Cesare Perdisa

Cesare Perdisa, October 21, 1932–May 10, 1998, was a racing driver from Bologna, Italy. He participated in 8 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on May 22, 1955. He achieved 2 podiums, and scored a total of 5 championship points.

Perdisa was the son of a wealthy publisher.

Perdisa often shared drives with his team-mates, for example on the 11th lap of the 1956 Belgian Grand Prix, Stirling Moss lost the right rear wheel of his Maserati, though he avoided an accident. Moss brought his car to a stop and ran a quarter of a mile back to the pits. There he took over in Perdisa's Maserati, which he piloted to the finish.

In March 1957 Perdisa withdrew from the upcoming 12 Hours of Sebring after the death of his team-mate Eugenio Castellotti. Castellotti died at the Modena Autodrome when he crashed a Ferrari he was testing for the Sebring event. He said he was giving up racing for some time because of a mental shock he experienced when Castellotti died two days earlier. Perdisa was Castellotti's closest friend.

In September 1957, Perdisa transported Juan Manuel Fangio and his wife, Andrea, to a Bologna, Italy hospital. The couple had been thrown from their 2.5 litre Lancia Aurelia while trying to avoid a truck entering the highway. Travelling at close to 100 mph, Fangio's car had smashed into a utility pole, though luckily Fangio and Andrea only sustained bruises.