ALDO COSTA — TECHNOLOGY DIRECTOR
At Brackley, James Allison was reunited with an old colleague, Aldo Costa, who he worked with during the Todt-Brawn-Byrne-Martinelli-Schumacher ‘dream team’ era.
Costa made good use of his mechanical engineering degree from the University of Bologna to become the technical chief at Minardi in 1988. Six years later, he entered the Maranello inner sanctum and was soon chief designer Rory Byrne’s assistant. When Byrne retired in 2004 Costa took over. Under the direction of Ross Brawn in 2005, Costa was the de facto Ferrari designer. While the Michelin shod Renaults won two titles on the bounce, Kimi Räikkönen won the world championship in his F2007. There would’ve been a second straight crown had Felipe Massa not lost out to McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton in the final race of the season. In 2010, it was the same story when Fernando Alonso in the F 10 lost the crown due to a strategy misstep, handing the title to Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull. Despite the stellar results in 11 years of service, Costa was summarily fired by Luca di Montezemolo on the grounds that the 2011 150 Italia was uncompetitive.
Despite the stellar results in 11 years of service, Costa was summarily fired by Luca di Montezemolo on the grounds that the 2011 150 Italia was uncompetitive.
Soon after, he was snapped up by Ross Brawn, who was expanding the Brackley design office (the team even organised Costa’s moving in order to let him get straight to work). In charge of design and development, he followed the progress of the 2012 car then penned the 2013 edition, while Geoff Willis, who arrived at the same time, began working on the architecture and aerodynamics of the W04 powered by a V6 turbo. Costa took over when the design of the hybrid car began, with Willis analysing its operation. Anticipation, adapting resources to the scale of the hybrid challenge and project sharing are some of the keys to Mercedes' recent success.
