14/12/2006 Janes leaves Cosworth

The former Cosworth head of F1 race engineering, Michael Janes, has joined Ilmor to be their new MotoGP team manager. Since the departure of Cosworth from Formula One became clear, it was logical that lot of team members would be dispatched everywhere in other motorsport compagnies, as did Alex Hitzinger earlier with Red Bull. If Cosworth wants to return in F1 in the next years by taking advantage of the frozen engine rule, it will be tough to reform an engine team as good as it was during all its history in Formula One and particulary these last years.

14/12/2006 Williams hires another Renault man

According to the magazine Autosport, Rod Nelson, who was Fernando Alonso's track engineer, has joined Williams to be its new chief race and test engineer.

14/12/2006 Baldwin retires

The former Goodyear chief designer and engineering manager between 1964 and 1978 retired. After departing from Goodyear, he has been Shadow F1 team manager and then Yokohama consultant since 1982.

14/12/2006 Super Aguri prepares 2007

Paul White Draughting Ltd, a consultancy compagny founded by Paul White, who departed from Toyota in 2005, has been handling some of the Super Aguri SA07 project together with the team. Prior to being hired by the Leafield team earlier this year, Paul White worked with Jordan, Sauber and then became Toyota's head of development.

14/12/2006 John Davis to Lola

Former Williams aerodynamicist, John Davis, has joined Lola to replace Chris Saunders as technology centre manager. This one departed for Red Bull in Formula One to strengthen their aerodynamic department which has, by the way, lost Ben Mallock who returned to Honda earlier this year.

22/11/2006 Renault race team reshuffle

Pat Symonds has taken more management responsibilities which see him working closer to team boss Flavio Briatore. As a result Alan Permane, former Fisichella race engineer, has been appointed chief race engineer. On the engine side Denis Chevrier will oversee the Red Bull engine operations in addition to his current responsabilities and Fabrice Lom, former Fisichella race engineer, will head the co-ordination of the Red Bull track support.

11/11/2006 Lacey joins McLaren

Simon Lacey, who was one of the three Honda chief aerodynamicists before the departure of Willem Toët and the promotion of Mariano Alperin to lead the department, has joined McLaren to replace Peter Prodromou who recently became Red Bull head of aerodynamics.

25/10/2006 End of an era

It's official , Ross Brawn leaves Ferrari and Paolo Martinelli joins FIAT. They will be both replaced by Mario Almondo who becomes technical director after being head of organisation and human ressources during one year in the Ferrari group. The chassis and the engine departments will be headed respectively by Aldo Costa and Gilles Simon, they will report directly to Almondo.
Another changes but not in the engineering side, Jean Todt becomes Ferrari CEO, but keeps his job of general director of the GES as an interim (must we understand someone like Ross Brawn or Michael Schumacher will replace him for this job soon ?) and Stefano Domenicalli becomes sporting director.

25/10/2006 Two technical reshuffles

The seasons' ends always bring many technical reshuffles. We are all strongly waiting for Ferrari's announcement coming this week, but let's begin with two major structures in formula one, Williams and Bridgestone.

Firstly in the Grove based team, we can notice lots of arrivals. Jon Tomlinson, as already stated, became head of aerodynamic department and was joined by former McLaren senior aerodynamicist, Amit Chakraborty. The chief designer job, empty since the beginning of 2006, has been given earlier this year to Ed Wood, a former Prodrive, Ferrari and Renault designer. He will be joined by John Russell who has already worked ten years for Williams before becomming chief designer at Jaguar Racing in 2000. Sam Michael's role is also said to be redifined to spend more time at the factory.

On the Bridgestone side, as other engineers involved in F1, Hisao Suganuma will return to Japan and leave F1 but will remain in the motorsport department. The technical management will be taken over by two engineers currently detached to Ferrari, Kees van der Grint and Jun Matsuzaki. Hirohide Hamashima and Hiroshi Yasukawa will have their responsabilities extended with MotoGP in addition of Formula One.

04/10/2006 Renault F1's aero men on their way

Jon Tomlinson and Nicolas Hennel, both former Renault F1's aero men, have joined respectively Williams and, earlier this year, McLaren. The first will join the Loïc Bigois team to try to strenghthen the Williams principal weakness, the aerodynamic side. And the second has been appointed principal aerodynamicist at the Woking based team.

28/09/2006 Hitzinger joins the Red Bull F1 "group"

The former Cosworth F1 head of development, Alex Hitzinger, has joined Red Bull to be its head of advanced technologies as well as the new Toro Rosso technical director, replacing Gabriele Tredozi. He will begin his new jobs on november 1st and will be based at the Faenza factory.

28/09/2006 Super Aguri's organisation in evolution

After a relatively good season regarding their financial ressources, Super Aguri decided to make its organisation evolve as its staff is currently growing. Mark Preston remains the technical chief but his job has been renamed technical director, Graham Taylor (former chief track engineer) is promoted to sporting director, Ben Wood remains aerodynamic leader as head of aerodynamics, Stephen Watt becomes head of electronics and Gerry Hughes will assume the new role of head of research and development as well as maintaining his current job of track engineer for Takuma Sato.

