Alejandro de Tomaso
From Ferrari Wiki
FIA Super Licence   Argentine-Italian | |
| Formula One World Championship career | |
|---|---|
| Active years | 1957 Formula One season, 1959 Formula One season |
| Teams | Scuderia Centro Sud, O.S.C.A. |
| Races | 2 |
| List of Formula One World Drivers' Champions | 0 |
| Wins | 0 |
| Podiums | 0 |
| Career points | 0 |
| Pole position | 0 |
| Fastest lap | 0 |
| First race | 1957 Argentine Grand Prix |
| Last race | 1959 United States Grand Prix |
Alejandro de Tomaso (born in Buenos Aires, July 10, 1928 - died in Modena, Italy, May 21, 2003) was a Racing driver and industrialist from Argentina. His name is sometimes seen in an Italianised form as Alessandro de Tomaso. He participated in two Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on January 13, 1957. He scored no championship points.
De Tomaso the carmaker
Despite his Formula 1 career, de Tomaso was much more significant in the motoring world as a maker of cars. He founded the Italian sports car company De Tomaso in 1959, and later built up a substantial business empire.
Born in Argentina of a prominent political family, de Tomaso fled to Italy – from where his paternal grandfather had emigrated – in his late twenties after being implicated in a plot to overthrow the Argentina president, Juan Perón. He started his career in the car industry as a racing driver for Maserati and O.S.C.A. and married Isabelle Haskell, an United States heiress who also raced cars.
In 1959 he founded the De Tomaso car company in Modena, originally to build prototypes and racing cars, which included a Formula 1 car for Frank Williams's team in 1970. De Tomaso then turned to high-performance sports cars, most of which used Aluminium backbone Chassis, which were to become the company's technical trademark. De Tomaso cars include the two-door, mid-engined De Tomaso Vallelunga, De Tomaso Mangusta and De Tomaso Pantera; the De Tomaso Deauville, a four-door saloon resembling the Jaguar XJ6; and the De Tomaso Longchamp, a two-door coupé version of the De Tomaso Deauville which later formed the basis of the Maserati Maserati Kyalami. De Tomaso's most recent product has been the De Tomaso Guarà, a two-door sports car with a Carbon fibre bodyshell.
During the 1960s and 1970s, de Tomaso acquired a number of Italian industrial holdings. As well as the Ghia and Vignale coachbuilding studios, he gained control of the Benelli and Moto Guzzi motorcycle firms, the Innocenti car company (founded as an offshoot of the British Motor Corporation to build Mini in Italy), and, in 1975, the celebrated sports car maker Maserati, which he rescued from bankruptcy with the assistance of the Italian government. Over time, however, he sold many of his holdings; Ghia infamously was sold to Ford (who would make much use of the name) in 1973; Innocenti and Maserati were sold to Fiat (which promptly closed the former) in 1993. De Tomaso suffered a stroke in 1993, and the day-to-day running of the De Tomaso company passed to his son Santiago.
Alejandro de Tomaso died in Italy in 2003.
Complete Formula One World Championship results
(F1 driver results legend 2)
| Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | WDC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1957 Formula One season | Scuderia Centro Sud | Ferrari 500/625 | Ferrari Straight-4 | 1957 Argentine Grand Prix 9 | 1957 Monaco Grand Prix | 1957 Indianapolis 500 | 1957 French Grand Prix | 1957 British Grand Prix | 1957 German Grand Prix | 1957 Pescara Grand Prix | 1957 Italian Grand Prix | NC | 0 | |
| 1959 Formula One season | O.S.C.A. | Cooper Car Company Cooper T43 | O.S.C.A. Straight-4 | 1959 Monaco Grand Prix | 1959 Indianapolis 500 | 1959 Dutch Grand Prix | 1959 French Grand Prix | 1959 British Grand Prix | 1959 German Grand Prix | 1959 Portuguese Grand Prix | 1959 Italian Grand Prix | 1959 United States Grand Prix Ret | NC | 0 |
