I took this photograph on the last visit I made to the Donington Collection at the Donington Park museum in September 2014. The museum was closed down in November 2018 and all the vehicles on loan were returned to their owners and as far as I'm aware the rest of them were sent for auction.
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This is the 1952 Formula 2 Ferrari 500 (chassis #05) with which Alberto Ascari won the 1952 and 1953 World Drivers' Championships. When Alfa Romeo withdrew from racing after the 1951 season and BRM were seemingly unable to turn their car into a serious contender Ferrari were left as the only team capable of contesting World Championship races in 1952 under the 1½ litre supercharged/4½ litre unsupercharged formula. It was decided, therefore, to run the Championship in 1952 (and 1953) for 2 litre Formula 2 cars. Alberto Ascari won six of the eight races in 1952 and five of the nine races in 1953 and his record of 7 consecutive wins spanning the two seasons was not beaten until Sebastian Vettel won 9 consecutive races in 2013. Ascari's winning run would have been 9 also, but was interrupted by the 1953 Indianapolis 500 mile race which was at that time included in the World Championship programme, although not contested by the European teams.
The cars behind the Ferrari 500 are the 1950 Ferrari Thin Wall Special, the 1946 ERA E Type GP2 and the 1937 Mercedes Benz W125 replica that Mercedes Benz built for Tom Wheatcroft.
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