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The Formula 1 World Championship has begun and for many Alumni it’s a very intense time. For the fans, of course, for the enthusiasts, but even more so for those who work there. We have talked to some of them and they agree that: one of the most interesting aspects of working at Formula 1 is the continuous evolution in regulations and technologies.

“They always create new conditions, to be analysed and adapted to in the best way possible,” says Lucia Conconi. According to Francesca Gnanifor a designer, it can be one of the highest professional achievements: “because it allows you to take chances and test new ideas in a very short time". For Alberto Taraborrelli, "the life of an engineer is profoundly shaped by the need to solve problems and when most of them are solved, there’s the risk of getting bored!” “I am not lucky enough to experience the atmosphere of the races in person,” adds Filippo Giussani, "but being on the sofa at home with friends or colleagues and hoping that your work has paid off keeps you in suspense: after a radical change in the regulations, we were all eager to see the car in the race".

These have been days of great anticipation for everyone, in which they expect to see the results of a year of work. “Preparation is very important,” says Conconi51, Aerospace Engineering Alumna. She tells us that every Formula 1 team is dual spirited: "one spirit is focused on the track event and the other is focused on development (and therefore more in the medium term). In my team, there’s a bit of one and bit of the other and we have to alternate the rhythm in harmony”.

For the past 18 years, Conconi has worked in motorsport, in the fields of simulation, performance, vehicle dynamics and suspension. Today he is Head of Vehicle Performance in the Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN: “I'm Head of Vehicle Performance,” he explains.

"We simulate and define the main characteristics of the car for the design and development phase and analyse and optimise performance when the car is on the track.”

The hardest part of his job, he confesses, is also the most important: “When the results are not as we would like, when events and demands come quickly one after the other, it is crucial to keep the department motivated, focused on priorities, to help colleagues to deal with problems calmly and methodically”. Logic and method come from the Poli, together with technical skills: “I am very attached to my university years, the Politecnico is not just an excellent school. It gave me the opportunity to cultivate my passion and learn from exceptional professors in technique, working method and the advice I received on how to overcome certain difficulties from a human point of view”.

Giussani is 32 years old, with a degree in Energy Engineering and a PhD in Energy and Nuclear Science. “As a child I wanted to be a scientist. Perhaps that is also why I decided to do a PhD. But I realized that academia is not for me and I had to rethink my plans. Fortunately, my academic career has allowed me to broaden my horizons and interests”.

Today he works as Junior CFD software developer for Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team: "I develop and maintain the software used for the single-seater aerodynamics simulationsAs luck would have it, I did something similar during my PhD, applied to internal combustion engines and in particular to injectors.” He explains that his work is different every day: "A technical job always has its intrinsic difficulties, but my PhD gave me the right mindset to tackle problems I’ve never seen before.

So, studying hard, tenacity and passion are the ingredients to get into this environment, together with curiosity and good communication with your team. “But I would recommend that students gain as many life experiences as possible. Studying is essential but there are other skills that you develop only by getting out of your comfort zone”.

Francesca Gnani also recently arrived in Formula 1: “I started a month or so as Programme Manager in the Haas F1 Team to follow the development of the car that will be racing next year. I came on board at a time of mayhem due to the construction of the VF22 and the technical developments after the tests in Barcelona and Bahrain. So far, there has been no time or energy to devote to the new car but we will be starting soon”.

Her job involves managing the development plans of the entire project, from the release of the designs by the engineering department to the arrival of the parts on time. At 33 years old, Alumna in Aeronautical Engineering, she arrived at F1 after a PhD, an MBA and work experience in management.

“My path has taken so many directions that ending up in F1 was more a matter of luck,” says Francesca who, as a child, dreamed of becoming a vet. “Then, at high school, my love of mathematics led me to make a more “rational” choice: I decided that I wanted to become a pilot and I wanted to enrol in the Air Force Academy. I still do not know if by luck or by bad luck, but I was an inch too short to get in: as Plan B, I enrolled in Aerospace Engineering. I remember the moment when I told my classmates that I had signed up for the Poli admission test. A companion of mine literally said: “Yeah ... dream on ...” These are words that I keep on hearing every time I have to face a new challenge, which I always overcome with my head held high.”

Gnani tells us about a complex professional environment, involving technique as well as the human element,which requires all-round vision; being able to understand the nature and extent of problems and know how to manage people.

“You have to be able to make solid but sufficiently flexible predictions. It certainly takes a bit of experience (which I have to build on) and a bit of innate ability.”

Francesca leaves us with a memory of the Poli: “The hand delivery of the last group project just 1 minute before the deadline at the Poli Bovisa secretariat. All this after a night spent reviewing/rereading, rushing to print off and bind copies, and racing in my car through the streets of Milan towards the Poli and the car stuck in traffic with sweat dripping down my forehead. Finally, jumping out of the still moving car (my study mate was driving) and sprinting up the fire escape as a short cut. Probably, in my memory, this has all been reworked a bit like a Hollywood film, but that’s really how it felt to me.”

