Don Rennis

Donatello 'Don' Rennis (Born 29 Feburary 1952 in Palermo, Italy) is an Italian motorsport administrator. Rennis has been known to be incredibly outspoken in the media but has nonetheless been a highly respected figure in the F1 and F1RWRS paddock for the best part of 20 years, even if he never was the most well-liked.

Early Career

Rennis graduated from the University of Messina with an Engineering degree in 1977 and very quickly found work in the Brabham team working as a mechanic.

However, it soon became apparent that his real talents were in the management side of the business and in 1979, Rennis became the team's Commercial Manager. By midway through the next decade, he had risen to the ranks of basically running the team as owner Bernie Ecclestone was losing interest in running the outfit with his increasing political grip on Formula One itself. The team itself was in decline with the radical cars from designer Gordon Murray proving to be underwhelming in 1986.

With the team missing the deadline for the 1987 season, Rennis initially offered to take over the team altogether from Ecclestone but was unsuccessful in his attempts. After this, Rennis left the Brabham team and joined car manufacturer March as commercial and business manager for their customer car program.

When March made a return to top-flight competition for 1989, Rennis was named team manager, having managed to securing funding from Japanese consortium Leyton House.

Rennis embarked on a career in driver management in the 1990s - his most high-profile client being outspoken Welsh driver James James Davies.

In the 2010s, Rennis worked as the commissioner for the F2RWRS series as well as the team principal for the Melrose ARWS team.