28/09/2006 Trulli loses track engineer

Ossi Oikarinen, Trulli's track engineer at Toyota, has left the team. He will be replaced for the three remaining races by Gianluca Pisanello.

14/09/2006 Tredozi leaves Toro Rosso

Gabriele Tredozi has left Toro Rosso after being with the Faenza based team for 19 years. It is said that Gerhard Berger is trying to hire the current Maserati's technical director, Giorgio Ascanelli, to replace Tredozi.

14/09/2006 Gascoyne joins the new Spyker F1 team

Mike Gascoyne has been announced to be part of the new team Spyker F1, following its acquisition of Midland F1. The british engineer will then be back to the Siverstone based team he has left five years ago to be the new chief technology officer on November 1st. James Key will however remain in his role of technical director.

16/08/2006 Mark Gillan returns to F1

The former Jaguar/Red Bull's head of vehicle performance, Mark Gillan, will come back to Formula One in 2007 to be the new Toyota's head of aerodynamics, reporting directly to Pascal Vasselon. Mark Gillan will start working on January 1st.

04/08/2006 Altran Engineering Academy result

27-year old Swede, Gustav Kristiansson, became the third winner of the Altran Engineering Academy after Mark Caldwell (2004) and Isaac Prada (2005). He has been rewarded by a paid six-month stint in the Renault F1 Team's R&D department in Enstone, with a company car and a paid flat.

04/08/2006 Wirth involved on Honda's project

The former Benetton chief designer, Nick Wirth, is currently reworking the Courage LC75s which will be used by Honda, next year, under the Acura brand, to compete in the ALMS LMP2 class. It is also said that Wirth will be involved in the future Honda LPM1 project.

11/07/2006 Duesmann joins BMW

Markus Duesmann will finally join BMW in january 2007, he will replace Heinz Paschen who is leaving the compagny. According to BMW, it was the former Mercedes engineering director who approached them and not the contrary.

11/07/2006 Barnard comes back to Moto GP ?

The former famous F1 engineer, John Barnard, could be back in Moto GP, working with the engineering compagny Ricardo to create a team. After Prost GP closed down in 2002, Barnard has been involved in the Kenny Roberts' team in Moto GP and then focused on running his own compagny, B3 Technologies, involved in various engineering domains, Formula One included.

21/06/2006 Willis leaves Honda

Honda's technical director since 2002, Geoff Willis, has left the team. He has been replaced by Jacky Eeckelaert who will be the head of the race technical team, and by Shuhei Nakamoto who becomes the new senior technical director.

21/06/2006 Duesmann leaves Mercedes

The former Mercedes director of engineering, Markus Duesmann has left the team, according to the magazine Autosport. Axel Wendorff and Andy Cowell, the two Mercedes chief engineers, will probably take the lead as it was before Duesmann's arrival.

19/05/2006 Midland strengthen its aerodynamic department

The Midland F1 team announced the hiring of Tony License, who comes from Williams, to strengthen its aerodynamic department. He will report to Simon Phillips, the team chief aerodynamicist.
License has been aerodynamicist for Jordan before joining Williams to work on their new wind-tunnel.

13/05/2006 John Probst joins Red Bull in NASCAR

John Probst has joined the Red Bull NASCAR team as their new technical director and Günther Steiner will finally be a technical consultant.
Prior to that, Probst has been a Ford engineer. He was involved in Formula One with Stewart and Jaguar through Ford Electronics Racing, before becoming the Ford Racing Technology Champ Car Program Manager and later vehicle dynamics supervisor for Ford Racing Technology.

13/05/2006 Toyota restructuring

Pascal Vasselon has been confirmed in his role of technical leader of the chassis team. However, he won't be the new technical director but general manager chassis as Luca Marmorini who will be general manager engine.
Luca Marmorini takes also the overall responsability of the electronic department.
Noritoshi Arai and Keizo Takahashi remain in their technical co-ordination roles.
Tsutomu Nagashima, the senior executive co-ordinator, will take a lead in the chassis departement and will have the responsability of all special projects.

13/05/2006 Murray is setting up his own business

Gordon Murray has revealed that he was setting up his own car compagny. The first project will be a prototype sports car which he wants to design and to product. His compagny could also be involved in the production of a city car on which Murray worked before.

13/05/2006 Honda promotes Alperin

Mariano Alperin will now take the overall responsability of the aerodynamics in his new role of chief aerodynamicist. Before that, the former BAR's aerodynamic department was headed in collaboration by three chief aérodynamicists : Mariano Alperin, Simon Lacey and Willem Toët, who departed earlier this year for BMW-Sauber.

06/05/2006 New track engineer for Massa

Rob Smedley replaced Gabriele Delli-Colli as Felipe Massa' track engineer for the European Grand Prix. According to the rumour, the Ferrari's driver would have asked this change.

27/04/2006 Red Bull continues hiring

After having hired Keith Saunt (ex-Renault's head of manufacturing) as operation director at the beginning of the month, Red Bull has engaged Neil Martin, the former McLaren's team leader of operational research, as their new head of strategic operations.

