La force des choses: Untitled Champions: Eugenio Castellotti

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Belgian Grand Prix, Spa 1955 (Lancia D50 n.30), followed by 1950 champion Farina (Ferrari 555 n.2), before retiring with gear box problems.

A country gentleman from Lodi, not far from Milan, Castellotti bought a Ferrari sportscar in 1950 when he was still only 20 years of age.
But he really hit the headlines when he ran second in the Mille Miglia and this led to him being offered a drive with the Lancia team.

The Lancia connection resulted in him being signed for its Formula 1 programme in 1954.
The cars were late arriving and Castellotti did not get to race one of the D50s until the start of 1955.
At Pau he finished second ahead of his team mates Gigi Villoresi and Alberto Ascari. He also finished second at Monaco.
A few days later Ascari was killed testing Castellotti´s Ferrari sportscar and with Villoresi retirement, he became team leader for one Grand Prix.
Then Lancia closed its racing programme and the D50s were sold to Enzo Ferrari.

Castellotti thus became a Ferrari driver, but there were too many Ferrari drivers in 1956.
In F1 the high point of his year was second place to Peter Collins in the French Grand Prix at Reims, while he spun out of the race at Monza after an indisciplined battle with team-mate Luigi Musso.

In the early months of 1957 Castellotti featured more in the gossip columns than the motoring magazines due to his affair with opera singer Delia Scala.
While on holiday, he was annoyed to be summoned back to Modena by Enzo Ferrari to do something about the new lap record which had just been set by Jean Behra in the latest Maserati 250F.
On only his third lap, Castellotti crashed into a small grandstand and was killed instantly.

- posted by cbs @ 4:11 da manhã

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