Jarno Zaffelli

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Jarno Zaffelli
Jarno Zaffelli 2022 Spa Dromo.jpg Jarno Zaffelli 2022 Spa Dromo.jpg Jarno Zaffelli in 2022 just after the completion of Eau Rouge - Raidillon upgrades
Born	(1976-10-30) 30 October 1976 Reggio nell'Emilia, Italy
💼 Occupation	Circuit Designer Inventor
🌐 Website	studiodromo.it

Jarno Zaffelli (born in Reggio Emilia on 30 October 1976) is an Italian designer, inventor and photographer.

Biography

Born in Reggio nell'Emilia a historical territory of motor enthusiasts, after graduating in experimental mechanics, he continued his studies at the Faculty of Management Engineering, which he soon abandoned to open an IT company as a System Integrator and developer of Apple's OS X operating systems.

In 2000 he founded the Dorodi sports association, and began a long process of self-education aimed at building an autodrome in Reggio Emilia, the city of his birth. Thus began a taxonomic work in which he visited and collected data on most of the existing autodromes for F1 and Motogp world championship races.

In November 2008, he registered as a photographer and attended the first edition of the Professional Motorsport World Expo in Cologne.

Career

In 2011, Zaffelli founded the basis of his current engineering company, Dromo, which by 2020 had offices and employees in Italy, United Kingdom and Singapore.

His approach to projects has always been based on the extreme use of techniques (e.g. DroCAS system) and construction technologies, pushing the limits of his works to unprecedented levels of research and experimentation. The drawing style of the layout, on the other hand, is strongly influenced by the fluid and organic forms of nature.

More and more throughout his career, Jarno Zaffelli has been compared to the most famous race track designer of the time, Hermann Tilke, looking to him and his team for a credible alternative to the problem of "Tilkodromes". Zaffelli often draws inspiration from "the soul of the circuits" to differentiate himself from many of the German designer's creations, which are often accused of being boring racetracks.

Projects

In order to solve some problems on the newly renovated Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, in 2008 Zaffelli began to develop a calculation system, already used to design the Autodromo del Veneto, through the reconstruction of track accidents. With the collaboration of the University of Florence and Dainese, Zaffelli studied the crash dynamics of drivers and vehicles in the circuit's escape routes, collecting data that became the basis of his personal design system, called DroCAS.

In 2011 he was called by the Mugello circuit to design some parts of the track that had to be completely resurfaced, and then he followed the resurfacing of the Imola circuit.

In the same year, he signed a contract to re-design and follow the construction of the Termas de Río Hondo Circuit (Argentina) to host the MotoGP.

The main feature of the Argentine circuit is turn 13, which Zaffelli designed inspired by a street in his native Reggio Emilia; it has been the scene of exciting action, and has been replicated by other racetracks and designers, like Turn 16 in Mandalika International Street Circuit, Lombok and T18 in Kymi Ring, Finland.

The Sepang circuit was the circuit that saw the first interventions of the new organisational structure, between 2015 and 2016. In addition to the complete resurfacing, the last corner was redesigned to solve safety issues and lack of overtaking, building the steepest negative banking hairpin in the World Championship, both F1 and MotoGP. The corner has been much criticised by some riders, but has been rightfully included in the ranking of the most interesting in the respective championships creating some of the best overtaking Sepang has ever seen.

The 2018 British motorcycle Grand Prix, for the first time in 35 years, Silverstone Circuit saw the MotoGP Championship race cancelled due to safety concerns at the track. The circuit set up a committee of enquiry and appointed Jarno Zaffelli to investigate the incident. Following the findings of the investigation, the track was completely resurfaced in 2019 using autonomous driving technology for milling. The track was completely redone from the World War II concrete foundations upwards, with the creation of a bespoke asphalt mix called BriWEC.

In 2019, Dromo was commissioned to support Circuit Zandvoort in bringing Formula One back to the Netherlands after 35-year of absence. The project, based on a suggestion from the director of Circuit Zandvoort and Charlie Whiting to create an elevated track to replace the last corner, saw the remodelling of more than half the track completed in February 2020. In March of the same year, Max Verstappen inaugurated it with a demo car, expressing his satisfaction and surprise, especially for the new Turn 3, named the Hugenholtz in honour of the famous Dutch designer of the Suzuka track. The curve, in fact, was created using, for the first time at a racetrack, a golden section built according to the Fibonacci sequence with the aim of finding more overtaking opportunities due to the different possible ideal lines. The circuit was asphalted with a bespoke compound, called FlyingDutch, in honour of the Dutch drivers.

Bankings became a new trend in circuit design after Zandvoort.

During the year 2020, the entire Formula 1 calendar changes due to the pandemic. Over the course of the months, racetracks that had never hosted a Formula 1 race in the previous 10 years were added to the calendar. Among others, the Italians Mugello, Imola and the Portuguese Portimão; all three entrusted Dromo with the work of updating them to F1 standards.

In 2021 Yas Marina has been upgraded and the works carried out by Colas Middle East. In that case, Jarno Zaffelli led the construction team to gain praises on the quality level of the works.

Early in 2022, Dromo was behind the remodelling and refurbishing of Spa-Francorchamps, especially the Eau Rouge- Raidillon sequence, maybe the most famous corner in the F1 Calendar.

Racetracks

• Misano World Circuit, Italy 2010
• Autodromo internazionale del Mugello, Italy 2011
• Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari di Imola, Italy 2011
• Autodromo nazionale di Monza, Italy 2015
• Sepang Circuit, Malaysia 2016
• Singapore Street Circuit, Singapore, 2016
• Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi, 2016, 2021
• Kymi Ring, Finland, 2016
• Automotodrom Grobnik, Croatia, 2017
• Silverstone Circuit, 2018
• Circuit Zandvoort, 2019
• Circuit Paul Ricard, France 2020
• Autodromo Franciacorta, Italy 2020
• Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, Portugal 2020

He was also in charge of the projects for several circuits that were not built, such as those for the Reggio Emilia Circuit and the Veneto Circuit, or the Pontedera Circuit.

Inventions

• Simply - Project for a simplified mobile phone with only 3 keys for the fourth age - 2004
• Cicero - Territorial information system through mobile messaging services - 2007
• DroCAS - Dromo Circuit Analysis System - System of simulation and calculation of escape routes for motorcyclists, cars and skiers - 2007
• WhatsOn - Software system for surveying, visualising and monitoring of depressions and deformations on tracks or structures - 2016
• Incudine - Specific acoustic survey and measurement system for motorsport facilities - Financed by Por-Fesr Emilia-Romagna - 2017
• WhatsOn laser - System for visualising the flatness of a surface through the collimation of rectilinear lasers - 2017

Awards

• InMentor Award - University of Modena and Reggio Emilia - Reggio Emilia Industrial Association - Municipality of Reggio Emilia for Cicero - 2008
• Lorenzo Bandini Trophy - Emilia Romagna Region Award

Publications

• Experimental analysis of post-accident motion of motorcyclists - Vangi, Virga, Zaffelli - EVU Europe - 2013

References

This article "Jarno Zaffelli" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Jarno Zaffelli. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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