Mario Isola

Mario Isola (born March 14, 1971) is an American NASCAR crew chief who is currently employed at Bill McAnally Racing. He is currently the crew chief for the No. 99 Toyota in the ARCA Menards Series that is driven by Cole Moore.

Biography
Mario started his motorsport career as a driver, competing in karting events and series from a young age. He drove alongside some significant names but didn’t go much further himself. Whilst at a job interview for Pirelli, Isola let slip that he’d done some competitive driving previously, and the company took him on board as a test driver.

He started out on the road car side, working for the research and development department, before moving across to motorsport – which he says had always been his aim. He initially helped design tyres for the FIA’s GT Championship in 2003, before managing the Pirelli operation within the series. They secured the championship in 2005, after which Isola moved to rallying.

In 2011, Isola became Racing Manager for Pirelli’s single seater operations, including F1 as well as GP2 and GP3. When Paul Hembery took a step back from the day-to-day running of the Formula One operation, Isola was drafted in to take a more active role in the paddock.

crisis
Isola returned a positive result after Sunday's race and is displaying no symptoms. Italian currently isolating and following local guidelines in Istanbul.

The Italian returned a positive result during the regular Sunday testing schedule for and is now isolating.

Isola is displaying no symptoms.

"The FIA, Formula One and Pirelli can confirm that Pirelli Head of F1 and Car Racing Mario Isola has tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday 15 November at the Turkish Grand Prix," said a statement.

Despite being begged not to volunteer by his girlfriend Isabella, the 50-year-old says it's his duty to help out in the coronavirus crisis in the region that has seen a staggering death toll.

The disease has killed over 7,500 people in Lombardy, and unsurprisingly, he is nervous about his first shift since coming out of self-imposed isolation after flying back from Melbourne.

He told SunSport: "As paramedics, we know we sometimes have to take risks.

"You could be faced with an aggressive person, you also take a risk when you drive an ambulance on an urgent mission.

"You know it is risky and you can have an accident. A few years ago I was in an accident in an ambulance and someone in another car was killed.

"Now, the problem is that every time the radio rings with a new mission, you are putting yourself in danger.

"You do it because you have to do it. I am having some discussions with my girlfriend, who is not very happy about it.

"Now, every time there is a risk, and that risk is not close to zero, it is something evident in many countries."

Isola, who joined the volunteer medical service when he was 18, has spent the last few weeks locked up at home.

With stricter sanctions than the UK, he has only ventured out of his home to buy essentials.

When he has gone out on the streets he says it is eerily quiet as Italy is gripped by fear of the disease.

Other information
With the final day of the shortened pre-season test finished, Pirelli have had the opportunity to get a greater understanding of all the new tyres, with all 5 compounds being brought to the Bahrain International Circuit – the C1,C2,C3,C4 and C5, all of which will be used on different race weekends through the year.

Isola feels that all the tyres performed well and without issue, with the softest compound of tyres showing a slight little bit of abrasion. Lap times will have been effected by conditions and fuel-loads run by each team making any comparisons between races held at Bahrain last year to testing this year hard.

It’s difficult for Pirelli to accurately run tests to access the performance difference between the compounds due to the track evolving throughout the day. Perhaps the easiest to tell for Isola is between the C2 and C3 tyres whilst the gap between the C3 and C4 compounds is bigger than expected.

This season will be the final season in which the 13 inch tyres are run before the tyres are changed to 18 inches in line with the drastic change in regulations for 2022. Teams will have the opportunity to test these throughout the year.

Some friends in Milan pushed Isola to do it. In Italy, it is possible to become a volunteer in an ambulance. You have to follow training and pass some exams, but then he is authorized to stay on as part of the team. In the beginning. I was not really in favor of doing it, but I tried. Then I realized if I did the training and stopped, it was useless. So Isola started 31 years ago, and I’ve enjoyed it ever since. You get to understand something different from your normal life, see different situations. In the last 15 years, I also decided to get together with other people to create specific training for ambulance drivers in and around Milan. We’ve trained more than 5,000 drivers and 100 instructors so far, and the project is going quite well. It takes a lot of time, but it’s worthwhile and Isola continued to do it.