drawing your last wings – dino toso 1969-2008

“Born on February 11 1969 in Italy, Toso was plucked out of the Italian aerospace world by BMW in 1995 as it recruited engineers for its GT programme and he spent two years working as a race engineer before getting a job as a data analyst at Jordan Grand Prix in 1997. That led to an opportunity to become a race engineer with Jordan and he worked with Damon Hill in 1998 and 1999, overseeing Hill’s victory at Spa in the first year. At the end of the 2000 season he was lured away to Renault by Mike Gascoyne, who had nurtured him at Jordan. At the end of 2003 Renault’s chief aerodynamicist John Iley departed to join Ferrari and Toso was promoted to the role. Not long afterwards he was diagnosed with cancer but he continued to work while undergoing treatment and in 2005 and 2006 the team won both the Drivers’ and the Constructors’ titles.” grandprix.com

Next to Newey and a couple of other famous people, Dino Toso was one of the few F1 characters i really respected, without being part of the Ferrari family. He is the genius behind the R25, a perfectly balanced car that pushed young Alonso to his first title. His appearance at Renault made them abolish weird ideas like the 111 degrees piston angle, going for a more classical approach that proved right. The R26 was an evolution, being a bit slimmer because of the introduction of smaller 2400cc engines, and it matched the Ferrari all season long, being incredibly well balanced on twisty circuits. Toso lost his battle with cancer at 39, but his achievements to date are simply outstanding. He gained tenths of second each time he drawed a wing profile, but finally lost billions of seconds of what could have been an even longer life and career. REst in peace Dino.