Aldo Costa (born 5 June 1961) is an Italian engineer who is the chief technical officer at Dallara since 2020. After graduating from the University of Bologna, Costa joined the Formula One team Minardi as the chief car designer in 1988, eventually becoming its technical director by 1989, a role he held until 1995, with the best result of a fourth place in the race and a front row in qualifying. He joined Ferrari in 1995, achieving significant success and helping build the most successful dynasty in Formula One between 1999 and 2008, first as assistant to the chief designer (1998–2004) and then as chief designer (2004–2006), followed by roles as head of design and development (2006–2007) and chassis and technical director (2007–2011).
After leaving Ferrari in 2011, Costa joined Mercedes, sparking an equally successfully dynasty between 2014 and 2018 as engineering director, serving as a technical consultant in 2019. As a result, Costa is one of the most successful engineers and designers in Formula One history. From Minardi to Ferrari to Mercedes, he was able to improve each team's fortunes as Minardi achieved its first Formula One points and best race results, and he contributed to Ferrari winning its first Constructors' and Drivers' titles since 1983 and 1979. He also contributed to the 2014–2021 era of Mercedes, which eclipsed his own dynasty at Ferrari.
Overall, Costa's Formula One cars took part to 567 Grands Prix, achieving 192 wins (37.9%, almost four wins every ten races in a 30-year career, which rises to 192 wins out of 378 Grands Prix, or 50.8%, when considering only his tenure at Ferrari and Mercedes), 192 pole positions, 414 podium finishes, and 159 fastest laps. With 28 Formula One world championships (14 constructors' championships and 12 drivers' titles) working for Ferrari and Mercedes, Costa is one of the most successful engineers and designers in Formula One history. His championship-winning cars amassed 168 wins out of 257 Grands Prix (65.4%), 165 pole positions, 354 podium finishes, and 135 fastest laps. He also helped to design race-winning or championship-contending cars in 1996, 1997, 1998, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2013.
Early life and education
Costa was born on 5 June 1961 in Parma, a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna. From 1976 to 1980, he attended his hometown liceo scientifico named after the partisan Giacomo Ulivi, obtaining his high school diploma with a grade of 54 out of 60. Attending the university from 1981 to 1986, he obtained his PhD in Mechanical Engineering with a grade of 100 out of 100. where his father worked. Costa recalled that his father often went to the Filadelfia Stadium to watch the Grande Torino and told him that a goal from Valentino Mazzola was "worth the price of admission alone". By 1989, Costa followed Giacomo Caliri as technical director of the team, which had begun to obtain its first points when Costa joined in 1988. Costa remained in charge of all technical matters at Minardi until he left for Ferrari by late 1995. with a best race result of fourth (narrowly missing a podium finish), which was achieved multiple times between 1991 and 1993. These results, which ultimately proved to be the team's hay days, allowed Minardi to secure a partnership with Ferrari, which would deliver Ferrari engines to Minardi starting from the 1991 season.
Ferrari
In 1995, Costa joined Ferrari, where his first assignment was to develop for the BPR Global GT Series the grand touring (GT) version of the Ferrari F50, which became the Ferrari F50 GT. working closely with Ross Brawn and Byrne. From 1999 to 2008, Ferrari achieved an unparalleled dominance, winning eight Constructors' titles (six of each consecutively) and six Drivers' titles (five of each consecutively by the same driver, which is still a record in the 2020s) in less than ten years. He was one of the key designers of both Ferrari and Formula One's best cars, such as the F2002 and the F2004. In October 2020, Costa recalled his time at Ferrari, where he met Michael Schumacher, as "wonderful years, even on a human level", and said that "it was Michael himself, along with Ross Brawn, who asked me to follow him to Mercedes in 2012." Although Byrne expressed his belief that the F2005 would surpass the F2004 and be the "best ever Ferrari Formula One car", praising Costa, who succeeded him as overseer of design and development, On 12 November 2007, Ferrari announced that Costa would take on the role of technical director. He was chassis director from January 2007 to December 2007 and technical director from January 2008 to June 2011. Pat Fry took over the role of chief designer at Ferrari.
Costa's dismissal was seen as "a less than gracious manner" as he helped design the F2007 and F2008, which are the last Ferrari cars to have won a Formula One world championship. In August 2014, Costa himself, who said that he worked for "a legendary company" and is sorry to see "the state Ferrari is in in Formula 1", argued that he was dismissed "in a way I can't describe as elegant".
In hindsight, attempting to explain why Ferrari in his opinion took many steps backward over the years, Costa argued that serious "strategic errors were made, especially in terms of vision. And, obviously, the most appropriate decisions regarding personnel weren't made." On 30 September 2011, news surfaced that he would be joining Mercedes as engineering director of the team. Costa led the design of the 2013 Mercedes AMG F1 W04 car under technical director Bob Bell. In 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 (with 2019 as technical consultant for the Mercedes AMG F1 W10 EQ Power+), he was the engineering director for the world championship winning Mercedes F1 W05 Hybrid, Mercedes F1 W06 Hybrid, Mercedes F1 W07 Hybrid, Mercedes AMG F1 W08 EQ Power+, and Mercedes AMG F1 W09 EQ Power+ cars. In July 2018, as part of a technical shake-up and restructure for the 2019 season, including the retirement of performance director Mark Ellis, as well as other senior leaders, it was announced that Costa would step down from his role as engineering director at the end of the season to become an adviser as technical consultant. He cited a need to spend more time with his family in his native Italy. In September 2019, Costa departed from his advisor role at Mercedes, again citing family reasons. A 2022 analysis of chief designers showed that Costa was sixth and was the most successful Italian designer, alongside Mauro Forghieri, with 11 titles to his name (2007–2008 and 2014–2017) as one of the chief designers. When accounting for how many individuals worked on a project, thus earning more points when they were the sole chief designer and so on, Costa was ranked eight with a rating of 4,164. In January 2020, he officially took over as the chief technical officer of Dallara. In Parma, he is also a member of the board of directors of Costa Eugenio since January 2018.
