

"no italian on the grid" I mean yeah you are right but doesnt Kimi Antonelli have a drive for 2025 at Mercedes? A team some journalists tip for a 2026 world championship because they apparently have the best engine. They also are the works team so they have massive advantage over the customer merc teams when it comes to engine design and integration with the car (gonna be a massive problem for mclaren kinda like 2014).

@WhenF1WasReal 6 күн бұрын

Yep, you'll see I reference Antonelli at the end of the video, as he's the most obvious candidate to break the curse, especially if Mercedes pull out something special for 2026

@luuanlive 11 күн бұрын

Also, keep in mind that after Ascari, the second greatest italian driver at Ferrari was Alboreto… yeah

@WhenF1WasReal 7 күн бұрын

By opinion? Possibly, by results that’s Patrese. In the mid-80s with Patrese floundering at Alfa Romeo and Alboreto taking the fight to McLaren at Ferrari, you’d have never thought that was the case. His real downfall came when he refused to ditch his Marlboro sponsorship to retain his seat at Tyrrell, which turned out to be the wrong decision in every possible way

@luuanlive 7 күн бұрын

@@WhenF1WasReal no i mean italian driver at Ferrari, Patrese did not drive for them.

@WhenF1WasReal 6 күн бұрын

Sorry, misread your comment. Alboreto was indeed the second most successful Italian at Ferrari and, like Jean Alesi, is another who wasted their talent by choosing Ferrari over a better, but less emotive team

@luuanlive 6 күн бұрын

@@WhenF1WasReal no problem man, also good point mentioning Alesi, i can only imagine how the F1 landscape could have been if he made the choice to go with Williams instead of Ferrari.

@kurtisduke2685 12 күн бұрын

Ascari is not an f1 world champion there was no f1 in 1952 and 1953 it was formula 2 competition for those seasons

@WhenF1WasReal 7 күн бұрын

Technically correct, however it was the F1 World Championship run to F2 regulations, so…

@ThePanzafahra 6 күн бұрын

It wasn't called "Formula One World Championship" until 1981, before that it was simply called the "World Drivers' Championship" and happened to be run to Formula 1 regulations for every year except 1952 and 1953, leading to Formula 1 and the World Drivers' Championship being used synonymously

@WhenF1WasReal 6 күн бұрын

Like I said, you are technically correct, however Formula One itself calls Ascari a two-time F1 World Champion. www.formula1.com/en/drivers/hall-of-fame/Alberto_Ascari.html

@ThePanzafahra 5 күн бұрын

Oh yeah, totally agree. I was making the point that it doesn't really matter to go into the smallest detail that "ackshually the WDC was run to F2 regs in 52 and 53" because the term for the series since 1981 *is* "Formula One"