Racing
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Mario Isola, Pirelli’s sport chief and the public face of Formula 1’s sole tyre supplier since 2011, said goodbye to the paddock after the 2026 Miami Grand Prix as he prepares to take up a senior motorsport role with ACI Sport.
His departure closes a 15-year stretch in which he became one of the most familiar figures in the F1 paddock, and Isola made clear in Miami that the hardest part was leaving the people around him. Speaking to Sky Deutschland during his final weekend, he said many colleagues, team members and drivers had come to thank him for what he had done for Formula 1 and tell him they would miss him. “I have a new challenge, and I’m looking forward to it,” Isola said. “In life, sometimes you have to make decisions.”
Even so, he said walking away was difficult because the paddock had become “a second family.” That sense of attachment was shaped over more than 330 grands prix, a span that covered regulation changes, recurring tyre debates and some of the championship’s most memorable races.
When asked to pick the defining moment of that run, Isola went back to Melbourne 2011, Pirelli’s first race after returning as Formula 1’s sole tyre supplier. He said the months leading into that season had been filled with pressure, test work and uncertainty, and that the race itself confirmed the concept worked by opening up strategy and making the racing livelier. “At the end of the race, we cried because we were so emotional,” he said.
Not all of the memories were celebratory. Isola also pointed to Japan 2014 and Jules Bianchi’s crash as one of the darkest moments of his time in Formula 1, describing it as a tragic day that left what he called a “grey film” over the paddock and stayed with him years later.
Among the moments that moved him most recently, Isola said it was very special as an Italian to hear the national anthem after an Italian driver reached the podium, with one account identifying Kimi Antonelli as the driver he meant. He said he hoped those moments would keep coming in the races ahead.
His one clear regret was that Ferrari did not win a world championship during his time in Formula 1. Isola said he had hoped to see that happen before leaving, with Ferrari’s last titles still standing from 2007 in the drivers’ championship and 2008 in the constructors’ championship. He said he now hopes that changes in the future, a reminder that his exit marks not just a personal farewell but the end of the Pirelli era he spent helping define.