Alejandro de Tomaso (10 July 1928 in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

– 21 May 2003 in

Modena Modena (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It has 184,739 inhabitants as of 2025. A town, and seat of an archbis ...

, Italy) was an Argentine

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...

and businessman. His name is sometimes seen in an Italianised form as Alessandro de Tomaso. He participated in two

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 13 January 1957. He scored no championship points. He later founded the Italian sports car company De Tomaso Automobili in 1959.

Life and career

Alejandro de Tomaso was born in Argentina, where his paternal grandfather had emigrated from Italy. His family was politically prominent. In 1955, de Tomaso was implicated in a plot to overthrow Argentine president

Juan Perón Juan Domingo Perón (, , ; 8 October 1895 – 1 July 1974) was an Argentine military officer and Statesman (politician), statesman who served as the History of Argentina (1946-1955), 29th president of Argentina from 1946 to Revolución Libertad ...

, and fled to Italy. He settled in

and married American heiress Isabelle Haskell.

Auto racing

In 1957, he started his career in the car industry as a

racing driver for

Scuderia Centro Sud Scuderia Centro Sud was a Privateer (motorsport), privateer racing team founded in Modena by Guglielmo "Mimmo" Dei and active in Formula One and sports car racing between 1956 and 1965. Dei had been an amateur driver in the 1930s. In the early 19 ...

, a

privateer A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign o ...

team based in Modena. He drove in the first race of the Formula One World Championship of Drivers, the 1957 Argentine Grand Prix, driving a Ferrari 500, finishing 9th. He did not drive again in the 1957 World Championship series, but two weeks later drove in the 1957 Buenos Aires Grand Prix, a Formula Libre race, in partnership with Maserati driver Luigi Piotti as privateers in a Maserati 250F, again finishing 9th. He next competed in the 1957 BRDC International Trophy in September, for Automobili O.S.C.A. in an OSCA F2, but crashed in the preliminary heat. He returned to the Formula One Grand Prix circuit in 1959 for one race. He drove for O.S.C.A. in a Cooper T43, in the 1959 United States Grand Prix, and retired when his brakes failed after 13 laps.

De Tomaso Automobili SpA

In 1959, he founded the car company De Tomaso Automobili Spa (later De Tomaso Modena). De Tomaso Automobili built prototypes and racing cars, including a Formula One car for Frank Williams' team in 1970. Starting in 1963, De Tomaso Modena also built high-performance sports cars, most of which used

aluminium Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

backbone

chassis A chassis (, ; plural ''chassis'' from French châssis ) is the load-bearing framework of a manufactured object, which structurally supports the object in its construction and function. An example of a chassis is a vehicle frame, the underpart ...

, which were to become the company's technical trademark. De Tomaso sports cars included the Vallelunga (1963), Mangusta (1966),

Pantera Pantera () is an American Heavy metal music, heavy metal band formed in Arlington, Texas in 1981 by the Abbott brothers (guitarist Dimebag Darrell and drummer Vinnie Paul), and currently composed of vocalist Phil Anselmo, bassist Rex Brown, an ...

(1971), and Guarà (1993). De Tomaso Modena also produced luxury cars: the

Deauville Deauville () is a communes of France, commune in the Calvados (department), Calvados department, Normandy (administrative region), Normandy, northwestern France. Major attractions include its port, harbour, Race track, race course, marinas, con ...

(1971), and Longchamp (1972). During the 1960s and 1970s, under Alejandro's leadership, De Tomaso Modena acquired a number of Italian industrial holdings. These included the

Ghia Carrozzeria Ghia SpA (established 1916 in Turin) is an Italian automobile design and coachbuilding firm, established by Giacinto Ghia and Gariglio as "Carrozzeria Ghia & Gariglio". The headquarters are located at Corso Guglielmo Marconi, 4, Tu ...

and Vignale coachbuilding studios, the Benelli and

Moto Guzzi Moto Guzzi () is an Italian motorcycle manufacturer and the oldest European manufacturer in continuous motorcycle production. Established in 1921 in Mandello del Lario, Italy, the company is noted for its historic role in Italy's motorcyclin ...

motorcycle firms, the Innocenti car company (founded as an offshoot of the

British Motor Corporation The British Motor Corporation Limited (BMC) was a United Kingdom, UK-based vehicle manufacturer formed in early 1952 to give effect to an agreed merger of the Morris Motors, Morris and Austin Motor Company, Austin businesses.Morris-Austin Merge ...

to build

Mini The Mini is a very small two-door, four-seat car, produced for four decades over a single generation, with many names and variants, by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors British Leyland and the Rover Group, and finally ...

s in Italy), and in 1975, the celebrated sports car maker

Maserati Maserati S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury vehicle manufacturer. Established on 1 December 1914 in Bologna, Italy, the company's headquarters are now in Modena, and its emblem is a trident. The company has been owned by Stellantis since 2021. Ma ...

, which was rescued from bankruptcy with the assistance of the Italian government. Over time, however, many of these holdings were sold off. In 1973, Ghia was sold to Ford (who would make much use of the name). In 1993, Innocenti and Maserati were sold to

Fiat Fiat Automobiles S.p.A., commonly known as simply Fiat ( , ; ), is an Italian automobile manufacturer. It became a part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in 2014 and, in 2021, became a subsidiary of Stellantis through its Italian division, Stellant ...

(which closed the former). In 1993, de Tomaso suffered a stroke. He retired as head of De Tomaso Modena, succeeded by his son Santiago. Alejandro remained active in design work. He helped in the engineering of the sports version of the fourth generation

Daihatsu Charade The Daihatsu Charade is a supermini car produced by the Japanese manufacturer Daihatsu from 1977 to 2000. It is considered by Daihatsu as a "large compact" or "supermini" car, to differentiate it from the smaller ''kei car'' compacts in its line ...

, introduced in 1994, which was known as the Daihatsu Charade De Tomaso. Alejandro de Tomaso died in Italy in 2003.

Racing record

Complete Formula One World Championship results

( key)

Non-championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) :''* Indicates shared drive with Luigi Piotti''

References

Notes

Bibliography

* *Twite, Mike. "De Tomaso: Italian Precision with Brute Force", in Northey, Tom, editor. ''World of Automobiles'', Volume 5, pp. 531–2. London: Orbis, 1974.
De Tomaso Book Review
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tomaso, Alejandro de 1928 births 2003 deaths Racing drivers from Buenos Aires 20th-century Argentine businesspeople Argentine racing drivers Argentine Formula One drivers Argentine people of Italian descent Italian automotive pioneers Italian businesspeople Italian founders of automobile manufacturers Italian racing drivers Scuderia Centro Sud Formula One drivers OSCA Formula One drivers Argentine emigrants to Italy 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers De Tomaso World Sportscar Championship drivers Maserati people Formula One team owners Formula One team principals