Formula 1 Champions life!
Giuseppe Farina :
Giuseppe Farina was born in Turin, Italie on the 30th of October in 1906. Considered as one of the most hated drivers of that era, he was claimed for a long while as dangerous because he was said to have caused the death of two drivers, wich was denied by Enzo Ferrari.
He started his career in 1932 and raced a lot for Italian manufacturers like Maserati from 1932 to 1937 and for Ferrari entered Alfa Romeos in 1938 and 1939. Then, he stopped racing for the war. When the war was over, he started racing again for Alfa Romeo and became the leading driver after his teammate Jean-Pierre Wilmille was killed at the start of the 1949 season.
In the 1950 season, the first official season of the F1 world championship, he totalised 3 wins to win the Formula 1 world championship. The next year, in 1951, he was overshadoed by the fact that Juan Manuel Fangio was better than him. He finished 1951 with a 4th place. Then, he moved to Ferarri but was also beaten by a teammate but this time it was Alberto Ascari. He finished 2th in the championship in 1952 and 1953 was another season where he could not win. He finished 3rd. In 1954, he finished 9th out of 10 and he retired the next season in 1955 by finishing in the 5th place. He also tried to make comebacks but none of them were successful.
Ironically, the man that survived many crashes in his career died between Geneva and Chambery going to the 1966 France grand prix. He was 59 when he died and his name will always be remembered because he won the first world championship.
Fact about Giuseppe Farina :
He was born in the famous Farina coach building family and gained a doctorate in political science. After considering a military career, he decided to go racing in 1932.
Juan-Manuel Fangio :
Juan-Manuel Fangio was born on June 24, 1911. He his often reffered to The Maestro and Michael Schumacher once said "Fangio is on a level much higher than I see myself. What he did stands alone and what we have achieved is also unique. I have such respect for what he achieved. You can't take a personality like Fangio and compare him with what has happened today. There is not even the slightest comparison." He was born in Balcarce, Argentina to Italian Parents in the village of Castiglione Messer Marino. He started racing in 1934 and he raced mostly in endurance races and he was the Argentine National Champion in 1940 and 1941. He could not start his european career before 1947 because of world war 2.
His F1 career started in 1950 and he finished second only behing Giuseppe Farina. Then, in 1951 he won 3 races to finally win the world championship for the first time. He was racing in 1952 but a neck injury caused his season to cut short. Then, he finished second again in 1953. After that, he started a great streak. From 1954 to 1957, he won all the 4 championships in a row. The only man that did better than that is Michael Schumacher. Then, he raced for Scruderia Sud Americana in 1958 where he finished in 14th position and then he retired from racing.
During the rest of his life, he represented Mercedes-Benz. Is outstanding life ended on July 17, 1995 at 84. He will always be remember as a man in the elite of a great sport even if his career which was overshadowed by the 1955 Le Mans Disaster in which 81 spectators were killed.
Fast Fact :
Cuban rebels kidnapped him on February 23, 1958 but he was later freed.
Alberto Ascari :
Alberto Ascari was born was born on July 18th 1918 at Milan in Italy. His dad, Antonio Ascari, had career in the 1920s racing Alfo Romeos and he was quite a succesful driver. His dad died while leading the French Grand Prix of 1925 and Alberto had racing in his blood. He started racing on two wheels, but he then changed for four wheel racing. After World War 2, he was very succesful again with Maserati and Ferrari, winning a rotal of 4 races.
In 1950, he started his career in formula 1 in a slow start by only finishing 5th. It will take him another year of silence before he finally won his first world championship, in 1952, making an impresive 6 out of 8 win ratio. He also won the 1953 world championship with Fangio finishing second and Farina third. In 1954, he tried to repeat the world championship win of 1953. But he retired at the 4 grand prix he participated in.
