Sudden mourning for a highly respected former member of the F1 paddock. Antonia Terzi, an aerodynamic engineer formerly employed by Ferrari and Williams, died following a car accident in Great Britain yesterday at the age of 50. Originally from San Felice sul Panaro, in 1996 she graduated from the engineering faculty of the University of Modena starting to work in Formula 1 in the technical staff of Scuderia Ferrari as aerodynamics.
From 1999 to 2001 he was part of the group of designers led by Rory Byrne which built successful cars such as the Ferrari F399 – who scored in the constructors ‘championship in 1999 – and the Ferrari F1-2000 with which Schumacher won the drivers’ title back to Maranello after 21 years, breaking a fast that lasted since 1979 when it was Jody Scheckter. The driver-constructor double also came in 2001 with the F2001.
In 2002 she was hired by Williams, where she was entrusted with the role of aerodynamic manager, one of the most important and delicate positions in the organization chart of an F1 team. He designed the FW25 single-seater which in the 2003 championship proved to be decidedly competitive, obtaining four victories, including two braces, and second place in the constructors’ standings behind Ferrari. In 2004 the FW26 that was born from his ingenuity did not go unnoticed. The Williams of that season was in fact immediately dubbed ‘the walrus’.
The single-seater pushed the concept of ‘double keel’ (the attachment points of the front suspension) to the extreme, with an unusually large and short front nose, connected directly to the front wing, to optimize air circulation under the car. After the encouraging winter tests and Juan Pablo Montoya’s second place at the Malaysian Grand Prix, however, the FW26 showed several limitations, as the walrus nose made mass distribution problematic. During the summer, Terzi revisited his project and, without abandoning the concept of double keel, he designed a more classic front: even after this, Montoya managed to win the last race of the season in Brazil.
Antonia Terzi paid for the negative season by being replaced by Frenchman Loic Bigois and left F1 after resigning from Williams in November 2004. From 2020 he was full professor at theUniversity of Canberra in Australia. The editorial staff of FormulaPassion.it joins the condolences of the Terzi family for the disappearance of Antonia.
#mourns #Antonia #Terzi #FormulaPassionit