|-
! 2
| 2000 Formula One season
| Ferrari
| Michael Schumacher
| F1-2000
|-
! 3
| 2001 Formula One season
| Ferrari
| Michael Schumacher
| F2001
|-
! 4
| 2002 Formula One season
| Ferrari
| Michael Schumacher
| F2002
|-
! 5
| 2003 Formula One season
| Ferrari
| Michael Schumacher
| F2003-GA
|-
! 6
| 2004 Formula One season
| Ferrari
| Michael Schumacher
| F2004
|-
! 7
| 2007 Formula One season
| Ferrari
| Kimi Räikkönen
| F2007
|-
! 8
| 2008 Formula One season
| Ferrari
|
| F2008
|-
! 9
| 2014 Formula One season
| Mercedes
| Lewis Hamilton
| F1 W05 Hybrid
| rowspan=6 | Mercedes
|-
! 10
| 2015 Formula One season
| Mercedes
| Lewis Hamilton
| F1 W06 Hybrid
|-
! 11
| 2016 Formula One season
| Mercedes
| Nico Rosberg
| F1 W07 Hybrid
|-
! 12
| 2017 Formula One season
| Mercedes
| Lewis Hamilton
| F1 W08 EQ Power+
|-
! 13
| 2018 Formula One season
| Mercedes
| Lewis Hamilton
| F1 W09 EQ Power+
|-
! 14
| 2019 Formula One season
| Mercedes
| Lewis Hamilton
| F1 W10 EQ Power+
|}
Championship-winning cars statistics
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size:85%;"
! rowspan="2" |Season
! colspan="2" |World Championship
! rowspan="2" |Chassis
! rowspan="2" |Engine
! colspan="6" |Statistics
|-
! Constructors'
! Drivers'
! Races
! Wins
! Poles
!
! Podiums
!
|-
! rowspan="2" |
| colspan="10" align="center" style="background:#DDDDDD;" |Costa was assistant to the chief designer
|-
| align="left" | Ferrari
|
| align="left" |F399
| rowspan="6" align="left" |Ferrari
| 16
| 6
| 3
| 6
| 17
| style="background:#FFFFBF;" |1st
|-
!
| align="left" | Ferrari
| align="left" | Michael Schumacher
| align="left" |F1-2000
| 17
| 10
| 10
| 5
| 21
| style="background:#FFFFBF;" |1st
|-
!
| align="left" | Ferrari
| align="left" | Michael Schumacher
| align="left" |F2001
| 20
| 10
| 13*
| 3
| 26
| style="background:#FFFFBF;" |1st
|-
!
| align="left" | Ferrari
| align="left" | Michael Schumacher
| align="left" |F2002
| 19
| 15*
| 11
| 15*
| 28
| style="background:#FFFFBF;" |1st
|-
!
| align="left" | Ferrari
| align="left" | Michael Schumacher
| align="left" |F2003-GA
| 12
| 7
| 5
| 5
| 13
| style="background:#FFFFBF;" |1st
|-
!
| align="left" | Ferrari
| align="left" | Michael Schumacher
| align="left" |F2004
| 20
| 15*
| 12
| 14
| 30*
| style="background:#FFFFBF;" |1st
|-
! rowspan="2" |
| colspan="10" align="center" style="background:#DDDDDD;" |Costa was head of design and development
|-
| align="left" | Ferrari
| align="left" | Kimi Räikkönen
| align="left" |F2007
| rowspan="2" align="left" |Ferrari
| 17
| 9
| 9
| 12
| 22
| style="background:#FFFFBF;" |1st
|-
!
| align="left" | Ferrari
|
| align="left" |F2008
| 18
| 8
| 8
| 13
| 19
| style="background:#FFFFBF;" |1st
|-
! rowspan="2" |
| colspan="10" align="center" style="background:#DDDDDD;" |Costa was engineering director
|-
| align="left" | Mercedes
| align="left" | Lewis Hamilton
| align="left" |W05
| rowspan="5" align="left" |Mercedes
| 19
| 16
| 18
| 12
| 31
| style="background:#FFFFBF;" |1st
|-
!
| align="left" | Mercedes
| align="left" | Lewis Hamilton
| align="left" |W06
| 19
| 16
| 18
| 13*
| 32
| style="background:#FFFFBF;" |1st
|-
!
| align="left" | Mercedes
| align="left" | Nico Rosberg
| align="left" |W07
| 21
| 19*
| 20
| 9
| 33
| style="background:#FFFFBF;" |1st
|-
!
| align="left" | Mercedes
| align="left" | Lewis Hamilton
| align="left" |W08
| 20
| 12
| 15
| 9
| 26
| style="background:#FFFFBF;" |1st
|-
!
| align="left" | Mercedes
| align="left" | Lewis Hamilton
| align="left" |W09
| 21
| 11
| 13
| 10
| 25
| style="background:#FFFFBF;" |1st
|-
! rowspan="2" |
| colspan="10" align="center" style="background:#DDDDDD;" |Costa was technical consultant
|-
| align="left" | Mercedes
| align="left" | Lewis Hamilton
| align="left" |W10
| align="left" |Mercedes
| 21
| 15
| 10
| 9
| 32
| style="background:#FFFFBF;"|1st
|-
|}
; Notes
Key: (Bold) personal record; () constructor record; () Formula One record
Honours
- 75px Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, 22 October 2022.