3
Corrado Casiraghi
“Complete flexibility and collaboration
with the teams, that’s the Tatuus style”
Corrado Casiraghi, an aeronautical engineer
from Milan Polytechnic, is one of the young
stalwarts of Tatuus. He is responsible for
design, especially the aspects involving
aerodynamics, and technical support for the
teams. «I turned up at Tatuus with my
curriculum in hand – he explains – but I picked
up my passion for motor sports by osmosis,
since I was born and grew up just outside the
circuit in Monza».
How is the work organised at Tatuus?
«We’re a small company, and this means that
people’s roles are not rigidly defined, which is
positive. The consequence of this is that the
work ranges from designing components to
providing teams with technical support during
testing. I’m involved in the design process up to
a certain point, then, once the work starts in
the wind tunnel, my job takes on a more
experimental aspect.
The greater part of my involvement with the
teams centres on providing instructions and
information mainly concerning the
management of the car and the acquired data.
For example, the main difference between our
most recent projects, Formula Abarth and the
Prototype, and our more “traditional” models,
such as the Renault 2000, is that the quantity of
information acquired is much greater, due to
the increased complexity of data gathering
systems.
The upshot is, besides defining the racing set‐
up and other purely technical activities that
vary from team to team, that we spend much
time in providing the teams with instructions,
including some quite basic concepts. We try to
provide the best possible support in order to
help the teams grow and get the best out of the
cars».
Could you give us more information about your
last two projects?
«The Abarth is an interesting project since its
main objective is keeping costs and
construction times to a minimum. We tried to
do as much as possible right at the start of the
design stage, integrating studies that had been
carried out for other cars. We’ve had a bit more
time on the Sport project. We’re still coming to
grips with the concept of the car and working to
improve it as we go forward with the
development stage. We learnt a lot because it
involves many new concepts – on‐board
systems, lights, fuel systems for duration races –
that we had never taken into account before».
What makes the Italian approach to
engineering different from the british one?
«Italian approach is more versatile and elastic
than british approach. In UK, once a system has
been established it’s difficult to imagine it being
turned upside down. In Italy we concentrate
more on trackside management and car costs
than on purely technical and performance
based approach. And in this country we also
boast designers who are capable of optimising
overall performance, not only from a
management point of view but also in terms of
technical specifications».
An example?
«In a way it all started with the carbon fibre
chassis at Tatuus, even though I wasn’t working
here then. In british vision it probably seemed
impossible to build a car with a carbon fibre
chassis on that budget, because their concept of
chassis is the only one they know: the Formula
1. Naturally it’s impossible to achieve Formula 1
performance due to the type of materials and
fittings that have been used: a lot of things have
been sacrificed in order to keep costs to a
minimum. It’s difficult to imagine anyone who’s
grown up in Anglo‐Saxon engineering culture
being willing to take such risks».
Which project are you most enthusiastic about?
«I’m very excited about Sport cars, which we are
still getting to know, and that are much closer
to our own sector than to Formula 1. Formula 1
is a completely different world. The P2 projects
still represent a step beyond anything we have
been involved with in the past, but the
underlying philosophy is not entirely
incompatible. I see it as our next goal, very
demanding, but also extremely interesting».
