Fake News from the Scuderia Stables

Name: Luca Cordero Montezemolo
Nickname: Luca Di
Designation: President-Ferrari, Chairman-FIAT
Born: 31st August 1947, Bologna
Star Sign: Virgo
Nationality: Italian
Marital Status: Married
Profile: It is a common myth that Luca’s full name is Luca Cordero Di Montezemolo, however despite explaining in several publications that there is in fact no “Di” in his name the myth still continues today and he is affectionately known by many tifosi as “Luca Di”.

Born in Bologna in 1947, Luca grew up and went to the University of Rome La Sapienza where he studied law, earning his degree in 1971. Luca then went on to attend the University of Columbia in New York where he studied international law for a semester as a visiting student in 1973. Having driven briefly for the Lancia Rally Team, after his graduation Luca went to work for FIAT. In 1973 he was moved by FIAT to work at Ferrari, where he became the assistant to Enzo Ferrari, and a year later he was promoted to become manager of the Scuderia (the racing division of Ferrari). In 1975 Luca was promoted to become head of FIAT racing activities and by 1977 had become a senior manager in FIAT…MORE</a

Name: Stefano Domenicali
Designation: Team Principal
Born: Imola
Birth date: 11th May 1965
Star Sign: Taurus
Nationality: Italian
Marital Status:
Profile: Stefano Domenicali was born in Imola, and he believes that he has always been destined for a career connected with motorsports owing to his place of birth. Domenicali was passionate about Ferrari and motor-racing during his childhood and used to go to the race track on weekends to find work helping out organizers in the paddock and media center in whichever capacity he could. He graduated in business administration and economics from University of Bologna and immediately sent his CV to Ferrari.

Domenicali landed a job in Ferrari in 1991 minding the fiscal adminstration business, and simultaneously got a licence to be the clerk of Ferrari’s private track at Mugello. From 92 to 94, he was made race director at Mugello and got further exposure to MotoGP, DTM and other international racing series. He was given control of human resources and sponsors in 95, became team manager in 96 and was made sporting director in 2002….MORE

Name: Aldo Costa
Nickname:
Designation: Technical Director
Born: 5th June 1961, Parma, Italy
Star Sign: Gemini
Nationality: Italian
Marital Status: Unknown
Profile: Born in Parma, Aldo Costa studied mechanical engineering at Bologna University. He wrote a brilliant thesis on Formula 1 suspension systems, gleening the information from the Ferrari racing department, and after graduation in 1986 he joined the Abarth company where he worked with CAD/CAM and in the calculation department for 18 months.

In 1988 Aldo joined F1 team Minardi where he went on to become the chief designer at just 27 years of age. Aldo stayed at Minardi in charge of all technical aspects until in 1995 when he left to join Ferrari…..MORE.

Name: Nicholas Tombazis
Nickname: Nico
Designation: Chief Car Designer
Born: Athens, Greece
Nationality: Greek
Birth date: 22nd April 1968
Star Sign: Taurus
Marital Status: Married
Profile: Nicholas graduated from Imperial College London in 1992, where he had studied aeronautical engineering and subsequently that year when onto begin his career in motor racing with the Benetton F1 team working as an aerodynamicist.

Between 1992 and 1996 he steadily rose up the ranks to become the chief aerodynamicist at Bennetton working alongside other Ferrari “greats” Rory Byrne and Ross Brawn before moving to Ferrari in 1997 to join up once again.

Nicholas stayed with Ferrari as chief aerodynamicist up until the end of 2002, whereupon he took the decision to move with his family back to England and to join up with the McLaren Mercedes team in 2004. This move unfortunately did not pay off for Nicholas, and after spending a year at McLaren where he felt he could not make as much input as he would have liked into the teams designs, and missing Ferrari and Italy he decided to return once more to the Maranello based squad……MORE.

Name: Gilles Simon
Nickname:
Designation: Head of Engines & Electronics
Born: Morocco, June 14th 1958
Star Sign: Gemini
Nationality: French
Marital Status: Unknown
Profile:

After graduating in 1984 from one of the top engineering schools in France (l’Ecole des Mines), Moroccan born Gilles went to work in Research and Development for Renault.

