People

Dino Toso

Born in Delft, Holland, in 1969, Toso was plucked out of the Dutch aerospace world by BMW in 1996 when it was recruiting engineers for its Italian Superturismo programme. He spent a year working as a race engineer before getting a job in England, as a vehicle dynamicist at Jordan Grand Prix. That led to an opportunity to become a race engineer with Jordan and he worked with Damon Hill in 1998 and 1999, overseeing Hill's victory at Spa in the first year.

At the end of the 2000 season he was lured away to Renault by Mike Gascoyne, who had nurtured him at Jordan. In August 2003 Renault's chief aerodynamicist John Iley departed to join Ferrari and Toso was promoted to the role. He was diagnosed with cancer in April 2004 but continued to work while undergoing treatment and in 2005 and 2006 the team won both the Drivers' and the Constructors' titles. He was promoted to the role of Director of Aerodynamic Technology in 2007, but stepped down from this role in June 2008. He succumbed to cancer a few weeks later at the age of 39.