Motor racing-Antonelli following in the footsteps of Farina and Ascari

MEXICO CITY, Oct 28 : Alberto Ascari was a boyhood hero for US motor racing great Mario Andretti, now 86, but few of Kimi Antonelli's compatriots were around when Italy's last Formula One world champion was making headlines.

Antonelli, 20, is set this weekend to become the only living Italian who knows what it feels like to take the chequered flag and win the Formula One championship. He would be the first to do it in 73 years, since Ascari's second title with Ferrari in 1953.

"I know the corner in Monza is named after him," the Mercedes driver told Reuters when asked what he knew about his illustrious predecessor, who was also champion in 1952 after Giuseppe "Nino" Farina won the first title with Alfa Romeo in 1950. Farina died in 1966.

"I know that he was the last Italian champion. And it was a long time ago. A very, very long time ago."

LUCKY BLUE HELMET 

Ascari was the son of a racing driver, as is Antonelli, with father Antonio a multiple race winner before his death in the 1925 French Grand Prix at Montlhery, south of Paris, long before the Formula One world championship started in 1950.

Antonio Ascari was 36 when he died, the same age almost to the day as Alberto when he crashed fatally at Monza while testing a Ferrari sportscar in 1955.

The younger Ascari had not been due to drive the car, present only to watch his friend Eugenio Castellotti in action, but decided to try it out.

Borrowing a helmet, instead of the lucky light blue one the superstitious driver always wore, and dressed in regular street clothes, the Milanese was thrown out of the car after it skidded and somersaulted off the track at the Curva del Vialone.

The chicane is now known to F1 fans as the Variante Ascari.

Four days earlier, wearing the blue helmet,