Alberto Ascari: The Formula 1 driver haunted by superstition

Deadly Passions, Terrible Joys

Apr 15, 2025•48 min•Season 2Ep. 5

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Episode description

From the moment his father died behind the wheel of a race car, Alberto Ascari was haunted by loss. Against his mother's wishes, he pursued a racing career of his own and went on to become Formula 1's first-ever back-to-back World Champion with Ferrari. Still, he was unable to shake the feeling that he was following in his father's footsteps — right down to wondering if he, too, would die behind the wheel.

Throughout his life, Ascari turned to superstition to make sense of the chaos. He avoided black cats and shunned the numbers 13, 17, and 26, the latter of which was the number of the day his father died. He worried he'd die at age 36, just like his father, and fiercely protected the blue helmet that soon became as much a talisman as it was a protective device.

Today on “Deadly Passions, Terrible Joys,” we're digging into the life of Alberto Ascari, the superstitions that helped him find order, and the shocking reverberations of his father's death in Alberto Ascari's own fatal crash on May 26, 1955.

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