Flavio Briatore, Eddie Jordan and former world champion Damon Hill were among the mourners paying tribute to formula one engineer Dino Toso at a private service near his Oxford (UK) home on Wednesday.

Toso, the 39-year-old former aerodynamic boss at Renault's F1 team, lost his long battle with cancer last week.

Former F1 team owner Eddie Jordan, who was Toso's boss at Jordan until he moved to Benetton (Renault) in 2001, told the Oxford Mail: "He was a very fit man and it was a blow when he got cancer -- he was given no time at all, particularly for someone who was so fit.

"The only time Dino went home was when he went to the gym," he joked.

1996 title winner Hill, also present at the service, was race engineered by Toso when a Jordan driver.

The Briatore-led Renault team said: "Dino was instrumental in building one of the sport's most successful aerodynamics departments, which helped the team win double drivers' and constructors' titles in 2005 and 2006."

Source: GMM