Following a successful career as a motorcycle mechanic working in Grand Prix motorbike racing (MOTOGP these days) & Superbikes, and then as an engineer in sportscars, Ed Wood (not to be confused with the maverick film director of the same name) decided to return to studying, first attending the University of Read more…
Team // 2 of 3
Having attended Grands Prix in his native South Africa, Dirk De Beer inherited his father’s love of F1 at an early age and set his sights on becoming a Formula 1 aerodynamicist. After gaining a degree in aeronautics at Imperial College, London, he joined US firm Swift Engineering, then building Indycars Read more…
Ann Bradshaw’s first foray into motorsport came in the early 1970s when, as a news journalist, a connection of hers in the Yardley BRM team heard about a vacancy as Competitions Officer at the British Racing and Sports Car Club (BRSCC) and thought Ann would be an ideal fit. On Read more…
Pat Symonds was born in Bedford and was privately educated at Gresham’s School in Norfolk before attending Oxford Polytechnic & Cranfield University where he graduated with a Masters degree in aerodynamics. After cutting his teeth in junior formulae, Pat Symonds joined the fledgeling Toleman team in 1980 ahead of their Read more…
Equipped with a degree in mechanical engineering from Brunel University, he entered the world of motorsport with Tiga Race Cars – a British racing car constructor – founded by former F1 drivers Tim Schenken and Howden Ganley – who competed in various junior Formulae in the 70s & 80s. Coughlan Read more…
Old Etonian and Cambridge graduate Adam Parr joined Williams in 2006 tasked with the compete restructuring of Williams holdings PLC, and stabilising a team that was struggling on track and a business struggling away from the track. Williams was quickly tumbling down the constructors table, having gone from narrowly losing Read more…
After studying mechanical engineering at university in Buenos Aires, Scalabroni left South America for Europe to join the Dallara group to oversee the then new-to-F3 Italian marque’s groundbreaking carbon-monocoque Formula 3 car for the 1983 season. On joining Williams in 1985 Scalabroni was instrumental in the redesign of the FW10‘s troublesome Read more…
Oatley remained at Williams for seven years, becoming race engineer to Regazzoni’s replacement Carlos Reutemann in 1980 and 1981 and then Jacques Laffite when he joined Williams in 1983. “Patrick was a fantastic mentor and gave me a great deal of support. He was very patient and a good, practical Read more…
On leaving Lotus he joined Gary Anderson at Jordan Grand Prix with a view to establishing their R&D department. After two years working in the Jordan factory, Michael joined their test team and subsequently became race engineer for Ralf Schumacher and then Heinz-Harald Frentzen (both former Williams drivers). In 2001 Read more…
On arriving at Williams, one of the many areas Dernie would transform was Williams’ use of computer technology, becoming the first person/team in Formula 1 to design a car using CAD software. His other responsibilities included aerodynamic development, for which he was solely responsible, something that was vastly improved when Read more…
