Ferrari have announced that Aldo Costa is no longer Technical Director of the Ferrari F1 race team.
Costa began F1 life with the Italian Minardi Team in 1988 as Chief Designer, taking over the role of Tech Director a year later.
Minardi were modestly successful during his time at the team running Cosworth engines and driven by Pierluigi Martini who scored their first ever championship point (6th place) in the US GP in 1988 at Detroit. He qualified on the front row in Phoenix 1990 (on Pirelli Tyres), and along with Christian Fittipaldi scored their highest finishes 4th place at portugal and San Marino in 1991. Fittipaldi repeated that finish in 1993 in South Africa.
Costa joined Ferrari in '95 and was second in command to Rory Byrne in '98. He took over from Byrne in 2005 when Byrne retired. He became Tech Director of the Scuderia in 2007.
Byrne claimed that the 2005 car was Costa's design, however 2005 was not Ferrari's year with the car lacking in pace against its rivals - much of this lack of pace was put at Bridgestone's door due the fact that Michelin was the prime tyre option for that year. They were closer in 2006 to clinching the championship ,and won the Driver's and Constructor's in 2007 (spygate) and the constructor's in 2008 (Massagate).
After all of their (relatively) recent success it is telling that Ferrari have not won either the Driver's or Constructor's Championships since. In F1 terms they have been best of the rest. In Ferrari terms - Unacceptable!
Stefano Domenicali is to take ultimate responsibility for the team, with Pat Fry heading up the chassis design dept. and Corrado Lanzone heads up the production racing dept. (a role which he has done since 1997).
