Tuesday, November 02, 2021
Inventor of the “hammerhead” nose
Formula 1 mourns the loss of a former Schumacher engineer
At the age of only 50, the former Michael Schumacher engineer Antonia Terzi had an accident in Great Britain. She actually wanted to be in Australia a long time ago. But the pandemic stops the relocation plans of the inventor of the legendary Williams “hammerhead” nose.
At the age of only 50, the former Michael Schumacher engineer Antonia Terzi was killed in a car accident in Great Britain. Born in 1971 in Mirandola, Italy, she quickly found her way into Formula 1 and before the age of 30 worked under Rory Byrne for the legendary Italian racing team and thus also for Michael Schumacher, who drove for Ferrari from 1996.
After the 2001 season, her time at Ferrari ended. In response to an advertisement, Terzi applied to competitor Williams and a few years later provided a spectacular innovation. Ross Brawn, Technical Director of Scuderia, mourned her departure from Ferrari in 2006. “Five years ago we were miles ahead in aerodynamics. Then we lost Nicholas Tombazis, James Allison and Antonia Terzi to the competition,” said the Briton in an interview with the “FAZ”.
“Of course, they had our secrets with them. Our rivals first noticed the level and consistency with which we were approaching the issue of aerodynamics. That set off retrofitting for the opponents, which inevitably wiped out our advantage . ”
The inventor of the “hammerhead” nose
At Williams she took over the management of the aerodynamics department under Technical Director Patrick Head and developed the legendary “hammerhead” nose for the Williams FW26 for the 2004 season. However, the nose was replaced again for the Hungarian Grand Prix in mid-August 2004.
She stayed away from the public. “Antonia is not interested in wasting her time on public appearances,” Head told Spiegel in early 2004. “Your job is to make our car faster.”
At the end of the 2004 season, Williams driver Juan Pablo Montoya won the final race in Brazil, but for Terzi the Formula 1 adventure was over. After the season dominated by Schumacher and Ferrari and the difficulties in adapting the “hammerhead” nose, she left the premier class. At Williams she was replaced by Loic Bigois. After leaving the premier class, the Italian works for the luxury brand Bentley, among others. There she was “Head of Aerodynamics”.
At the TU Delft, Terzi developed the “Superbus” with the Dutch physicist and spaceman.
(Photo: picture alliance / dpa)
She had recently embarked on an academic career. At the Technical University of Delft she developed the “Superbus”, a fully electric vehicle made of composite materials with “wing doors” that can carry up to 23 passengers. The futuristic “Superbus” can be admired these days in the National Transport Museum of the Netherlands. He is considered to be one of the pioneers in the realignment of local transport in Germany’s neighboring country.
Last year Terzi became Professor of Aerospace Engineering at Canberra University. But first the pandemic stopped moving to Australia. That week she died in a car accident in the UK, the country where she was born in 1971 had spent most of her life.