Aldo Costa | |
---|---|
Born | |
Nationality | Italian |
Alma mater | University of Bologna - Mechanical Engineering |
Occupation | Motorsport Engineer |
Employer | Dallara |
Known for | Engineering Director of Mercedes F1 W05 Hybrid, Mercedes F1 W06 Hybrid, Mercedes F1 W07 Hybrid, Mercedes AMG F1 W08 EQ Power+ & Mercedes AMG F1 W09 EQ Power+ |
Title | Chief Technical Officer |
Aldo Costa (born 5 June 1961) is an Italian engineer and the Chief Technical Officer at Dallara. With 14 constructors' championships and 12 drivers' titles working for Ferrari and Mercedes, Costa is one of the most successful engineers and designers in F1 history. [1]
Costa was born in Parma. After school, he continued studying and graduated from the University of Bologna in mechanical engineering. He started working at Abarth, part of the FIAT group. In 1988, after a couple of months, Costa joined Minardi focussing on the suspension, with Nigel Cowperthwaite taking care of aerodynamics. Costa followed Giacomo Caliri as technical director of the team. Costa joined the Scuderia Ferrari in 1995 and in 1998 became assistant to the team's Chief Designer, Rory Byrne. [2] [3] [4] When Byrne announced his intention to retire in 2004, Costa was named as his successor. Byrne credited the design of the 2005 Ferrari to Costa.
Before the 2006 season, Costa was promoted to be the Head of Design and Development at Ferrari, as the team announced Nikolas Tombazis as their new Chief Designer. [5] On 12 November 2007 Ferrari announced that Costa would take on the role of technical director. In May 2011, (after a very bad start to the 2011 season) Ferrari announced that Costa had relinquished his position as technical director to take on new responsibilities within the company. Pat Fry took over the role of Chief Designer at Scuderia Ferrari. [6]
On 20 July 2011, it was announced that Costa would leave Ferrari by mutual agreement. On 30 September 2011 news surfaced that he would be joining Mercedes as Engineering Director of the team. [7] Costa led the design of the 2013 Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 W04 car under technical director Bob Bell. [8]
In 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 he was the designer/engineering director for the world championship winning Mercedes F1 W05 Hybrid, Mercedes F1 W06 Hybrid, Mercedes F1 W07 Hybrid, Mercedes AMG F1 W08 EQ Power+ and Mercedes AMG F1 W09 EQ Power+ cars.
In July 2018 it was announced that Costa would step down from his role at the end of the season, and become an adviser. He cited a need to spend more time with his family in his native Italy. [9] In January 2020 he joined Italian race-car constructor Dallara as chief technical officer. [10]
Ross James Brawn is a British Formula One managing director, motor sports and technical director. He is a former motorsport engineer and Formula One team principal, and has worked for a number of Formula One teams. Teams with Brawn in an essential role have won eight constructors' championships and eight drivers' championships in total. Serving as the technical director of the championship-winning Benetton and Ferrari teams, he earned fame as the "mastermind" behind Michael Schumacher's seven world championship titles. He took a sabbatical in 2007 and returned to F1 for the 2008 season as team principal of Honda.
Rory Byrne is a South African semi-retired engineer and car designer, most famous for being the chief designer at the Benetton and Scuderia Ferrari teams of Formula One.
Loïc Bigois is a French Formula One aerodynamicist. He is currently the Head of Aerodynamic Operations at Scuderia Ferrari.
Gustav Brunner is an Austrian Formula One designer and engineer.
The Ferrari F1-2000 was the Formula One racing car with which the Ferrari team competed in the 2000 Formula One World Championship. The chassis was designed by Rory Byrne, Giorgio Ascanelli, Aldo Costa, Marco Fainello, Nikolas Tombazis and James Allison with Ross Brawn playing a vital role in leading the production of the car as the team's Technical Director and Paolo Martinelli assisted by Giles Simon leading the engine design and operations. The car was a direct development of the F300 and F399 from the previous two seasons, using the same basic gearbox and a new engine with a wider V-angle ; this new wider angle improved and lowered the centre of gravity of the car. It also featured improved aerodynamics over the F399 most noticeably a flatter underside of the nose area, which put it on par with that year's McLaren MP4/15.
Robert Charles Bell is a Formula One engineer and technical director, best known for his work with the Renault Formula One team. He is currently the Executive Director - Technical for the Aston Martin F1 Team.
Nikolas Tombazis is a racing car designer who has worked in Formula One since 1992 for the Benetton, McLaren, and Ferrari teams.
