Mike Coughlan

Mike Coughlan (born February 17, 1959 ) is a British engineer and racing car designer in Formula 1 .

Tyrrell 022 from 1994

Kimi Raikkonen in the 2006 McLaren MP4 / 21 developed by Coughlan

Coughlan studied mechanical engineering at Brunel University in Uxbridge . After graduating in 1981, he first worked as a designer for Tiga Cars , a company founded by former racing drivers Tim Schenken and Howden Ganley that produced racing cars for young talent series.

In 1984 he moved to Lotus in Formula 1 and worked under Gérard Ducarouge in the design team. Coughlan was involved in the development of the Lotus-Renault 97T , with which Ayrton Senna clinched his first victory at Estoril in 1985 . After Senna's move to McLaren at the end of 1987, Ducarouge also left the team. Frank Dernie became the new technical director and Coughlan's chief designer.

In late 1990, after Lotus lost its main sponsor Camel , Coughlan joined John Barnard's Advanced Research Group , the then development division of the Benetton team. Coughlan was chief designer in the development of the B191, which formed the basis for the successful Benetton racing cars in the early 1990s. But Barnard left Benetton shortly afterwards after disputes with Flavio Briatore and the Advanced Research Group broke up.

Coughlan went to Tyrrell and developed the 020B, with which Andrea de Cesaris scored eight championship points in 1992 . When Tyrrell's chief designer George Ryton left the team in late 1992, Coughlan took over the team. His Tyrrell 020C , which was used in the first half of 1993 , was unsuccessful, as was the successor 021 . In late 1993, Coughlan joined Ferrari and became head of the R&D department of the Design and Development engineering office.

In 1997 Coughlan moved with Barnard to Arrows , where he became chief designer after Barnard left in mid-1998 and in 1999 took over the position of technical director.

In 2002, Coughlan accepted an offer as McLaren's chief designer . In 2007 he was suspended in the course of the espionage affair between McLaren and Ferrari, in which he was accused of having received secret information from the Ferrari team from Ferrari team coordinator Nigel Stepney .

After interludes at the Stefan Grand Prix and Michael Waltrip Racing , Coughlan returned to Formula 1 in the summer of 2011. He took over the position of chief engineer at Williams . At the beginning of the 2012 season , he was promoted to Technical Director, replacing Sam Michael in this role . The Williams FW34 and FW35 were created under Coughlan's direction . In July 2013, he was replaced at Williams by Pat Symonds .

Web links

• Statistics of Formula 1 cars designed by Coughlan

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Williams separates from Coughlan: Symonds takes over motorsport-total.com on July 16, 2013