Four years later Gilles was hired by rivals Peugeot as chief engineer to work on the V10 engine which went on to compete in the World Sportscar Championship and Le Mans 24 Hour race. This was a successful period for Peugeot with the team going on to gain 1st, 2nd and 3rd in Le Mans respectively.

At the beginning of 1994, Gilles was lured by former Peugeot colleague and Frenchman Jean Todt to Maranello, where he began his career as Engine Project Manager with Ferrari under the mentorship of Engine Genius Paolo Martinelli. A role he would fulfil for the next two years, mainly working on a design study for the V10 engine.

In 1997 Gilles was promoted to the role of Head of Engine Development, and the V10 engine he designed was built for use in Ferrari’s F1 car.

The end of the 2006 season saw the introduction of an engine development freeze in F1 aimed at cutting costs in the sport, a move which saw Gilles mentor Paolo Martinelli move onto pastures new within the FIAT Group. Gilles was subsequently promoted to Head up the Engine Department at Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro. MORE

Name: Luca Baldisserri
Nickname: Baldo
Designation: Sporting Director
Born: 11th December 1962, Bologna
Star Sign: Sagittarius
Nationality: Italian
Marital Status: Married
Profile: Luca’s fascination with Formula One started at a very early age, with family living not far from Imola. As a boy he would run and climb the fences to stare in awe at the F1 cars that he would later go on to work with in his professional life. (You can just imagine it can’t you scabby knees, unruly hair and eyes out on stalks!)

After graduating with an engineering degree in Electronics, Luca went on to join the Ferrari F1 team in 1989 where he worked first as a development engineer for the gearbox, then as an electronics engineer.

In 1995 he became the race engineer to Ferrari driver Gerhard Berger, a role he would later go on to fulfill for both Eddie Irvine and more famously 7 time World Champion Michael Schumacher. An extremely loyal individual Luca believed it was very important in his role as race engineer to be friends as well as colleagues with the driver he supported in order to be able to do the best job he possibly could. Awww! …MORE

Name: Chris Dyer
Designation:Chief Race Engineer
Born: Bendigo, Victoria, Australia
Birth date: 12th Feburary 1968
Star Sign: Aquarius
Nationality: Australian
Marital Status: Married
Profile: Chris grew up in Bendigo, Australia surrounded by motorbikes which his father Wayne raced in the Australian Bush. Chris’s first love therefore was for vehicles of the two wheeled variety, but after graduating from university with a degree in Mechanical Engineering he found there was not a very big industry for motorbikes in Australia so ended up working with cars instead.

After a brief spelling working for Packard Electric as a production engineer on 1991, Chris went on to become a designer and data analysis engineer for Australian based GT touring car outfit Holden Racing Team.

After working for four years in touring cars, Chris got his first break into Formula 1 in 1997 when he moved to England and joined British F1 team Arrows run by Tom Walkinshaw. Chris’s role during this time was that of data analysis and track engineer, a position he held until the end of 2000.

In 2001 Chris moved to Italy and joined the Maranello squad, where initially he held the position of a telemetry engineer working under Michael Schumacher’s then race engineer Luca Baldisserri….MORE

Name: Rob Smedley
Designation:Race Engineer for Felipe Massa
Born: Middlesborough, England
Birth date: 28th November 1973
Star Sign: Sagittarius
Nationality: British
Marital Status: Married
Profile: Rob initially studied a Degree in Mathematics and Mechanical Engineering, before going onto complete a Masters, clever chap!

His Motorsports career began with Peugeot where he worked as a suspension design engineer for the touring car team. Rob then went on to work in F3000 and the Williams Touring Car team before making his first foray into Formula 1 with the Jordan Team (who are now incidentally Spyker).