Patrick Allen Lowe FREng, known as Paddy Lowe, is the founder and CEO of the fossil-free synthetic fuel company Zero. A former motor racing engineer and computer scientist, he spent 32 years working in Formula One, serving as Chief Technical Officer at Williams Racing, Executive Director (Technical) at Mercedes Formula One team and Technical Director at McLaren. He was involved with cars that won 12 World Championships and secured 158 race wins. He left Formula One in 2019 and co-founded Zero in 2020.
Pat Fry is a British motorsports engineer. Primarily working in Formula One, he has previously held positions with the Benetton, McLaren, Ferrari, Manor Racing, and Renault/Alpine teams. As of 2023, Fry is the chief technical officer for Williams Grand Prix Engineering.
James Allison is a British motorsport designer and engineer, best known for his accomplishments in Formula One, where he is the technical director of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team.
The Mercedes F1 W04 is a Formula One racing car designed and built by the Mercedes team for use in the 2013 season. It was driven by 2008 World Champion Lewis Hamilton, who joined the team after Michael Schumacher's retirement, and Nico Rosberg, who remained with the team for a fourth season. This was the first Mercedes car to feature sponsorship from BlackBerry.
Manor Grand Prix Racing Limited, trading as Manor Racing MRT or Pertamina Manor Racing MRT, was a British Formula One racing team and constructor based in Banbury, Oxfordshire in the United Kingdom. The team competed from 2010 to 2016.
The Mercedes F1 W07 Hybrid is a Formula One racing car which competed in the 2016 FIA Formula One World Championship. It is one of the most successful Mercedes-Benz designs of all time, designed and developed under the direction of Paddy Lowe, Aldo Costa, Geoff Willis, Loïc Serra, Russell Cooley, John Owen, Mike Elliott, and Jarrod Murphy. The cars were driven by three-time World Drivers' Champion Lewis Hamilton, and Nico Rosberg, both of whom remained with the team for a fourth and a seventh season, respectively. In addition, it was the last Formula One car driven by Rosberg, following his announcement on his retirement from the sport after clinching his first World Drivers' Championship title.
The Manor MRT05 is a Formula One racing car designed by Manor Racing for use in the 2016 Formula One season.
Marco Fainello is an Italian engineer.
The Mercedes AMG F1 W08 EQ Power+ was a Mercedes-Benz Formula One racing car designed and developed under the direction of Paddy Lowe, Aldo Costa, Geoff Willis, Loïc Serra, Russell Cooley, John Owen, Mike Elliott and Jarrod Murphy to compete during the 2017 Formula One World Championship. The car was driven by three-time World Drivers' Champion Lewis Hamilton, who remained with the team for a fifth season, and Valtteri Bottas, who joined the team after 2016 World Champion Nico Rosberg's retirement from the sport.
The Mercedes AMG F1 W09 EQ Power+ was a Mercedes-Benz Formula One racing car designed and developed under the direction of James Allison, Aldo Costa, Mark Ellis, John Owen, Loïc Serra, Mike Elliott, Jarrod Murphy and Eric Blandin to compete during the 2018 Formula One World Championship. The car was driven by four-time World Drivers' Champion Lewis Hamilton, and Valtteri Bottas, both of whom remained with the team for a sixth and a second season, respectively.
The Mercedes AMG F1 W10 EQ Power+ is a Formula One racing car designed and developed by Mercedes-Benz under the direction of James Allison, John Owen, Mike Elliott, Loïc Serra, Ashley Way, Emiliano Giangiulio, Jarrod Murphy, Eric Blandin and Aldo Costa, to compete during the 2019 Formula One World Championship. The car was driven by Lewis Hamilton, and Valtteri Bottas, both of whom remained with the team for a seventh and a third season, respectively.The team’s reserve driver was Esteban Ocon, coming from Force India.
Simone Resta is an Italian engineer who currently works as the strategic development director for Mercedes-AMG F1 Team. He previously worked at Scuderia Ferrari from 2001 to 2018, and from 2019 to 2020, as a senior design engineer, head of the R&D department, deputy chief design director and from 2014 to 2018, as Chief Designer, and later for Haas F1 Team as the technical director from 2021 to 2024.
The Mercedes W13, officially Mercedes-AMG F1 W13 E Performance, is a Formula One racing car designed and constructed by the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team to compete in the 2022 Formula One World Championship. The car was driven by Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, the latter racing his first season with the team. The team’s reserve driver was Nyck de Vries, who usually drove in Formula E for the Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team. The chassis was Mercedes's first car built for the new ground effect technical regulations introduced in 2022. The W13 saw the return of the traditional silver livery, after the W11 and W12 were painted black in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, though the drivers continued to race in black overalls.
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