Aldo Costa (born 5 June 1961) is an Italian engineer and the Chief Technical Officer at

Dallara Dallara is an Italian race car manufacturer, founded by its current President, Gian Paolo Dallara. After working for Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini and De Tomaso, in 1972 in his native village of Varano de' Melegari (Parma), Italy he created "D ...

. With eleven Constructors' Championships, Costa is considered one of the most successful engineers and designers in the category. Costa was born in

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmigiano-Reggiano, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 ...

. After school, he continued studying and graduated from the

University of Bologna The University of Bologna ( it, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students (''studiorum''), it is the oldest university in continuo ...

in mechanical engineering. He started working at

Abarth Abarth & C. S.p.A. () is an Italian racing and road car maker and Car tuning, performance division founded by Italo-Austrian Carlo Abarth in 1949. Abarth & C. S.p.A. is owned by Stellantis through its FCA Italy, Italian subsidiary. Its logo is a ...

, part of the FIAT group. In 1988, after a couple of months, Costa joined

Minardi Minardi was an Italian automobile racing team and constructor founded in Faenza in 1979 by Giancarlo Minardi. It competed in the Formula One World Championship from 1985 until 2005 with little success, nevertheless acquiring a loyal followin ...

focussing on the suspension, with Nigel Cowperthwaite taking care of aerodynamics. Costa followed

Giacomo Caliri Giacomo Caliri (born 29 July 1940 in Catania) is an Italian former Formula One engineer. His racing career began in 1966 when Caliri graduated from Turin Polytechnic with a prize-winning thesis on aerodynamics. He joined Ferrari in 1964 and bec ...

as technical director of the team. Costa joined the

Scuderia Ferrari Scuderia Ferrari Società per Azioni, S.p.A. () is the racing division of luxury Italian auto manufacturer Ferrari and the racing team that competes in Formula One racing. The team is also known by the nickname "The Prancing Horse", in refere ...

in 1995 and in 1998 became assistant to the team's Chief Designer,

Rory Byrne Rory Byrne (born 10 January 1944) is a South African semi-retired engineer and car designer, most famous for being the chief designer at the Benetton and Scuderia Ferrari Formula One teams. Byrne-designed cars have won ninety-nine Grands Pri ...

. 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. 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 Pat Fry (born 17 March 1964) is a British motorsports engineer. Primarily working in Formula One, he has previously held positions with the McLaren, Ferrari, Manor Racing, and Benetton teams. As of 2022, Fry is the Chief Technical Officer for t ...

took over the role of Chief Designer at Scuderia Ferrari. 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. Costa led the design of the 2013 Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 W04 car under technical director Bob Bell. In

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

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and

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

he was the designer/engineering director for the world championship winning

Mercedes F1 W05 Hybrid The Mercedes F1 W05 Hybrid, originally known as the Mercedes F1 W05, was a highly successful Mercedes-Benz in Formula One, Mercedes-Benz Formula One car, Formula One racing car designed and developed under the direction of Bob Bell (motorsport), ...

Mercedes F1 W06 Hybrid The Mercedes F1 W06 Hybrid is 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 in the ...

Mercedes F1 W07 Hybrid The Mercedes F1 W07 Hybrid is a Formula One car, Formula One racing car which competed in the 2016 FIA Formula One World Championship. It is one of the most successful Mercedes-Benz in Formula One, Mercedes-Benz designs of all time, designed and ...

Mercedes AMG F1 W08 EQ Power+ 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 comp ...

and

Mercedes AMG F1 W09 EQ Power+ 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 compe ...

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. In January 2020 he joined Italian race-car constructor

as chief technical officer.

Formula One World Championships

References

1961 births Living people Engineers from Parma Italian automobile designers Italian motorsport people Ferrari people Formula One designers Mercedes-Benz in Formula One {{f1-bio-stub