Dallara

Giampaolo Dallara founded Dallara Automobili in January 1972 in his hometown of Varano de' Melegari. The company initially built chassis for sports car racing and hillclimbing. Dallara's first Formula Three car, designed for Walter Wolf Racing, appeared in 1978. The first F3 car under the Dallara name debuted in 1981 and quickly found success in Italy. Since 1985, Dallara drivers have won the Italian Formula Three Championship every year except 1990. The 1993 F393 model, which featured significant aerodynamic changes and a monodamper front suspension, won every race in the Italian, French, and German F3 championships in its debut year. Dallara has dominated the Formula Three market and has won the Macau Grand Prix continuously since 1993.

Dallara's involvement in Formula One began in 1988 when it partnered with BMS Scuderia Italia to design and build their chassis. This partnership lasted until 1992, achieving two third-place finishes: one at the 1989 Canadian Grand Prix with Andrea de Cesaris, and another at the 1991 San Marino Grand Prix with JJ Lehto. Dallara briefly returned to F1 in 1999, building a test chassis for Honda's planned return to the series, which ultimately did not materialize. In 2004, Dallara was contracted by Midland F1 Racing to design their 2006 car, but this partnership dissolved. In 2010, Dallara built the F110 chassis for Hispania Racing Team, though the project was marked by financial issues and a lack of development. Dallara's most successful modern Formula One involvement began in 2014 with Haas F1 Team, designing their first car, the VF-16, unveiled in February 2016. Dallara has remained a key technical partner, designing Haas chassis through at least the 2025 season.

Dallara entered the IndyCar Series as a chassis builder and supplier in 1997 and has been the sole chassis supplier since 2007. Dallara cars have won 21 Indianapolis 500 races and over 300 event wins through 2021. The marque's first Indy 500 victory was in 1998 with Eddie Cheever. In 2012, Dallara opened an engineering center in Speedway, Indiana, where it assembles IndyCar chassis. The 2012 IndyCar Safety Cell chassis was named the DW-12 in honor of Dan Wheldon, who died in 2011 while testing the new design. Wheldon had also won the 2011 Indianapolis 500 in a nine-year-old IR-03 chassis.

Dallara has a significant history in endurance racing. In the early 1980s, the company constructed the Lancia LC1 Group 6 prototype and the later LC2 Group C car. In 1993, Dallara returned to endurance racing with the Ferrari 333 SP, built for the IMSA GT Championship. Other customer programs included chassis for the Toyota GT-One, various incarnations of the Audi R8, and the Chrysler LMP (later known as the Dallara SP1). The Audi R8 became a dominant chassis at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and in the American Le Mans Series. From 2021, Dallara supplies the LMDh class chassis for BMW (M Hybrid V8) and Cadillac (V-Series.R), and also produces the chassis for the Ferrari 499P. Dallara will also supply McLaren's LMDh chassis from 2027.

Dallara became the exclusive supplier for the World Series by Nissan in 2002, leading to a contract for the World Series by Renault in 2004. The FIA appointed Dallara as the sole chassis builder for the FIA Formula 2 Championship (formerly GP2 Series) and the FIA Formula 3 Championship (formerly GP3 Series). Since 2002, Dallara has provided the spec chassis for the Indy NXT series (formerly Indy Lights Series), introducing the new generation Dallara IL-15 for the 2015 season. Dallara also designed the chassis for the Japanese Super Formula series, including the Dallara SF19.

In 2017, on Giampaolo Dallara's 81st birthday, the company unveiled its first road car, the Dallara Stradale. Dallara provides engineering services for a range of automotive clients, including KTM (X-Bow), Bugatti (Veyron and Chiron), Maserati (MC12 and MC20), Alfa Romeo (8C and 4C), and motorsport variants of Lamborghini Huracán. The company also has three primary lines of business: composites, aerodynamics, and vehicle dynamics. Dallara's expertise in composite materials extends to aerospace, including SpaceX. Dallara designed the drill component for the Philae lander aboard the Rosetta space probe and partners with Raytheon to provide the MALD decoy for the US Air Force.

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