Gustav Brunner

Gustav Brunner is an Austrian Formula One designer and engineer. Born on 12 September 1950 (in Graz, Austria), he first came to prominence in Formula One in 1983, working for the ATS team. He would design two chassis for the team, the 1983 D6 and the 1984 D7, before quitting after a number of arguments with team principal Hans Gunther Schmidt. 1985 would see him joining RAM Racing, designing the RAM 03 car. By now he was gaining a reputation within the sport for designing good chassis on a limited budget, even if the teams he had worked for had a conspicuous lack of results.

He then worked for Arrows and Ferrari, before becoming Technical Director of the Zakspeed team. When the team folded at the end of the 1989 season, he moved on to Leyton House, staying as they reverted to March Engineering - during this period, he is perhaps best remembered for vaulting the pitlane wall and running on to the track when Ivan Capelli finished 2nd in the 1990 French Grand Prix. With March Engineering folding, he moved to Minardi for 1993, designing their successful M193 chassis, before another switch, to Ferrari's Research & Development department, eventually returning to Minardi as chief designer in 1997 to help new technical director, Gabriele Tredozi, and became the technical director in 1999.

Following three successive seasons where his Minardi designs had been praised for their innovative design considering such small resources, he was head-hunted by Toyota to become their Technical Director for their new Formula One team in 2001. He left Toyota at the end of 2005.