In 1955, things were not going better for Ascari. At the Monaco grand prix, he crashed into the harbour after missing a chicane. This ended up as being the last Formula one race of this hero because a week later, on May 26th, 1955, he went to Monza to test one of Ferrari's car and crashed on one of the track's challenging high-speed corners. The corner was deleted in the new design, but there is still a curve in the circuit named Variante Ascari in is honor.
Alberto Ascari will always be remembered as the first ever driver that defended his world championship. He was the first of many world champions to take his life away on the track.
Today, many see Alberto as the last great Italian driver in Formula 1. Interesting fact is that he and Farina were the only Italian world champions to date. When will Italy get a new star? We will see.......
Fast Fact :
A carmaker holds his name: Ascari Cars. The Ascari KZ1 supercar was named in his honor.
Mike Hawthorn :
John Michael Hawthorn was born on April 10, 1929 in Mexborough, Yorkshire. He was a gentleman and a lot of people see him as the man that always had a pipe in his mouth. He was not a big figure until he got in Formula one in 1952.
At his first season in F1, he finished fifth and improved by a place the year after. In 1954, he finished third behind the two argentina born drivers: Gonzales and Fangio. He then had to stop racing because of a kidney problems and burns he got at the 1954 Syracuse GP. In 1955, he only participated in the Le Mans. This was the turning point of Hawthorn's career because of the 81 spectators that died at the grand prix. The crash involved Hawthorn and he felt guilty for the rest of his life even after he was determined not the cause of the accident.
He came back yo Formule One in 1957 to finish fourth in the championship. He called it his favorite year because he was racing with friend and brit Peter Collins. In 1958, he had a heavy year. First of all, his teamate and friend Peter Collins died in a racing accident. Second, he was disqualified at the Portugal Grand Prix of Porto. But because of Stirling Moss, he was not disqualified and that is what caused him to win the championship over Moss by one point. He is one of only two driver to have won a championship by only winning a race.
He retiered after that and it was a matter of time till he died on January 22, 1959. He was driving his British Racing Green highly tuned Jaguar 3.4 sedan and he tried to pass Rob Walker's 300 SL Mercedes ahead on the road. The cause of his death is still unknown but we know it was a mix of bad weather and speed.
Mike Hawthorn will be remembered as a good driver that overshadoed himself because of an accident. He and Keke Rosberg are the only men to ave won a championship without any wins.
Fast Fact :
It is said that no car could overtake his car because it was really tuned.
Jack Brabham :
Sir John Arthur Brabham was born on April 2nd, 1926. He was a second generation Australian he was born the son of a grocer and he left school at fifteen years to work in an auto repair shop. He served in the Australian air force in the second world war and in 1946 he opened a repair business.
In 1955, he made his grand prix debut. He did his first full season in 1958 with a 18th place finish and then came back to finish 1st in the 2 next championships. After that, Jack had a slow time and in the nest five years in Formula one, he did not do better than a 7th place finish. But, after that, he came back to win the championship in 1966 and finish in 2nd place the year after his last world title. After that, he never finished better than fifth in the three next years. In 1970, he closed his Formula 1 career by retiering in the Mexico Grand Prix.
Jack Brabham also co-founded Brm (Brabham Racing Organization) and the team won foyr driver's championship and two constructor's championship. He brought some very famous drivers to formula one like Damon Hill and made Nelson Piquet win his first championship. Also, in 1990, he got one of his sons into Formula one(David Brabham) but the team was no good and he only finished a race. Geoff raced a number of years in indycar but was never succesful. He won the 24 hours of Le mans though. Gary Brabham, his third and last son, was not capable of qualifying in two Formula one attemps.
Jack Brabham will be remembered in Formula One for all he did by winning three world championships and also by creating a very succesful racing team. Interesting to know, he is the only winner of a 1950s world championship still alive today.
Fast Fact :
Jack drove at the old Nurburgring in 1998 and posted the fastest lap of the three driver that drove that beetle. He said he was suprised of how the sport had changed since 1970, the last time he drove a race car before then.
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