4/10/1927 - 24/8/1999
Record updated 23-Aug-06
Veteran Italian semi-professional and Autodelta Alfa Romeo GTA driver.
Roberto Bussinello was born in Pistoia, Tuscany. He was an engineering graduate who began racing in 1958, also working as a development engineer and test driver for the de Tomaso team. He drove their F1 car on occasion, mainly in Italian events, taking fifth place in the Naples GP and fourth in the Coppa Italia of 1961. He raced in the 1961 Italian Grand Prix in a four-cylinder Alfa Romeo-engined de Tomaso.
In 1963 Bussinello moved to Alfa Romeo, again initially in a development role, but he was soon racing their lovely Giulietta GT car, finishing third in the 1964 Targa Florio and winning the Sandown Park 6-hour race at season’s end.
He subsequently drove the ageing Centro Sud BRM in the 1965 German and Italian Grands Prix with correspondingly little success, failing even to qualify for the former event, so it was back to Alfas and familiar territory for Roberto, who later acted as engineer to Muller’s de Tomaso-Ford sports car in the early seventies.