Taraborrelli is 30 years old and has always dreamed of working in Formula 1. He graduated in Mechanical Engineering with a specialisation in Mechatronics and Robotics and his best memory of the Poli is the Dynamis PRC, Formula Student Team at the Politecnico di Milano.

“I joined the team at the end of 1st year as an engineer. There were 12 of us. When I left, after graduation, there were 80 of us. In my final year, I was the technical director of the team that built the DP8, the car entered to race in the following two years.It is thanks to the Formula Student that I fell in love with electronics, which guided all my subsequent choices. It is an experience that I recommend to all students.”

Taraborrelli is now Trackside Control Systems Engineer in the Alpine F1 Team: he works on the car’s on-board software that manages gearbox, clutch, brakes, differential, DRS and the steering wheel. He lives in Brackley, in England, but in the most intense periods he travels continuously to be with the team. “This time close to the start of the world championship is among the hardest and most difficult times of the year,” he says, “especially because the cars are so different and therefore so unfamiliarthe work to understand the characteristic features and the responses to the changes is truly very intense.

Changes in regulations,” he explains, “are essential for enabling a reshuffling of the cards, with the prospect that outsiders on the grid can find a square that the top teams have not necessarily found, but it is also true that it can cause unexpected problems. It is not easy to manage the pressure in hectic moments, when there is little time to solve a problem where sometimes you are not completely sure what caused it. The race weekend is a tense experience, but also always one to face positively. On every occasion, it is essential to take the best from the worst and try to turn the unfavourable situations in your favour. Never let it get you down!”

Credits header: Photo by Abed Ismail on Unsplash

Founded in 1954 by the Alumnus Gio Ponti and managed by theItalian Design Association (ADI), the Compasso d’Oro over the years has become the highest Italian award in the field of national and international design.

There are around 2300 objects and projects in the collection. Over the years, the award had been extended to include areas not strictly related to industry. To celebrate Italian Design Day, we present a list of ‘Politecnico Made’ entries – certainly not exhaustive (but if you have any suggestions, write to us!) –, thanks to the support of articles by Domus, Corriere Living, AD Italia and the podcast “Il design è donna”. We have chosen 10: 8 great classics and 2 new entries that hint at what the future has in store.

THE CLASSICS OF THE HISTORY OF DESIGN

1. CHAIR 832 LUISA – 1955 – Successors Carlo Poggi – Alumnus Franco Albini

Albini's idea was to create the ideal model of seatingidentifying its essential elements and possible uses within the home. The Luisa chair was the result of a long research driven by the need to achieve the “substance of form” and the possibility of mass production, in response to the economic boom between the 1950s and 1960s.

The motivation of the Compasso d'Oro jury reads::

“Faced with the remarkable production presented this year in the field of chairs and armchairs, at the end of the discussion, the jury rewarded the interest and the level of the problems raised by the chair designed by the architect Albini for the basic solution of the connected legs – armrest – backrest, the formal organic character of the material attachments, the visible joints and the production difficulties in relation to the entire structural concept.”

2. DONEY 14 TELEVISION – Brion Vega – 1962 – Alumnus Marco Zanuso and Richard Sapper

The Doney television won the prestigious Compasso d'Oro in 1962 and soon became the symbol of design-focused technological products..

On the ADI Design Museum website we read that Doney 14 was the first transistor portable television manufactured in Europe, in which the internal parts were arranged to fit into a compact volume obtained by the simple combination of two case halves with a visible join. For this reason, the first series, now highly sought after, was made of transparent acrylic, while later versions were made in a wide range of colours. Richard Sapper and Marco Zanuso thus won the Compasso d'Oro for the Doney 14 in 1962, thanks to the inimitable curved shape and the complexity of internal components, all contained in a single box. An icon of Italian design produced by an equally iconic brand, Brion Vega.”

3. SIGNAGE AND SETUP OF THE MILAN UNDERGROUND – 1964 – Alumna Franca Helg, Alumnus Franco Albini and Bob Noorda

The Compasso d'Oro awards not just objects, but also projects. If you have travelled by public transport during your time at the Politecnico, then the subway signage will certainly be familiar to you: but did you know that it was awarded the Compasso d'Oro?

 "The Compasso d'oro 1964 is awarded to the architects Franco Albini and Franca Helg and to the graphic designer Bob Noorda for the particular qualities of the architectural coordination and organization of the signage of the new stations of the Milan Underground,”

reads the motivation of the jury..

It is the conferment of a precise identity which is reflected in a series of graphic and set-up elements aimed both at giving a coordinated image of the Milan underground, and at responding in an immediate and intuitive manner to rapid requests for information from the passengers, be they regular or infrequent users.

4. TELEPHONE GRILLO – 1967 – Siemens – Alumnus Marco Zanuso

The Grillo telephone is one of the greatest innovations in the field of telephony. Symbolically the precursor to the portable telephone, it introduced for the first time the concept of the telephone call as a private and intimate moment. The balance of technology, functionality and aesthetics decreed its victory at the Premio Compasso d'Oro in 1967.

