Ex-Ferrari engineer Antonia Terzi has died at the age of 50 after being involved in a car crash in the UK.
The former engineer began her impressive Formula One career in 2001, joining Ferrari the year Michael Schumacher secured his fourth world championship, before being part of the German great’s fifth win one year later.
Following a successful spell in the famous red of Ferrari, Terzi then made the move to Williams in 2003 where she played a pivotal role in the creation of the ‘Walrus Nose’ famously used on the FW26 car in 2004.
Her former employers Williams took to Twitter to confirm the devastating news of her death.
The manufacturer said: “We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of our former colleague and chief aerodynamicist, Antonia Terzi. Our thoughts go out to Antonia's friends and family at this difficult time.”
Terzi recently took on a new venture in her career, after becoming a full professor at the University of Canberra, where she had planned on relocating to following the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 50-year-old more than played her part in a strong Williams set up in the 2000s, as the team were one of the strong contenders to the dominant Schumacher and former employers Ferrari.
The Oxfordshire-based manufacturer proved to be a key challenger in 2003 with Juan Pablo Montoya, as he was pipped to the title by 11 points by Schumacher for his sixth world championship.
A year later Terzi played a key role in designing and producing the notorious Williams ‘Walrus Nose’.
However this was not enough to stop Schumacher, who went on to win 13 of the 18 races on the way to his seventh, and last Formula One title.
Despite this Williams did manage to make some history in that campaign as Montoya set the record for the fastest lap in F1 history, after going round the Monza circuit in Italy at an average speed of 262.242 km/h.
Following a career in Formula One Terzi went on to become head of aerodynamics at Bentley, while also taking on a role as an assistant professor at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.
