Carlo Felice Trossi

Trossi at the 1934 Grand Prix automobile de Montreux

Count Carlo Felice Trossi (27 April 1908 – 9 May 1949) was an Italian racecar driver and auto constructor.

Racing career

During his career, he raced for three different teams: Mercedes-Benz, Alfa Romeo and, briefly, Maserati. He won the 1947 Italian Grand Prix and the 1948 Swiss Grand Prix.

The 1935 Trossi-Monaco, usually on display at the Museo Nazionale dell'Automobile

Trossi backed one of the most unusual Grand Prix cars, the Trossi-Monaco of 1935. This car featured a 16-cylinder, two-stroke cycle, two-row radial, air-cooled engine and an aircraft-like body designed by Augusto Monaco. The car was a spectacular failure and never raced in a Grand Prix event.^[1]

He had many exciting hobbies: racing boats and airplanes in addition to cars. Count Felice Trossi was also the president of the Scuderia Ferrari in 1932. Enzo Ferrari said of him "He was a great racer but never wanted to make the effort to reach a dominant position" and I remember him with emotion since he was one of the first to believe in my scuderia of which he was a part". [ ref. Piloti Che Gente, Enzo Ferrari, 1893].

Personal life

Trossi was born in Biella, Italy. Due to a brain tumor, he died in Milan at only 41 years of age.^[2]

References

1. Road & Track, April 1972.
2. Saward, Joe. "Jean-Pierre Wimille: The man who would have been champion..." at grandprix.com