24/04/2006 Anderson leaves Racing Engineering

Two months after having joined the GP2 team, Racing Engineering, as Adam Carroll's track engineer, Gary Anderson decided to leave the team because he thought Carroll needed a full-time commitment engineer, which he was unable to be. The technical director, John Gentry, replaced him to this position since the last Imola GP2 race.

12/04/2006 Altran Engineering Academy

For the third year, Renault F1 and Altran are offering the opportunity for young engineers to get involved in a Formula One team by winning a 6-month placement with the Renault F1 Team. Students entering the competition must submit a project featuring technological innovation in one of these following disciplines : aerodynamics, power, performance engineering, vehicle dynamics, control systems, electronics, materials transducers and fuel technology. Candidates have to register by May 31st 2006 before 5:00 PM Paris time, and will find more information on the website : http://www.altran-academy.com. Robin Tuluie, head of Renault F1 R&D, will be notably one of the judges of the competition.

27/03/2006 Zander leaves Williams

The German chief designer, Jörg Zander, has left Williams for personnal reasons. The team precised that it was unrelated to his work performance.
Williams said that they don't need an immediate replacement and believes that the technical team is strong enough to withstand this departure.

05/03/2006 Steiner leaves F1

Günther Steiner will join the Red Bull Toyota NASCAR team in april of this year as technical director.
Steiner has joined the Red Bull F1 team at the beginning of 2005 with Christian Horner to replace the former management. But the recent recruitments made by Horner, notably with Adrian Newey and Mark Smith, make that there isn't any place for Steiner in the technical management.
Has Horner forseen stability in his plans to progress in the championship ?

05/03/2006 Some changes ...

The former Honda head of test engineering, Mark Ellis, has been appointed chief engineer in charge of vehicle performance.

On the Midland side, Bradley Joyce will be the race engineer of Christijan Albers and Jody Egginton will take in charge Tiago Monteiro.

17/02/2006 Anderson returns in motorsport

Gary Anderson has joined Racing Engineering in GP2 as track engineer for their new driver, Adam Carroll. He will find there another former F1 engineer, John Gentry, who is technical director.

16/02/2006 Season review of 2006

The 2006 season review is now available here.

16/02/2006 Rob Taylor to McLaren

According to the british magazine Autosport, Rob Taylor is no longer head of vehicle design at Red Bull and will shortly join McLaren as senior designer.

02/02/2006 Tombazis returns to Ferrari

The former McLaren vehicle project director, Nikolas Tombazis, will return to Ferrari in March to be chief designer. He will report directly to the new head of development and design, Aldo Costa. Also, Rory Byrne and Costa will still report to the technical director, Ross Brawn.

28/01/2006 Neil Oatley appointed design and development director

The former executive director of engineering, Neil Oatley, has been appointed design and development director at McLaren. In this new role he will oversee the car specification and design programme, defining the specification for each race and supervising the build and approval processes for each new component.

28/01/2006 Prodromou to Red Bull

The McLaren chief aerodynamicist, Peter Prodromou has signed for Red Bull for the 2007 season. However McLaren said the british engineer will still work on the MP4-21 and MP4-22 projects until his transfer.
The rumor says also that Nikolas Tombazis might leave the Woking based team for Ferrari.

26/01/2006 Brown joins Chip Ganassi Racing

Andy Brown has joined Chip Ganassi Racing where he will be the Dan Wheldon track engineer. Until now he was Panther Racing chief engineer where he previously met the british driver in 2002.

25/01/2006 Top engineers for the Fisichella's GP2 team

Humphrey Corbett, who has joined Red Bull at the end of 2005, will finally work for the Fisichella's GP2 team, FMS, as technical director. He will be joined by the former Ferrari engineer Vincenzo Castorino who will be head of data aquisition, simulations and race strategies. Castorino was at Ferrari since 1989 where he was notably track engineer for Michael Schumacher before being at the head of track customer engines.

25/01/2006 Byrne to stay as a consultant

The Ferrari chief designer, Rory Byrne, who will retire from this job at the end of this year, will stay in the compagny as a consultant for two years. He will assist the f1 team and will be involved in road car development.

25/01/2006 Changes in the Toyota's technical staff

Noritoshi Arai has replaced Keizo Takahashi as director technical co-ordination and after the departure of the former chief designer, Gustav Brunner, Pascal Vasselon has been appointed general manager car design and development.

25/01/2006 Movements at Ferrari

Mario Almondo has been appointed head of human ressources and organisation department in the Ferrari Group since september 2005. As Ferrari has done for several years, Almondo will be replaced by internal promotion. It's Corrado Lanzone, the former head of mechanical production, who will replace him and Fabrizion Fuschillo who will take over the former job of Lanzone.

Thanks to juveferrari from the forum.

15/01/2006 Toet joins BMW-Sauber

The former BAR chief aerodynamicist, Willem Toet has taken recently the responsibility of the BMW-Sauber aerodynamic department. As Mario Theissen said, the aerodynamic department is strengthening, so Seamus Mullarkey might stay in the team with an influent job.

15/01/2006 New year

Welcome on the new english section of Engineering F1. The website has been updated to the 2006 year and Engineering F1 wish you an happy new year.