1953 Swiss Grand Prix Bern on the Bremgarten Circuit.

[charleselan]

While perusing the YouTube site the other afternoon I came across a gem of a film. Not expecting much I was amazed to find colour footage of outstanding quality and the unmistakable sounds of the UK's doyen of motor sporting commentators; one Raymond Baxter.

This was my first chance at seeing the Bremgarten Circuit in some detail, and what a road course it was, right up there with the very best we have ever seen. Sadly now totally inappropriate with the crowd often mere meters from the passing race cars and officials and press even more exposed.

Some things that caught my eye. Firstly the cars were far more glossy in appearance than some model making officianados would have you believe on other sites, the Ferrari's positively shone in what was roasting hot sunshine. Alberto Ascari was truly awesome and one can have little doubt about his abilities and greatness after seeing his drive here.

A magnificent film which I hope you all like.

[René]

Wonderful, a real time warp! Always great to see colour footage of that era and as you say, the cars colours are really bright and shiny. The average physique of the racing driver was not yet as professionally trained as we know from the modern racer but Ascari's stamina was clearly fine!

[Carl]

Great film! Not sure I'd want to drive fast on cobblestones or risk going off into a quarry, but fast sweeping turns and an average speed of 97 mph sounds like a fun afternoon to me.

[Deleted]

IN 2005 Autosport's staff made a top 20 Fastest GP drivers of all time. Alberto Ascari was in 10th place due to this great drive(one place ahead of Fangio)

[chrisb]

JC, I also came across that clip, incredible and a circuit I was aware of this magnificent circuit and there are some good photos on Christopher Hilton's book - Grand Prix battleground' and Mike Hawthorn's comments are quite amusing, but what a scary circuit!

Valentin, lovely to hear from you again, for some reason I am an Alberto Ascari fan, obviously I never saw him race and I have one book on him and have ordered a second one, I don't remember that list Valentin, and 10th place is interesting for someone who died 50 years previously, but then Antonio Ascari and Campari were said to be very quick,

I have the 1987 racing heroes book by Autocourse, and Jenks, who despite some interesting perspectives always justified his choices and his top three he felt always went into a race to win it, not to finish strategically, and his top 3 were Jimmy, Alberto and Stirling- although I do question his nos 5 + 9- [Mario and Piquet] - one person who always seems absent from these lists is John Surtees but if Jenks rated Ascari that highly one is encouraged to listen 

[Deleted]

Campari was not even a great driver, merely a very good one.The greatest driver of the 20s must be Pietro Bordino. Antonio was indeed very fast, and figures at no.7 in Autosport's top. with Hakkinen at 8, Schumacher in 9th and Alberto in 10th.
Jenks, Roebuck, Alan Henru, Chris Nixon all rate Ascari over Fangio(Hawthorn and Villoresi did too in the 50s)
P.S. Jackie Stewart also rated Ascari 3rd, after Clark and Fangio(this year after Austin GP).

[charleselan]

As an addition to the debate on who was greater Ascari or Fangio, Stirling Moss has a different opinion to that of the ones stand here. In an interview some years ago (no more than 10) he gave his reasons why he thought Fangio the greater driver. Stirling said that when observing them in a corner Alberto was very inconsistent, never taking the same line from one lap to another, whereas Juan Manuel was inch perfect every lap; he was unbelievably accurate and precise.

This same analogy was applied to Michael Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen by both David Coulthard and Johnny Herbert. Michael was to quote Coulthard "was all over the place" whereas Mika was so accurate you could have placed a coin on the track and he would have run over it every lap. 

[Deleted]

Stirling was the one who made Fangio's legend. Let's remember how many times did he race against Ascari(maybe 5-6times) and remember that he was Fangio's teammate and got beaten in 1955. Regarding the technique, Jenks had an interesting view in Motor Sport and again in The Racing Driver. Here is a quote from Chris Nixon's Kings of the Nurburgring:
His untimely death at the age of 37 left the
road clear for Fangio to drive on to immortality.
To be sure, he was challenged on occasion by the
young pretenders Mike Hawthorn and Stirling
Moss, but their victories were few and far between
and they never remotely challenged his overall
supremacy, which he never possessed so long as
Ascari was around. Ascari’s record shows that he
was capable of beating Fangio virtually any day of
the week but with no Ascari to challenge him, Juan
Manuel racked up four World Championships in
a row before retiring in 1958 and his outstanding
success in the years after Alberto’s death, culminating
with that sensational drive in the 1957 German
Grand Prix, have undoubtedly overshadowed
the Italian’s achievements. Yet in Ascari’s lifetime
there were many who considered him to be better
than Fangio and observers were referring to him
as Maestro long before that accolade was bestowed
upon the Argentine.
It is worth noting that Fangio declined Gianni
Lancia’s invitation to join Ascari in his Grand
Prix team and the fact that, had he done so, one
of them would have proved to be faster than the
other may well have had something to do with it.
In the light of Fangio’s god-like reputation today
that may seem like heresy, but in 1954 both were
in the Lancia sportscar team for two events and
whether racing on the wide, aerodrome spaces of
Sebring or through the serpentine roads that ran
between the hedgerows of Dundrod, Ascari was
consistently the quicker and, in the TT, by a considerable
margin. Autocourse published the lap
times of every car (to seconds only, no tenths) and
Ascari’s fastest lap was 4’ 50”, as opposed to Fangio’s
4’ 55”.
Alberto Ascari was unquestionably one of the
greatest drivers of all time. He excelled on any circuit
you care to name and at the Nurburgring, the
most demanding of all, he was virtually unbeatable.
He won pole position in all four GPs he entered,
set fastest lap in three and won three. And
he won the first 1000 Kms. If the Nordschleife is a
yardstick of a driver’s greatness, then Alberto Ascari
has no superiors.