Paul Crooks is a former Formula One engineer.
Crooks began his career as an apprentice aeronautical engineer when he was 17 at the Royal Aircraft Establishment based in Farnborough. He spent five years there before joining RAE at the age of 22. For the next five years he worked as a detail designer on aerospace projects, working alongside Frank Coppuck. From there, he got a job with Toleman Group Motorsport (later Benetton Formula, then Renault F1) as a detail designer. He worked under Rory Byrne for the next six years, before moving up to chief composite design engineer in 1983.
The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), before finally losing its identity in mergers with other institutions.
Farnborough is a town in north east Hampshire, England, part of the borough of Rushmoor and the Farnborough/Aldershot Built-up Area. Farnborough was founded in Saxon times and is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. The name is formed from Ferneberga which means "fern hill".
Frank Coppuck is a British engineer and racing car designer, who helped design the Pacific PR01 and PR02 Formula One cars.
In 1993, Crooks became Ligier's chief designer under Frank Dernie, but with the arrest of team boss Cyril de Rouvre, which sent the team into decline, Crooks joined Simtek. While with Simtek, he designed both the S941 and S951. He stayed with them until the team left Formula One in the middle of 1995. He went back to Ligier, before joining Jordan. He later went to BAR and Minardi.
Equipe Ligier is a motorsport team, best known for its Formula One team that operated from 1976 to 1996. The team was founded in 1968 by former French rugby union player Guy Ligier as a sports car manufacturer.
Frank William Dernie is a veteran British formula 1 engineer with extensive Formula One motorsport experience.
Cyril Hubert Marie Bourlon de Rouvre is a French businessman and politician, born 19 December 1945 at Boulogne-Billancourt.
Crooks now works for Wirth Research, who designed the Acura ARX-01a, ARX-01b and ARX-02a.
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Sir Patrick Head is co-founder and former Engineering Director of the Williams Formula One team. For 27 years from 1977 Head was technical director at Williams Grand Prix Engineering, and responsible for many innovations within Formula One. Head oversaw the design and construction of Williams cars until May 2004 when his role was handed over to Sam Michael.
Simtek was an engineering consultancy firm and Formula One racing team. The Formula One (F1) engineering consultancy arm, Simtek Research, was founded in 1989 by Max Mosley and Nick Wirth. It originally was involved in many areas of Formula One, including wind tunnel construction and chassis building for third parties. Simtek Grand Prix, the racing team, launched in 1993 and competed in the 1994 and 1995 seasons achieving a best result of ninth place. With large debts and a lack of sponsorship money, Simtek went into voluntary liquidation in June 1995.
The 1995 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 49th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1995 Formula One World Championship for Drivers and the 1995 Formula One World Championship for Constructors, which were contested concurrently over a seventeen-race series that commenced on 26 March and ended on 12 November. Michael Schumacher won his second consecutive Drivers' Championship, and Benetton-Renault won the Constructors' Championship, the first and only Constructors' title for the Benetton team.
Forti Corse, commonly known as Forti, was an Italian motor racing team chiefly known for its brief and unsuccessful involvement in Formula One in the mid-1990s. It was established in the late 1970s and competed in lower formulae for two decades. The team's successes during this period included four Drivers' Championships in Italian Formula Three during the 1980s, and race wins in the International Formula 3000 championship, in which it competed from 1987 to 1994. From 1992, team co-founder Guido Forti developed a relationship with the wealthy Brazilian businessman Abílio dos Santos Diniz that gave Diniz's racing driver son, Pedro, a permanent seat in the team and the outfit a sufficiently high budget to consider entering Formula One.
Rory Byrne is a South African semi-retired engineer and car designer, most famous for being the chief designer at the Benetton and Scuderia Ferrari Formula One teams.
Neil Oatley is Design and Development Director for the McLaren Formula One team.
Harvey Postlethwaite was a British engineer and Technical Director of several Formula One teams during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. He died of a heart attack in Spain while supervising the testing of the abortive Honda F1 project. He was married to Cherry and had two children, Ben and Amey.
Nicholas John Peter Wirth is an automotive engineer and the founder and owner of Wirth Research.
Malcolm Oastler is the former technical director of Formula One team BAR, former chief engineer for Jaguar Racing, and designer of many race cars.
Loïc Bigois is a Formula One aerodynamicist.
Mike Coughlan is a British motor racing engineer and designer. He was Chief Designer for the McLaren Formula One team from 2002 to 2007, where he was suspended for his part in the spy scandal between McLaren and Ferrari, before his contract was subsequently terminated. He was then Chief Technical Officer for Williams F1 from June 2011 to July 2013, before abruptly stepping down "with immediate effect," according to the team.
The Simtek S941 is a Formula One car, designed by Nick Wirth and Paul Crooks for the Simtek team, and used during 1994 Formula One season. Although it was the first car to race under the Simtek name the company had previously designed an unbuilt car for BMW - the unbuilt design formed the basis of the Andrea Moda S921. Simtek also produced a design for Jean Mosnier's abortive Bravo S931 project which was to have launched in 1993. There is a strong family resemblance between the 1992 Andrea Moda and the 1994 Simtek.
The Simtek S951 was a Formula One car for the 1995 season. The number 11 seat was taken by Domenico Schiattarella and the number 12 seat was taken by Jos Verstappen. The team's test driver was Hideki Noda. Noda was set to take the number 11 seat for the second half of the season, but the team folded after round five. The engine was a Ford-Cosworth EDB 3.0l V8. The team's main sponsor was MTV.
The Ligier JS41 was a Formula One car designed by former Lotus designer Frank Dernie for use by the Ligier team in the 1995 Formula One season. The number 26 seat was taken by Olivier Panis and the number 25 seat was shared by Martin Brundle and Aguri Suzuki. The team's test driver was Franck Lagorce. The engine was a Mugen-Honda MF-301 3.0 V10. The team's main sponsor was Gitanes.
George Ryton is a British engineer best known for his involvement in Formula One auto racing.
Robin Herd CBE is an English engineer, designer and businessman.
The DAMS GD-01 was an unraced Formula One car used by the French motorsport team, Driot-Arnoux Motor Sport (DAMS). The GD-01 was designed and built by a collaboration of DAMS and Reynard engineers from 1994 to 1995, and was intended to establish the team—which had achieved considerable success in lower categories—in Formula One (F1), the premier Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA)-sanctioned level of racing. However, due to insufficient financial backing, the team never entered the championship, despite completing construction of the chassis and conducting limited testing.
Claude Galopin is a French automotive engineer who currently works for Pescarolo Sport.