Initially at Jordan, Rob worked as a data aquisition engineer overviewing all of the telemetric data that is used by the team’s race engineer to support the racing driver. Back in 2001 this was a very hands on job where the engineers could engage in pioneering work on car control systems (such as traction control, launch control etc) and something that Rob enjoyed immensely…MORE

Name: Andrea Stella
Designation:Race Engineer for Kimi Raikkonen
Born: Orvieto, Italy
Birth date: 22nd February 1971
Star Sign: Pisces
Nationality: Italian
Marital Status: Married
Profile: Andrea studied Aeronautical Engineering at University before later going on to work for Ferrari. Andrea is probably best known to the tifosi (the Ferrari fans) from his time working as 7 times World Champion Michael Scumacher’s Performance and Vehicle Engineer.

This role involved intensively studying all the telemetry data for the car and using it to feedback information to the driver about how to get the best possible performance out on track. This analysis of data takes place not just after each test and practice session but also throughout the entire time the driver is in the car, whether that be in testing, in qualifying or even during the race. It involves quite long hours and alot of work!

With the retirement of Michael Schumacher at the end of 2006, Andrea continued on his role of Performance Engineer with Kimi Raikkonen, overseeing all the data for Kimi’s car helping to guide him and his race engineer Chris Dyer to victory and the World Championship in 2007.

Right from the start of their professional relationship, Andrea is credited as being perhaps one of a very few people within Ferrari who was immediately able to understand the quietly spoken Kimi over the radio, but the relationship with Kimi goes deeper with that, with Andrea himself commenting that even when they are working they are able to share some fun and jokes together. MORE.

Name: Kimi Matias Raikkonen
Designation: Scuderia Ferrari pilot
Nickname: Kimster, Iceman
Born: Finland
Birth Date: Oct 17, 1979
Star Sign: Libra
Nationality: Finnish
Marital Status: Married
Profile: Kimi Matias Raikkonen was born in Espoo, Finland on Oct 17, 1979. His father Matti Raikkonen worked as a roadbuilder while his mother Paula Raikkonen was a government office clerk. Kimi’s love for speed was apparent even at a young age when he dabbled in bikes a little before taking to kart racing when he was seven. Despite not being very rich, Kimi’s father sometimes worked three jobs simultaneously to support his younger son’s racing ambitions, as Kimi went on to win several karting championships. At 17, Kimi stopped his schooling and shifted to Holland to pursue racing as a career. At the age of 20, Kimi had competed in British Formula Renault winter series and Formula Renault UK championship – 23 races in all, out of which he had won 13.

After catching the eye of Peter Sauber (who is responsible for introducing more Ferrari drivers than you can shake a stick at), the Finn tested with Sauber Formula 1 team in September 2000. It only took a couple of more tests in Jerez and Barcelona for Sauber to realize he was looking at a special talent, and Sauber rather prudently signed Kimi Raikkonen for the 2001 season. This led to a mini-controversy in the paddock with many against granting superlicence to someone so apparently inexperienced , and Kimi was kept on probation for the first four races till he could prove he deserved the race seat. If one thought all this would add to the enormous pressure already on the rookie, it is rumored that Kimi was peacefully asleep 20 minutes before his debut GP, and it must have been Sauber who was having the butterflies instead….MORE.

Name: Felipe Massa
Designation: Scuderia Ferrari pilot
Nickname:
Born: Sao Paulo, Brazil
Birth Date: April 25, 1981
Star Sign: Taurus
Nationality: Brazilian
Marital Status: Married
Profile: Felipe Massa began his career in motor racing at just 8 years old when he finished fourth in the Sao Paulo Karting series Micro-Kart category. The following year he came sixth and the year after he finished in 3rd place. He continued driving Karts up until he was 17 years old where he debuted in the Formula Chevrolet series in Brazil finishing fifth overall in his first season. The following year at just 18 he went on to clinch the championship.

In 2000, Felipe took part and won the Formula Renault Italian Series Championship and the following year added yet another title to his name in the Formula Renault European Series Championship. In 2001 at just 19 he clinched the European F3000 title with just one race remaining….MORE.

Other Ferrari Team Members, Past and Present

Meet Jean Todt

Meet Michael Schumacher

Meet Rory Byrne

Meet Mario Almondo