Silverstone Museum launches Alberto Ascari VR experience

Black Cats & Chequered Flags is now open at the Silverstone Museum, marking its UK debut.

Produced by the Multiverse Institute for Arts and Technology (MIAT), the mixed reality and virtual reality installation tells the story of Italian F1 legend Alberto Ascari.

Phil Lawrie, CEO at Silverstone Museum, said: “Silverstone Museum is incredibly proud to be the very first to launch Black Cats & Chequered Flags in Britain.

“It is another first for the Museum and we expect that this exceptional experience, which is here for a limited time, will be extremely popular with our visitors.”

Visitors can step into a 1950s pit stop, race alongside Ascari at Monza, and experience the era using 360-degree cinematography and period audio.

The installation explores Ascari’s career and the superstitions – such as the ‘cursed’ number 26 and black cats – that followed him.

Ascari raced at Silverstone in 1948, finishing second in the first Grand Prix held at the circuit, and won the BRDC International Trophy with Ferrari the following year.

He went on to win the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in both 1952 and 1953.

MIAT boss Elisabetta Rotolo said: “This is a work of immersive art that brings history, emotion, and cutting-edge technology together in a uniquely shared experience, which places Museum visitors inside Alberto Ascari’s world.”

The experience debuted at the Ferrari Museum in Maranello in December 2025.

Children aged 15 and under will have free admission to Silverstone Museum from July 6 to September 1.