Gustav Brunner (born 12 September 1950, in

Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popula ...

) is an Austrian

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

(F1) designer and engineer. He started his career in racing car design at the German-based constructor McNamara. He first entered F1 in a brief spell working for the ATS team in 1978, before designing cars for

Formula Two Formula Two (F2 or Formula 2) is a type of open-wheel formula racing category first codified in 1948. It was replaced in 1985 by Formula 3000, but revived by the FIA from 2009–2012 in the form of the FIA Formula Two Championship. The name retur ...

and

sportscar racing Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing which utilises sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be purpose-built prototypes or grand tourers based on road-going models. Broadly speaking, sports car racing is o ...

. He came to prominence in Formula One in 1983, by returning to ATS. He designed two chassis for the team, the 1983 D6 and the 1984 D7, before quitting after a number of arguments with team principal Günter Schmid. In 1985 he joined

RAM Racing RAM Racing was a Formula One racing team which competed during the racing seasons of 1976 to 1985. The team entered other manufacturers' chassis from 1976 to 1980, then ran March's team from 1981 to 1983, only entering a car entirely their ow ...

, designing the RAM 03 car. By this time he was gaining a reputation within the sport for designing good chassis on a limited budget, even if the teams he had worked for had a conspicuous lack of results. He then worked for Arrows and

Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988) in 1939 from the Alfa Romeo racing division as ''Auto Avio Costruzioni'', the company built its first car ...

, before reuniting with ATS boss Schmid as designer for his new Rial F1 outfit in 1988. He fell out with Schmid again and became Technical Director of the

Zakspeed Zakspeed () is a motor racing team from Germany, founded in 1968 by Erich Zakowski and after that run by his son Peter Zakowski. It is based in Niederzissen, Rhineland-Palatinate, around from the Nürburgring circuit. 1973 to 1981: Saloon and ...

team. When the team folded at the end of the 1989 season, he moved on to

Leyton House Leyton House Racing was a Formula One constructor that raced in the 1990 and 1991 seasons. It was, in essence, a rebranding of the March team which had returned to F1 in . Leyton House, a Japanese real estate company, had been the team's marque ...

, where he worked on the March CG891 and stayed on as they reverted to

March Engineering March Engineering was a Formula One constructor and manufacturer of customer racing cars from the United Kingdom. Although only moderately successful in Grand Prix competition, March racing cars enjoyed much better success in other categories ...

. When March Engineering folded, he moved to

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 following ...

for 1993, designing their successful M193 chassis, before another switch, to Ferrari's Research & Development department, eventually returning to Minardi as chief designer in 1997 to help new technical director,

Gabriele Tredozi Gabriele Tredozi (born September 9, 1957, in Brisighella, Italy) is a former engineer with the Minardi and Scuderia Toro Rosso Formula One teams. While studying mechanical engineering at Bologna University, Tredozi began working for Minardi as an ...

, and became the technical director in 1999. Following three successive seasons where his Minardi designs had been praised for their innovative design considering such small resources, he was head-hunted by

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

to become their Technical Director for their new Formula One team in 2001. He left Toyota at the end of 2005.

References

GP Encyclopedia - People - Gustav Brunner: Grandprix.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brunner, Gustav Ferrari people Austrian automobile designers Austrian motorsport people Formula One designers 1950 births Living people Zakspeed