Drivers, designers, engineers, founders…The people who shaped motorsport ando those changing it now. No protocol.
Emilio de Villota: The Spaniard Who Won the British F1 Championship When Spain Couldn’t Win Anything In April 1980, a thirty-three-year-old Madrileño walked into Frank Williams’ workshop in Didcot, Oxfordshire, and bought a Williams FW07. Not a sponsored deal. Not a lease. He bought the car, paid for it, took it back to the Spanish-funded … Read more
Heriberto Pronello: The Argentine Who Built Ground Effect Before Lotus Did In July 2023, the Brooklands Paddock at the Goodwood Festival of Speed put a 1969 Argentine sports prototype on display alongside two Ferrari 250 GTOs, Jackie Stewart’s Tyrrell, Carlos Reutemann’s Brabham, and the six-wheeled Williams that never raced. The crowd voted it “new favourite … Read more
Oreste Berta: The Cosworth Argentina Built and Then Abandoned In January 1975, a flatbed trailer pulled by a tired van crossed the country from Córdoba to Buenos Aires carrying a Formula 1 car. No transporter. No team uniforms. No sponsors on the bodywork. Just a small group of mechanics, a forty-six-year-old engineer named Oreste Berta, … Read more
The Man Who Saved Alfa Without Loving Cars: Nicola Romeo Most car brands that survive a century get a fairy tale stitched onto their origin story. There’s always a founder with petrol in his veins, a workshop epiphany, a sketch on a napkin. Henry Ford watching the Model T roll out the door. Frederick Henry … Read more
Jim Hall: the Texan who understood the air while everyone else stared at the engine If you walk into the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum in Midland, Texas, you’ll find oil derricks, rock samples and a hall full of dinosaurs. You’ll also find, almost by accident, the most important collection of racing cars built in America. … Read more
Ferruccio Lamborghini: the farmer who insulted Enzo Ferrari and built an empire The man who answered an insult with a V12 A 47-year-old tractor manufacturer walks into Enzo Ferrari’s office in Maranello and tells him his cars are rubbish. Ferrari tells him to go back to his tractors. Four months later, the tractor manufacturer has … Read more
Ken Block: the man who invented a genre and gave it away January 2, 2023. Mill Hollow, Wasatch County, Utah. A snowmobile flips backward on a steep slope and lands on top of the man riding it. He’s alone at that moment. By the time search and rescue reach him, there’s nothing to be done. … Read more
FRANCO SCAGLIONE — THE GENIUS ITALY CHOSE TO FORGET There’s a letter Nuccio Bertone wrote on May 19, 1993. It reads: “I remember with great emotion your contribution to our project. I remember your sharpness in the shape of futuristic cars. I also remember our fierce discussions looking for excellence. Your passion and knowledge of … Read more
The Man Who Built the Most Recognisable Brand on Earth and Buried Eight of His Drivers The official newspaper of the Vatican compared him to Saturn devouring his own children. Not a rival. Not a bitter ex-driver. Not some leftist tabloid sniffing around for controversy. L’Osservatore Romano. The official newspaper of the Holy See. In … Read more
BERTONE — THE FACTORY THAT INVENTED WHAT YOU SEE WHEN YOU CLOSE YOUR EYES AND THINK OF A SPORTS CAR There are names that need no introduction and then there’s Bertone, which doesn’t even need you to say the full name. You say Bertone and you’re already seeing a car. You don’t know which one, … Read more
Patrice Banks: The Engineer Who Cracked a $200 Billion Market Failure with a Red Stiletto and a Crescent Wrench The number you’ll hear is two hundred billion dollars a year. That’s the industry’s own estimate of how much women spend annually in the United States on vehicle purchases and repairs. It’s not an audited figure … Read more
Alex Zanardi is gone. And we have nothing left to ask of him. The man rebuilt himself twice. Three times if you count the kid in Castel Maggiore who built his first kart out of scrap metal because his parents wouldn’t sign off on what he wanted to do with his life. Alex Zanardi died … Read more
