Aldo Costa remains 'fully engaged'
Mercedes engineering director Aldo Costa will step down from his role at the end of this season. However, with becoming an advisor for the Anglo-German team, he remains 'fully engaged' in the sport.
The Parma-born engineer earned a degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Bologna. After finishing his studies, he joined Abarth, part of the FIAT group. Only a few months later, he made the jump into Formula One with the Minardi team, focusing on the suspension. Costa joined the Scuderia Ferrari in 1995 and in 1998 became assistant to the team's Chief Designer, Rory Byrne. When Byrne announced his intention to retire in 2004, Costa was named as his successor. In 2007, Ferrari promoted Costa who took on the role of technical director.In July 2011, it was announced that Costa would leave Ferrari by mutual agreement. Later that year, news surfaced that he would be joining Mercedes as Engineering Director of the team. Costa led the design of the 2013 Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 W04 car under technical director Bob Bell.
In July 2018, Mercedes announced that Aldo Costa would step down from his current position to take on an advisory role. The 57-year-old said that he decided for taking a step back a long time ago because he wanted to have more quality time with his family.
"It was, as you can imagine, something that was discussed a long time ago. After having enjoyed an unbelievable amount the experience in Mercedes in the current role – seven years in the UK, really, really fantastic – I did ask the team to start being not in the same position, having a bit more time for myself, for the family, back to Italy and we found together, discussing together, again an opportunity for other people to grow up, to develop the team, so this is what".
His advisory role will include reporting to the team’s Technical Director James Allison, contributing to the team’s development process and building the future of the team with developing young engineers.
"I’m doing, as well as the current role – developing the organisation, developing people, team, mentoring, and by the end of the year my main new function will be, as you said, technical advisor of the team. I will work for James, I will work for my current direct report that will grow up in terms of responsibility and I will carry on mentoring and I will carry on collaborating with the team, developing capability, developing process, but a bit less involved from the timing point of view."
After a three-decade-long period in the sport, the Italian is still motivated to give his best to help his team to grow.
"In my opinion after 31 years of Formula 1 it is the best compromise for me to carry on being very fully engaged but as well, on the personal, finding better equilibrium."