“Designed by Richard Sapper and Marco Zanuso, Grillo was much smaller, lighter and easy to handle than any other device of the time,” – states the ADI website -. “It also featured a snap closure anticipating the first similar cell phones by a good thirty years and was available in different colours. SIP (later to become Telecom) included it among the devices distributed to its subscribers, making it a great public success. The Compasso d'Oro rewarded the novelty and usability of the device and the technical and design innovations displayed in its compactness, achieved without sacrificing its functionality.”

In 1993, having become a cult object and one of the symbols of modern design, the Grillo was exhibited at the MoMA in New York.

5. ECLISSE TABLE LAMP – 1967 – Artemide – Alumnus Vico Magistretti

Designed by Alumnus Vico Magistretti for Artemide in 1965, the Eclisse lamp is “an avant-garde balance between form and function, design and utility.” The basis of the concept lies in its functionality of regulating the intensity of the light via its internal rotating lampshade that “eclipses” the light source. With a fixed external casing and a movable internal casing, the lamp can provide direct or diffused light.

“The Commission’s evaluation is that the object presented has the double quality of high design-aesthetic value and the potential for mass distribution. It also underlines the novelty of the technical solution which, with a simple movement of the rotating screen, graduates the intensity of the light output.”

6. STRIPS SOFA – 1979 – Arflex – Alumna Cini Boeri

In the late 1960s, the Alumna Cini Boeri (we talked about her here) revolutionized the furniture sector with one of her pieces that remained an “evergreen” in versatility: the Strips modular sofa.

“It is used as a veritable outer shell that you can take off, wash, change, put back on and zip up like a dress over the polyurethane body," wrote Cini Boeri in 1974. “The bed, also removable and therefore washable, is quicker to use than normal, because the upper part that opens like a sleeping bag can be used as a blanket and sheet. You open it up, get in and close it; open it and out you get. Strips are essentials, easy to use.”

Today the Strips sofa is in the permanent collections of authoritative museums such as the Triennale in Milan and the MoMA in New York.

7. PARENTESI LAMP – 1979 – Flos – Alumnus Achille Castiglioni and Pio Manzù

The project is based on a sketch by Pio Manzù, who was the first to conceive the idea of a lamp that could slide vertically from floor to ceiling and rotate 360°, but who died before seeing it made.
Once in the hands of Achille Castiglioni, the sketch was re-interpreted to create Parentesi, in which Castiglioni replaces the rod with a metal rope and minimizes the use of materials and the number of components (source).

The lamp is exhibited in many museums and exhibitions dedicated to industrial design all over the world, such as the MoMa in New York, and in Italy at the Triennale in Milan, the GAMeC in Bergamo and other galleries and museums of national importance.

Again referring to Castiglioni, an honourable mention also goes to the famous ‘ "Arco" lamp, which in 2020 won a Compasso d’Oro d'Oro award for “Carriera del Prodotto” (Product Lifetime Achievement). This lamp, due to numerous imitation attempts, was the first industrial design object for which copyright was granted as for a work of art (source).

8. STACKABLE CHAIR K4870 – Kartell – 1987 – Alumna Anna Castelli Ferrieri

“Each company has its own style and the Kartell style is absolutely inimitable,” states the official ADI website, “because it started from a technology, moulding coloured plastics, continuously reinterpreted by the best designers, with innovative and diversified forms and functions.

With the K4870, in 1987, the Compasso d'Oro also rewards a leading figure of Italian design: Anna Castelli Ferrieri (we also talked about her hererecognized and recognizable for her extraordinary formal rigour but never without a touch of playful engagement: antechamber of the functional poetics. These qualities are expressed in the 4870 stackable chair, as essential as it is functional and pleasing at the same time. Anna Castelli Ferrieri would go on to receive a second prize in 1994 with a project for Sambonet. Among her many merits, she was also the first woman President of ADI, from 1969 to 1971.

A LOOK AT THE FUTURE

9. E-LOUNGE – 2020 – Alumnus Antonio Lanzillo & Partners

E-LOUNGE has an innovative and multi-functional design, a product that on one hand plays the straightforward role of a bench, but on the other it provides people with various services such as Wi-Fi connection, a grille for parking bicycles, power outlets for recharging electronic equipment and electrical mobility devices (e-bikes and hover boards).

For the Compasso d'Oro jury, E-LOUNGE cut “new type of product capable of combining different design elements: digital, sharing economy, neighbourhood culture, street furniture, connection. A company that interprets the spirit of the times through design.”

Read the comment by the Politecnico Alumnus Antonio Lanzillo on the Alumni website 

10. HANNES – 2020 – Alumni Lorenzo De Bartolomeis, Gabriele Diamanti, Filippo Poli – Ddpstudio 

HANNES is a prosthetic hand made by Lorenzo De Bartolomeis, Gabriele Diamanti and Filippo Poli – three Alumni Designers graduated from the Politecnico di Milano – and developed by the Italian Institute of Technology and INAIL.

For the Compasso d'Oro jury,“design is proven to be an essential tool for helping people in difficulty to regain control of their future. Technology and aesthetics help to overcome psychological distress and physical handicap.” HANNES HANNES features extreme similarity to a human hand both in the movements it can perform and in its form, and is able to restore over 90% of lost functionality.

Learn more about the story of Hannes, the robotic hand, on www.alumni.it