F1 technical chiefs of today

[Tyler]

I honestly expected a bit more from Sauber this year with James Key moving over.
Do you think that's it's just a case of not having enough resources to design a front running car in this case? When he moved over from Force India last year, the C29
started to look much, much better while the VJM03 seemed to fall behind with developments once he left.
With Key fully involved with the C30 I was expecting them to look way better than Force India this year and was wondering if Force India would battle without him.
FI is only slightly ahead in points and look to be a bit stronger than Sauber the last few races.
Key is rated really highly but I honestly don't know much about him or what he's achieved to receive such high praise.
Some folks have even suggested that he would have been a better choice for TD than Bob Bell for Mercedes but I'm happy Bell has been given the job.
I think he's proved he's more than capable thanks to 2005/6 at Renault and think that he's capable of putting together a winning car if given the right resources.

[raymondu999]

I think Key has been praised highly not for producing world beaters, but more for what he can squeeze out of a small budget

[Byronrhys]

I honestly expected a bit more from Sauber this year with James Key moving over.
Do you think that's it's just a case of not having enough resources to design a front running car in this case? When he moved over from Force India last year, the C29
started to look much, much better while the VJM03 seemed to fall behind with developments once he left.
With Key fully involved with the C30 I was expecting them to look way better than Force India this year and was wondering if Force India would battle without him.
FI is only slightly ahead in points and look to be a bit stronger than Sauber the last few races.
Key is rated really highly but I honestly don't know much about him or what he's achieved to receive such high praise.
Some folks have even suggested that he would have been a better choice for TD than Bob Bell for Mercedes but I'm happy Bell has been given the job.
I think he's proved he's more than capable thanks to 2005/6 at Renault and think that he's capable of putting together a winning car if given the right resources.

FI aren't ahead in points...

But at the start of the season Sauber were performing very well for what they have, this car was developed on 2010 budget without much sponsorship also.

He doesn't have much to work with but you can see he's making the most out of it and a lot of the 2010 car is still there, next year will be the big test.

[marcush.]

February 2011 ranking of wins assigned to technical directors /chief designers /head of design :

1. Ross Brawn 116
2. Adrian Newey 115
3. Patrick Head 113
4. Rory Byrne 109
5. Colin Chapman 72
6. Neil Oatley 68
7. John Barnard 57
8. Mauro Forghieri 54
9. Tony Rudd 43
10. Steve Nichols 40
11. Gordon Murray 37
12. Maurice Philippe 35
13. Mike Costin 24
14. Gordon Coppuck 23
15. Aldo Costa 22
16. Martin Ogilvie 21
16. Nicholas Tombazis 21
18. Derek Gardner 20
18. Aurelio Lambredi 20
20. Gioacchino Colombo 19
20. Mike Coughlan 19
20. Frank Dernie 19
20. Peter Wright 19
24. Robert Bell 18
25. Harvey Postlethwaite 16
26. Gerard Ducarouge 15
27. Owen Maddock 15
27. Michel Tétu 14
29. Ron Tauranac 13
30. Carlo Chiti 12

(source:http://www.inside-racing.de/sonstiges/3 ... teure.html)

check this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/09/sport ... .html?_r=1


Newey has overtaken Brawn obviously now and statistics can mislead as we have now a lot more races per year but still ..

[ESPImperium]

Il like to see the chart done in points. Probably more accurate with points over races.

But the thing is, you would have to adjust the points of the current system down, and increace the 50s to 70s points up the way.

Not sure what system could be used, id say 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 would be the best way to go with 10-6-4-3-2-1 as the next best option for points.

Im sure there would be a few results that would make you think, why is he there, and why is he not there.

[Gerhard Berger]

February 2011 ranking of wins assigned to technical directors /chief designers /head of design :

1. Ross Brawn 116
2. Adrian Newey 115
3. Patrick Head 113
4. Rory Byrne 109
5. Colin Chapman 72
6. Neil Oatley 68
7. John Barnard 57
8. Mauro Forghieri 54
9. Tony Rudd 43
10. Steve Nichols 40
11. Gordon Murray 37
12. Maurice Philippe 35
13. Mike Costin 24
14. Gordon Coppuck 23
15. Aldo Costa 22
16. Martin Ogilvie 21
16. Nicholas Tombazis 21
18. Derek Gardner 20
18. Aurelio Lambredi 20
20. Gioacchino Colombo 19
20. Mike Coughlan 19
20. Frank Dernie 19
20. Peter Wright 19
24. Robert Bell 18
25. Harvey Postlethwaite 16
26. Gerard Ducarouge 15
27. Owen Maddock 15
27. Michel Tétu 14
29. Ron Tauranac 13
30. Carlo Chiti 12

(source:http://www.inside-racing.de/sonstiges/3 ... teure.html)

check this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/09/sport ... .html?_r=1


Newey has overtaken Brawn obviously now and statistics can mislead as we have now a lot more races per year but still ..

They missed Rob Marshall.

[marcush.]

correct.he´s chief designer since RB4 so all RedBull Wins + the one of TR have to be somehow linked to him.

[Gerhard Berger]

correct.he´s chief designer since RB4 so all RedBull Wins + the one of TR have to be somehow linked to him.

yep, plus he was at Renault during Alonos' glory years, though can't remember if he was chief designer there or chief aero?

[xpensive]

I find this list rather questionable, doubling with Brawn and Byrne and tripling with Chapman, Ogilvie and Wright?

And assigning 19 wins to Frank Dernie, the father of the semi-monocoque Arrows Yamaha, is generous to put it mildly.

[marcush.]

It´s far from complete and surely to be taken with a pinch of salt methinks
a lot of them did not really design the cars but put more organisational or harnesssing skills into it.
Others lucked into it ..Nichols really only wiped a little over Barnards work and he´s in front of Gordon Murray!!!
Frank Dernies wins ..must be from his time at williams ? I don´t think he was involved in anything competitive after that?

[raymondu999]

And for anyone interested (I think I remember someone asking recently) Rampf has just joined Volkswagen

[marcush.]

Rampf was into Motorbikes /Paris/Dakkar with BMW some time ago ...so now 4 wheels desert rallyes?

[raymondu999]

correct.he´s chief designer since RB4 so all RedBull Wins + the one of TR have to be somehow linked to him.

yep, plus he was at Renault during Alonos' glory years, though can't remember if he was chief designer there or chief aero?

What exactly is Rob's place at RBR? I mean, you've got Prodromou who is supposedly chief aerodynamicist; though I believe his specialty wasn't actually aerodynamics, but instead, CFD. Newey himself is an all-rounded man but leaning quite heavily towards aero; so there's an overlap there in a bit. Surely Marshall wouldn't also be aero?

[marcush.]

Rob Marshall came from Benetton /Renault and the invention of the mass damper is attributed to him :
http://f1-dictionary.110mb.com/mass_damper.html

So quite a clever addition to the design team ,the renaults being famous for their strong mechanical package and a very good counterpart to Newey and Prodromou who are prepared to slaughter everything for Aero.
And it shows as the latest RedBulls seem to excell with traction as did the renaults back then.

[raymondu999]

So mechanical and suspension design you reckon? I always thought the mass damper was the work of Bob Bell and/or bulldog Gascoyne.

Regarding traction, absolutely. Watching the Red Bulls in Monaco this year (where they'd probably be running with maximum traction in their set up) they were absolutely awesome. Even on old tyres in the Monaco race he seemed to have more traction than Alonso's 30-laps-younger tyres.