Michael flies the flag for Piaggio Aero.

Reigning Formula 1 World Champion Michael Schumacher, who heads this year's Drivers' leader-board, is now endorsing Piaggio Aero Industries and in particular its premier product, the P180 Avanti.

As from today, at the Austrian Grand Prix in Spielberg, Schumacher's helmet visor will carry the white logo of Piaggio Aero, a stylised letter "P," based on the trajectory of two planes in flight.

Last year, Piaggio Aero Industries supplied two P180 Avanti to Ferrari. The company has now chosen Michael Schumacher to consolidate its winning image of Italian technology and design on the international market, something for which it is rightly famous.

"I am happy to have reached this agreement," said Michael Schumacher. "For me, Piaggio Aero Industries manages to perfectly encapsulate Italian style and the most advanced technology."

At the cutting edge of the Italian and international aeronautic industry. Piaggio Aero Industries is active in the design, construction and maintenance of aircraft, aeronautic engines and structural components. It was established in 1998, when a group of nine shareholders led by the Ferrari and Di Mase families took over the famous Rinaldo Piaggio Spa. Today the company employs around 1,350 people in four plants in Genoa, Finale Ligure, Greenville in the USA (Piaggio America Inc.) and Nice in France (Piaggio Aero France.)