Personnel

This forum is for all dedicated past and present Formula One personnel discussions. This includes people such as team principals, designers, engineers, race directors, FIA personnel, etc. New threads cannot be started in this forum, so if you wish to start a discussion about a particular person, post it in the main F1 discussion forum and click on Report, asking to have it moved here. The title of the thread should just be the person's name. Only one thread per person is permitted.

Bernie Ecclestone attempted to qualify for a single World Championship event. He was in a Connaught-Alta, one of a fleet of three entered by himself. He finished qualifying 265.2 seconds off the pace, and his two team-mates failed to qualify as well. He is, however, the most important single person in Grand Prix history. He took charge of Motor Racing Developments in 1972, from Ron Tauranac. He was the team principal for Nelson Piquet's two drivers' titles, but he'd lost interest by the time Brabham missed the deadline to enter the 1988 World Championship. Into the governance of the sport he went, and he modernised it, and quickly controlled Formula One. He is now the leader of a billion-dollar industry. He is a divisive figure, but...

"The Bear." After successes in Sportscars with Jaguar, Ross Brawn moved to Formula One with Benetton, where his strategical understanding of how to use refuelling pitstops effectively helped Michael Schumacher to his first two titles. He then moved to Ferrari, helping Schumacher to another 5 titles, before going on a sabbatical for 2007. He showed up at Honda in 2008, quickly deciding to abandon the season in favour of being the best placed to capitalise on the 2009 rule change. Though Honda pulled out, Brawn GP (as they became) had easily the best car at the start of the season, largely due to the Double Diffuser loophole Brawn had pointed out to the FIA and the FIA had decided to ignore. This allowed Jenson Button to rack up...

Well he's the man that's incharge at Mclaren but what do we all really know about the man named Martin Whitmarsh? Well i can tell you that he has a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He started his career at British Aerospace (best known as BAE systems these days) as a structural analyst engineer at Hamble-le-Rice. But in 1989 he was joined Mclaren as Head of Operations. In 1997 he was then promoted to Managing Directors role in which he was in charge of the F1 operation and it's partners and sponsors. In 2004 Martin was again promoted this time his position was CEO of the companies F1 operations. It wasn't until the 1st March 2009 when Ron Dennis was stepping down from his position, as Team principal that Whitmarsh was promoted...

Who is Christian Horner? Is he what he appears, the extremely successful team principal of the best team in Formula One; a shrewd operator who has won everything and is the glue that holds the Red Bull team together. Or is he just a yes-man, for Marko maybe, a brown-noser to Ecclestone and a surprisingly obnoxious front man for the energy drinks advertising budget. Surely he's somewhere in between though, he must be more than an advertiser (you'd say EJ surely), but he clearly isn't calling all the shots. He's probably best characterised as F1's best young politician, not only winning the external war but managing several other big-shots and two drivers convinced by their own right to superior treatment.

Adrian Newey OBE Considered by many to be the best car designer currently in F1 and in my opinion certainly rivalling some of the all time greats such as Colin Chapman. Newey graduated from the University of Southhampton in 1980 with first class honours in Aeronautics and Astronautics. He went on to work for the Fittipaldi F1 team before joining March in 1981. He was a successful designer from the word go. His first race car design was the March GTP sports car which won the IMSA GTP title two years running. In 1984 Newey design the March IndyCar his design proving highly competitive taking 7 wins including the coveted Indy 500. His IndyCar success continued in 85 with the March 85C taking the title. Leaving Indycar to move back...

I was surprised to see there wasn't already a thread about this most famous of (former) team principals. Much has been said about Ron Dennis and his unique personality and approach, mostly taken with a pinch of salt and slight chuckle. Well perhaps this article, by a former McLaren employee, will dispel some myths while simultaneously reinforcing others: http://f1elvis.com/2012/11/07/mr-ron-dennis-cbe/ (Alternative link: http://www.pitlanemagazine.com/magazine/?p=435) Love him or loathe him, Dennis' tenure at McLaren will be remembered for a long time to come and it is inevitable that current and future team principals will be compared to him.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/max-mosley-sues-google-in-landmark-battle-over-digital-rights-a-853008.html

Its all gone very quiet on the Briatore front, hasn't it? Having made a song and dance about how he didn't have a life ban from Formula One and he could return, as Pat Symonds has, in 2012, it seems strange that Briatore hasn't washed up in the sport. So what is going to happen? The rumours of Mark Webber to Ferrari suggest that he might be involved in that team next year - are Ferrari going to make Stefano Domenicali the scapegoat for their failure to win the title and bring in an Italian three-time Constructors Championship winner? Or is Briatore simply a persona non grata within Formula One as he is within football? Do FOM believe his return damages the brand (for no great payout). I, personally, believe we have not seen the...

I will put up short bio of Jean Todt in the near future but this was more to post the fact that he and Gerard Saillant (president of the FIA Institute) are suing Phillipe Streiff after comments he (Streiff) made after Jules Bianchi's accident. http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/ex-f1-driver-philippe-streiff-sued-by-todt-and-saillant-after-comments These were Streiff's comments: http://www.grandprix247.com/2015/01/22/streiff-blasts-todt-for-bianchi-accident-cover-up/

EJ Former race driver, Former F1 team owner, he is also a business man an entrepreneur and a mentor. At present he is lead analyst for the BBC's F1 coverage and seems to know before anyone else exactly what is going with both, the drivers and teams. So what are your thoughts of the man in the know...

As he's the confirmed man in charge now he should have a thread. Especially as he says that the British GP is safe, and he also says that Europe (that includes the UK) is at the heart of F1 and he wants to grow the sport here. Sounds good. I can't say anything about his background, so if anyone knows his History, maybe they could share ?

The Man that keeps Felipe Massa calm in the Ferrari Car. Rob Smedley was Born in Middlesbrough in 1973 and grow up in the Normanby area of the town. Smedley started his Motorsport's career by been a suspension design engineer for the Peugeot Touring car team in 1997. He then went on to work in the F3000 series and the Williams Touring Car team, before ending up at Jordan F1 racing team until 2003. After 2003 Smedley moved to the Scuderia Ferrari team and half way between 2006 he took over as Felipe Massa's race engineer and has been in the same role for the past 6 years. Smedley is now well famous around the world for his radio message to Felipe Massa in Malaysia 2009 by telling him to stay cool baby. Smedley also was behind the...