Throughout it’s 100 year history the Indianapolis 500 has had an ability to attract the most high profile names from the World of Formula One to compete at the Brickyard come Memorial Day Weekend, with a host of past World Champions including Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart and Nigel Mansell all taking on the 500 with high levels of success from the mid sixties through to the early nineties. Although all four drivers can count multiple world championships between them, success in Formula One does not guarantee a similar result when it comes to competing at the Brickyard, a fate that would befall two of the biggest names in the business in 1952.

Although Grand Prix racing had existed since the 1920s, it wasn’t until 1947 when the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (better known as the FIA) devised a World championship based around a new racing formula agreed upon during World War II. After running a series of non championship events under the rules in 1948 and 1949, the first ever Formula One World Championship event was held on the 13th of May, 1950, won by Italian Guiseppe Farina on a former airfield just outside of the town of Silverstone. For those first ten years of the series’ existence the Indianapolis 500 was included as part of the World Championship, a move orchestrated to both justify the ‘world’ title to a primarily European based series but to also attempt to convince drivers from Indycar racing to compete in other events in the series. Despite the good intentions the experiment failed to deliver leaving the 500 an exclusively American event for the first two years of the F1 calendar.

By the time the 1952 Indianapolis 500 came around Alberto Ascari had established himself as the first true high-profile face in the world of Formula One. The chubby Italian had first emerged onto the racing scene finishing second in the Championship to Juan Manuel Fangio in 1951, and after new engine regulations were introduced favouring his Ferrari outfit the Italian went on to dominate the championship, with his victory in the 1952 Belgian Grand Prix sparking a run of nine successive wins that has yet to be beaten to this day. Buoyed by their strong opening to the season Ferrari began to consider racing ventures away from the World Championship, and on the 18th of March 1952 published a report stating their intention to compete in that season’s Indianapolis 500.

The news of the prancing horse’s arrival at the speedway captured the Indianapolis press by storm, Ferrari had established a strong racing pedigree in the sport even in it’s early years, and this combined with the reported high power figures from the team’s machine in testing over in Europe lead many to consider the Prancing Horse as the early front-runners heading into the Month of May. Based off of last season’s Formula One car, four Ferrari 375’s were entered for the 1952 event, with the team’s works outfit driven by Ascari joined by three privateer entries entered by Johnny Mauro, Bobby Ball as well as 1950 winner Johnnie Parsons, who had been linked with a drive for the Scuderia in Europe for the 1953 season.

Despite the high publicity surrounding their entry however, things quickly began to unravel for Ferrari once the 375 hit the track. Despite being fitted with a new carburettor designed to generate 400hp the Ferrari failed to meet the high speeds of their American counterparts , with Ascari spending the majority of the month’s practice sessions struggling to get over 132mph compared to the eventual pole lap of 138.010mph set by Fred Agabashian’s diesel powered Kurtis. After failing to see any of their cars qualify during the first week Parsons and Ball both abandoned their Ferrari’s to drive for other teams, whilst Ascari and Mauro both remained on determined to extract more power from the forlone machine at any cost. Such was the level of doubt surround the team’s ability to make the required speed that rumours began to spread that Ferrari team bosses had approached Wilbur Shaw to allow them to be given a provisional entry should they fail to make the field.

Eventually however the works team were able to improve their car to a justifiable level, with Ascari placing the sole Ferrari in the field in 19th place, with a gap of just 0.08 seconds between the fastest lap of his run to his slowest, Although the Ferrari itself had yet to impress the Brickyard critics Ascari was praised for his consistency and likable demeanor in the paddock, as well as his ability to learn about the challenges of the Brickyard so quickly despite his limited grasp of English. Despite the poor practice sessions however Ferrari still remained confident of a positive result come race day; whilst many of their peers had used fuel injection mechanisms to improve their speeds in qualifying Ferrari had run their machine more or less to race specification, and the belief was that the improved understanding of their race set-up combined with the lower power levels of the primarily Offy powered field meant that Ferrari were rated as fearsome competitors in the actual race, despite the fact that the Ferrari was acknowledged to lack torque.

At the start of the race itself Ascari once again showed his quick learning skills, and on his 22nd lap he performed a high-speed pass on several cars in a single move that was noted by many and earned him tons of respect with the on-looking railbirds. Eventually Ascari ran as high as 8th but after 40 laps, while in 12th place, Ascari lost control of his car following a loose wheel, avoiding hitting anything before coming to a standstill on the inside of the third turn. Although Ascari tried to prevent crew workers from removing his car from the track to allow him to make it back to the pits his inability to speak English made it impossible for him to explain his intentions to the track workers, leading to the Ferrari being declared out of the race and classified in 31st position, well below the high expectations of Enzo’s dominant outfit.

Although Ferrari continue to be one of the bywords for speed and precision in the world of motor racing, the 1952 failure of the Scuderia at the Brickyard remains one of the company’s most high profile black marks, and whilst rumours have spread over the years about potential Ferrari revivals in Indy (more on that later) the likelihood of the company avenging their lesser then stellar result remains incredibly unlikely, and in many ways goes to highlight the scale of the challenge that comes with competing at the 500 mile classic.

In today’s video we have footage of Ascari in action at the 1952 500, including the spin that put him out of the race.