Antonio Brivio

Born in Biella, Piemonte, to an aristocratic Milanese family, Brivio made his racing debut at the age of 22, driving a 1,199cc supercharged Derby. In 1928 he raced a Talbot-Darracq and joined Scuderia Materassi. He won his hometown Biella-Oropa hillclimb in 1931 and by the close of that season had been signed by Scuderia Ferrari as an Alfa Romeo works driver.

Brivio's most celebrated results came in long-distance road and circuit events. In 1932 he shared an Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 with Eugenio Siena to win the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps outright, the same year he took second overall in the Mille Miglia co-driving with fellow Biella native Carlo Felice Trossi.

The following year he won the Targa Florio on the demanding 72-kilometre Madonie Piccolo circuit, then in 1933 he also won the Parma-Poggio di Berceto hillclimb and, on 6 August 1933, took a win at the Sveriges Sommer Grand Prix at Vrem in Sweden.

In 1935 Brivio won the Targa Florio a second time, this time in a 2.9-litre Alfa Romeo Tipo B. In 1936 he won the Mille Miglia outright with co-driver Carlo Ongaro, one of the defining victories of his career.

After the war he returned occasionally; in 1947 he shared a Fiat 1100S Berlinetta with Aymo Maggi in the Mille Miglia, finishing thirteenth overall. In 1952, aged 47, he won his class in the Mille Miglia driving a Ferrari 166MM Berlinetta with Piero Cassani and then retired from competition.

Brivio competed in Grand Prix racing from 1932 through 1937, predominantly with Scuderia Ferrari in Alfa Romeo machinery.

In 1933 he made his first Grand Prix start in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, driving an Alfa Romeo 8C Monza. After engine trouble on lap 24 he took over Eugenio Siena's car and finished fifth.

In 1934 Brivio drove a Bugatti Type 59 and finished second in the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, also setting the fastest lap, 1 minute 51 seconds behind winner René Dreyfus. The German teams Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union had boycotted the race after the Belgian customs authorities attempted to levy a 180,000 franc duty on their special fuel. He also drove the Bugatti to third in the Coppa Acerbo at Pescara and eleventh in the Spanish Grand Prix.

In 1935 Brivio returned to Scuderia Ferrari with Alfa Romeo and finished third at the Monaco Grand Prix, behind Luigi Fagioli's Mercedes-Benz W25 and René Dreyfus. The 1935 season also included a serious crash at the Tripoli Grand Prix, where he was injured when he left the road into the cactus woodland.

In 1936 his best Grand Prix results came at Monaco, where he was fifth, and at the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, where he finished third — first of the Italian cars. In October 1936 Scuderia Ferrari travelled to the United States for the first Vanderbilt Cup at Roosevelt Raceway in New York. Brivio qualified on pole position and finished third; Tazio Nuvolari won the race outright.

In 1937 Brivio competed in the Rio de Janeiro Grand Prix at the Gávea circuit, where the Scuderia sent an Alfa Romeo 12C-36 for him alongside a 3.8-litre Alfa Romeo Tipo 8C-35 for Carlo Pintacuda. Pintacuda won; Brivio finished third behind Pintacuda and Hans Stuck. He had married Vittoria Perrone in Rome in February of that year and had promised her to retire from racing by year's end. His last Grand Prix start was the Czechoslovak Grand Prix at Brno on 26 September 1937, where he finished sixth, one lap behind winner Rudi Caracciola. Enzo Ferrari, who regarded Brivio's elegant driving style as similar to Achille Varzi's, is recorded as having met the retirement decision with sarcasm.

Over his racing career Brivio started 22 races, recording 3 wins, 9 podiums, and 2 pole positions.

Brivio was an accomplished bobsledder. He won a bronze medal in the two-man event at the 1935 FIBT World Championships in Igls. At the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen he competed in both disciplines, finishing tenth in the four-man event with teammates Carlo Solveni, Emilio Dell'Oro, and Raffaello Menardi, and twelfth in the two-man event with Solveni.

After the Second World War, Brivio became an active motor sport administrator. He was a member of the FIA and served as chairman of the Sporting Commission of the Italian Automobile Club, working with the Automobile Club of Milan and the Autodromo di Monza for more than 25 years. He is cited in multiple sources as having made the initial proposal for a World Drivers' Championship to the FIA in early 1949. On 13 May 1950 he served as the flagman who started the first Formula One World Championship race in history, the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Antonio Brivio died in Milan on 20 January 1995 at the age of 89.