Joan Villadelprat

Joan Villadelprat (* 1955 in Barcelona ) was team manager in Formula 1 at Tyrrell , Benetton and Prost .

Life

Born in Barcelona , Joan Villadelprat was already interested in racing as a child . His family owns a small workshop near Barcelona. The Spaniard spent a lot of time here with the mechanics employed there. At the age of 16, Villadelprat watched a Formula 1 race that Jackie Stewart won. This was probably the main reason for his desire to become a mechanic in Formula 1. He started training to be a mechanic in his father's workshop. At the same time Villadelprat tried himself as a racing mechanic in several small Spanish motorsport series.

At the end of the 1970s he moved to the home of motorsport, England . In 1979 he got a job in Woking, at Ron Dennis company Four Racing Ltd. At that time, Dennis Team drove in Formula 2 and Formula 3. In 1980, Dennis began designing a Formula 1 car, which was used in 1981. Villadelprat was used as a mechanic for the McLaren team. Over the next six years, he won three driver world championship titles with McLaren with Niki Lauda and Alain Prost .

John Barnard brought him to Ferrari in 1987 . When Barnard went to Benetton, Villadelprat was able to join Tyrrell as a team manager. The 1990 season was also very successful for Tyrrell when Jean Alesi earned his name there. As the next year was absolutely disappointing, Villadelprat moved to Benetton. Here he first became the manager of the manufacturing team. When the then team manager Gordon Message left the team, he took over his position. Together with Michael Schumacher he was able to celebrate two world championship titles.

After achieving the title, he left Benetton and went to the Formula 1 team Prost. After Prost was closed, Villadelprat left Formula 1.

Villadelprat is the team manager of the Epsilon Euskadi motorsport team .