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. The car pictured here is the 2 litre Ferrari 500 (chassis #05) that Alberto Ascari campaigned in both those seasons, winning six of the eight races in 1952 and five of the nine races in 1953. In both years the Indianapolis 500 race was included in the World Championship, but the specialist nature of that race meant that it wasn't contested by the European racing teams. Ascari's run of success included (if the Indianapolis race is excluded) nine consecutive victories spanning the two years.
The car was in the museum at Donington Park for many years, and I took this photograph of it in March 1996. Sadly the museum closed on 5 November this year as Motor Sport Vision, who now run the circuit, say that it 'does not fit their business plan'.
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