People

Mariano Alperin

Mariano Alperin was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina but went to school in Australia and university in France.

Alperin is a highly-qualified engineer, having gained a Masters in Physics at the University of Toulouse. When he finished his first degree he decided that he wanted to put theoretical physics into operation and so began to study aeronautical engineering at the world-renowned Ecole Nationale Superieur de l'Aeronautique et de l'Espace, Europe's top aerospace school. This has produced some of the top aerodynamicists in Formula 1 including former Ferrari aerodynamicist Jean-Claude Migeot, McLaren's Henri Durand and Sauber's Rene Hilhorst.

When he finally graduated in 1990 he was recruited by the small AGS team which was being reshuffled by its new owner Cyril de Rouvre. The team struggled for money, was sold in mid-1991, and Alperin and other engineers moved to Lamborghini Engineering's F1 program with the Modena Team. This lasted only a few months and then he moved on to the Fondmetal team which was being restructured by owner Gabriele Rumi. He was put in charge of the team's telemetry programs but by the middle of 1992 Rumi was forced to decide to withdraw from F1 because of lack of finance. Alperin found himself out of work.

He found a job the following season with the Durango Formula 3000 team as a race engineer but the drivers were not very competitive and it was a frustrating season. For 1994 he was recruited by Minardi and put in charge of the aerodynamic program at the Fondmetal Technologies windtunnel at Casumaro. Minardi's major problem in recent years has been a lack of horsepower so that Alperin's work has not always been obvious.

With Fondmetal Technologies taking over Minardi's aerodynamics program in the autumn, Alperin decided he wanted to change teams and so joined Malcolm Oastler's team at British American Racing..