Mauro Bianchi
Mauro Bianchi
(Chassis and Suspensions)
Mauro Bianchi is a former Italian car driver naturalized French, having accomplished his sports career under Belgian license (the Bianchi family left Milan in 1950 because Mauro’s father worked as a mechanic for the Belgian driver Johnny Claes).
Mauro entered the competition for the Belgian National Team: Formula 2 in 1960 on a Cooper-Climax, then a Formula 1 event outside the world championship the following year (the Grand Prix de Modena) on Emeryson-Maserati.
Then Mauro became an official Abarth driver in 1962 and 1963. He was therefore able to expand his track record in endurance events.
He then joined the young Alpine-Renault team in several categories (Formula 3, Formula 2 and endurance).
The fatal accident of his big brother Lucien, also a driver, at Le Mans in 1969, marked the end of his sports career.
He was subsequently the creator of the contractive suspension, the subject of several patents still belonging to him.
This original suspension was first fitted to the McLaren GT1 of the Raffanelli team during the 1997 season. Triple F1 World Champion Nelson PIQUET, who drove this car during the championship, won the last three races. He was full of praise for this chassis revolution.
Therefore, McLaren installed the contractual suspension on its Formula 1, the MP4-13, for the 1998 season … and won the title of World Champion, as in 1999.
The press around the world observed and welcomed the preponderant part of the contractual suspension in the two titles of McLaren.
As soon as he was appointed Director of Scuderia Ferrari, Jean Todt commissioned Mauro Bianchi to design a contractive suspension adaptable to the Italian F1.
With success, since the Scuderia won 5 consecutive constructors’ World Championship titles…
The Contractive suspension thus revolutionized F1, winning 7 consecutive World Championship titles.
Delage recruited Mauro Bianchi in 2019 to design the world’s first contractive suspension for a road-legal car : the D12.