Mauro Forghieri, the technical director and designer who helped Ferrari win a string of Formula One titles from the 1960s through to the 1980s, has died in Italy at the age of 87.
Niki Lauda's Ferrari in 1975 Photo: PHOTOSPORT
"Legends last forever...It's been an honour making history together. Ferrari and the world of motorsport will never forget you," the team said on Twitter.
Forghieri, then only 27 years old, was asked by founder Enzo Ferrari to take over the technical side of the team in 1961 after joining as a trainee from university with a degree in mechanical engineering.
Forghieri was the first engineer to put aerodynamic rear wings on a car, at the 1968 Belgian Grand Prix, helping Ferrari driver Chris Amon to pole position, nearly four seconds faster than the next quickest car.
And he designed Ferrari's first turbocharged engine. Introduced in 1981, four years after Renault pioneered the technology in F1, Ferrari became the first team to win the constructors' title with a turbo car in 1982, and repeated the feat in 1983.
Britain's John Surtees (1964), Austrian Niki Lauda (1975, 1977) and South African Jody Scheckter (1979) all won championships under his watch.
Ferrari also won seven constructors' world championships and 54 grands prix during that period.
Forghieri had fallings out, moved aside by Ferrari in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but never for long.
His Ferrari 312T car, in various guises, won four constructors' and three drivers' championships with Lauda and Scheckter.
Lauda, who died in 2019 and was famously direct, recalled in an autobiography how the combination of Forghieri and team manager Luca di Montezemolo helped forge a winning outfit after he arrived at Maranello in 1974.
"Forghieri was obviously a tremendous engineer and Luca was very good at telling the Old Man (Ferrari) about what was happening," he wrote.
-Reuters