Carlo Chiti (19 December 1924-7 July 1994) was a designer of racing cars, an Engineering Director of Ferrari and ATS, the Team Principal of Autodelta.
After graduating with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering, Carlo Chiti joined Alfa Romeo's design and engineering department in 1952, which was responsible for developing cars for the World Endurance Championship.
In November 1957, he joined Ferrari as Engineering Director for both Formula One single-seaters and two-seaters for the World Endurance Championship. He designed the Ferrari 156, which was the team's first rear-engine car and made its debut at 1961 Monaco Grand Prix with Richie Ginther, Phil Hill, and Wolfgang von Trips. Carlo Chiti remained at Ferrari until the end of 1961, when, along with other top executives, he was dismissed following sharp disagreements with Enzo Ferrari. Overall, he won with Ferrari 10 Grand Prix, three times World Endurance Championship (1958, 1960, 1961), once Formula One World Constructors' Championship (1961) and twice Formula One World Drivers' Championship (1958 with Mike Hawthorn and 1961 with Phil Hill).
Together with the other top executives dismissed by Ferrari, Carlo Chiti founded in 1962 ATS, which aimed to participate in Formula One and produce supercars. He became the Engineering Director of the racing department of this company, but left shortly before the start of the 1963 championship, after designing the team's car, to found on 4 March 1963 together with Lodovico Chizzola Autodelta, Alfa Romeo's racing team, of which he became Team Principal and with which he won the World Endurance Championship twice, in 1975 and 1977.
In 1978, partly on the initiative of Carlo Chiti, Alfa Romeo returned to Formula One, supplying engines to Brabham for the entire season and until the 1979 Italian Grand Prix. Meanwhile, at the 1979 Argentine Grand Prix, Alfa Romeo made its debut as a full constructor, with Carlo Chiti and Autodelta directing and implementing its racing program until the 1983 South African Grand Prix.
Carlo Chiti remained head of engine design until October 1984, just before the Portuguese Grand Prix, when, together with other partners, he founded Motori Moderni, where he was Engineering Director, to design and produce Formula One engines that made their debut in Pierluigi Martini's Minardi at the 1985 San Marino Grand Prix, marking the start of a partnership that ended at the 1987 Australian Grand Prix, alongside the supply of engines to AGS for its first two Formula One races: the 1986 Italian Grand Prix and the 1986 Portuguese Grand Prix. Carlo Chiti, in 1988, also designed a boxer engine that was briefly tested by Minardi in 1989, but it was not used by that team that year. Instead, it was used in 1990 by Coloni under the name Subaru. This same engine designed by Carlo Chiti also powered the Jiotto Caspita road prototype, built by Dome in 1989, and was used in the World Endurance Championship in 1990 and in the Class 1 World Powerboat Championship between 1990 and 1993.
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