Piero Dusio (13 October 1899 – 7 November 1975) was an Italian racing driver, businessman, footballer and racing-car manufacturer whose remarkable career linked Juventus, Grand Prix racing and the creation of Cisitalia. Born in Scurzolengo, in the province of Asti, Piedmont, Dusio initially appeared destined for a career with a ball rather than behind a steering wheel.
Driver Bio
| Nationality | Italian |
| Birthplace | Scurzolengo, Italy |
| Born | 13 October 1899 |
| Died | 7 November 1975 |
| First Grand Prix | 1952 Italian Grand Prix |
| Last Grand Prix | 1952 Italian Grand Prix |
| Years Active | 1952 |
| Current/Last Team | Cisitalia |
Football career
A promising midfielder, Dusio reached the highest level of Italian football with Juventus, making three appearances for the club during the 1921–22 season.
His playing career was cut short by a knee injury, but the setback pushed him towards business. Dusio established a textile company that grew into the manufacture of sporting equipment and the supply of military uniforms.
Football nevertheless remained part of his life.
In 1941, he founded Juventus Organizzazione Sportiva Anonima (O.S.A.), which he ran until 1943. The following year, Dusio became president of Juventus, remaining in the position until 1948, when he left Italy for Argentina.
By then, however, motor racing had become another major part of his story.
Racing career
Dusio made his racing debut in the 1929 Mille Miglia and continued competing until 1938.
His strongest results included a class victory in a 500cc Siata in 1937, while his ambitions increasingly extended beyond simply entering races.
In 1936, he founded Scuderia Torino and entered that year’s Italian Grand Prix at the wheel of a Maserati 6C-34.
Against a formidable field, Dusio finished sixth, following home Bernd Rosemeyer, Tazio Nuvolari, Ernst von Delius, René Dreyfus and Carlo Pintacuda.
It was an impressive result for a man whose interests already stretched well beyond those of a conventional professional racing driver.
Cisitalia
Towards the end of the Second World War, Dusio turned his attention increasingly towards building and operating racing cars of his own.
In 1944, he commissioned Fiat engineer Dante Giacosa to develop a competition car and established the Consorzio Industriale Sportiva Italia. The company would become much better known under its shortened name: Cisitalia.
Dusio assembled an extraordinary collection of engineering talent around the project. Among those associated with Cisitalia were Carlo Abarth, Rudolf Hruska and Ferry Porsche.
One of its first great successes came with the D46, a compact single-seater whose designation was itself a reference to Dusio – effectively the Dusio 46.
At the Coppa Brezzi, held alongside the 1946 Turin Grand Prix, three Cisitalia D46s swept the leading positions.
Dusio himself finished first. He was no longer merely the businessman signing the cheques: he was winning races in the machinery his own organisation had created.
Ambition, expense and Argentina
Dusio continued pouring money into increasingly ambitious racing projects, but Cisitalia’s engineering programme became enormously expensive.
The complex 202MM project placed such a heavy financial burden on the company that Cisitalia came close to bankruptcy in 1947.
Dusio subsequently moved to Argentina, where another chapter of his industrial career began.
On 22 March 1949, he established Autoar – Automotores Argentinos S.A.I.C., with financial backing from Argentine president Juan Perón.
Designer Aldo Brovarone followed Dusio to Argentina and joined the new company.
Meanwhile, Dusio’s son Carlo remained in Turin, where he worked to restructure Cisitalia. Father and son continued running the company until 1964.
Dusio also established Cisitalia Argentina Industrial y Comercial S.A. in Buenos Aires in 1960. The company produced cars including the Cisitalia 750.
Formula One attempt
Even after becoming better known as a manufacturer and industrialist, Dusio was not quite finished with racing.
He attempted to qualify for the 1952 Italian Grand Prix, which would have given him a start in the Formula One World Championship.
Appropriately, he entered a Cisitalia D46. The attempt went no further than practice. Engine trouble prevented Dusio from setting a qualifying time, leaving him without an official World Championship Grand Prix start.
It was nevertheless a fitting final connection between the two sides of his motorsport life: Piero Dusio the racing driver trying to reach Formula One in a car carrying the name of Piero Dusio the manufacturer.
Later life
Dusio died in Buenos Aires on 7 November 1975, aged 76.
Few figures from his era followed quite such an unusual route. He went from playing midfield for Juventus to becoming the club’s president, built a successful industrial career, competed in the Mille Miglia and Italian Grand Prix, founded his own racing team and then created Cisitalia.
His automotive ambitions were expensive enough to bring Cisitalia close to financial disaster, but they also produced some of the most distinctive Italian racing machinery of the immediate post-war period.
Dusio was ultimately far more than a driver. He was one of those restless figures who wanted to race the cars, finance them, build them and put his own name behind the entire operation – even if doing so occasionally threatened to empty the bank account.
Grand Prix Stats
| Race Entries | 1 |
| Race Starts | 0 |
| Did Not Start | 0 |
| Best Race Start | DNQ |
| Best Race Finish | DNQ |
| Retirements | 0 |
| First-Lap Retirements | 0 |
| Not Classified | 1 |
| Disqualified | 0 |
| Did Not Qualify | 1 |
Qualifying
| Qualifying Sessions | 1 |
| Reached Q3 | 0 |
| Q2 Eliminations | 0 |
| Q1 Eliminations | 0 |
| Did Not Qualify | 1 |
Stats by Season
| Year | Constructor | Entries | Starts | Wins | Podiums | Poles | Fastest Laps | Front Rows | DNF | Best Start | Best Result | Pts Finishes | Points | Championship |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1952 | Cisitalia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | DNQ | DNQ | 0 | 0 | Not Classified |
