Legendary Engineer Divila Passes Away at 74

Photo: Nissan

Renowned engineer Ricardo Divila has passed away following a short illness at the age of 74.

The Brazilian’s motorsport career spanned six decades, most notably for designing the Fittipaldi F1 cars in the 1970s and was largely involved in the open-wheel ranks until the 1990s.

Divila, who spent time in Japan, held engineering positions at Pescarolo, Dome, SARD and most recently Nissan with various sports car racing projects.

He was a key technical figure within the Nissan GT Academy graduate program, as also played roles in the DeltaWing and ill-fated Nissan GT-R LM NISMO LMP1 project.

He had continued to engineer cars with RJN Motorsport even after Nissan had pulled its backing on its European program and remained a regular visitor to the sports car racing paddocks worldwide.

In his nearly 60 years in the sport, Divila worked more than 2,600 races, including 286 F1 GPs.

Tributes have poured in from the sports car racing world on news of Divila’s passing.

What a really sad news, I can’t believe I will not share any more conversation, amazing stories with you Ricardo. you are one of the guys in my career who teach me the most. I will miss you so much.
Our 2006 Formula Nippon title was one of the most memorable moment in my career pic.twitter.com/nRtogqMjPW

— Benoit Treluyer (@BenoitTreluyer) April 25, 2020

Very sad to hear Ricardo Divila has left us. I met him long ago in Japan and always felt he was a special man with a unique understanding of Motorsport. You will be missed amigo! Muito obrigado🙏 RIP pic.twitter.com/kdYm2sKthN

— Pedro de la Rosa (@PedrodelaRosa1) April 25, 2020

Ricardo, I’m grateful I was able to work with you and call you a friend. Your opinion I always valued along with listening to your life and motorsport stories to which I could and did listen to for hours. Myself and friends couldn’t believe how much energy you possessed everyday pic.twitter.com/08OIFZpaMr

— Jann Mardenborough (@Jannthaman) April 25, 2020

Dear Ricardo Divila.
Thank you for everything you've done for us. We lost a great person in motorsport. Such a passionate man, you loved racing.
I'm grateful you helped me a lot in my first career of European racing, and loved chatting in paddock with 🚬 We will miss you Ricardo. pic.twitter.com/yIK0HlI9ns

— 千代勝正 (@KATSUMASA_CHIYO) April 26, 2020

Ricardo Divila! Thank you my dear friend for the countless hours of conversations we shared over the years. I have learned so much from you and I’m forever grateful. My heart is aching so bad that I can’t see and hug you again 😢😢
Rest In Peace my dear friend ❤️ pic.twitter.com/noOMZXAMDh

— João Paulo Oliveira (@JPdeOliveira) April 25, 2020

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John