Steve Nichols

McLaren MP4 / 4 from 1988

Steve Nichols (born February 20, 1947 in Salt Lake City , Utah ) is an American engineer and former racing car designer in Formula 1 .

Nichols studied mechanical engineering at the University of Utah . After graduating in 1972 he worked for four years at Hercules Inc. , where he experiences with the then-new carbon fiber - composite materials gained. In 1976 he switched to the Gabriel company , which manufactured shock absorbers for Indycars . In the course of this activity he met John Barnard , who at the time was designing racing cars for Parnelli and Chaparral . Barnard and Nichols discussed the use of composite materials in racing car construction. When Barnard was brought in by Ron Dennis to join his Project 4 team in 1980 , he recruited Nichols to work together on the MP4 / 1.

A short time later, Project 4 was taken over by McLaren and the design team led by Barnard, Nichols, Alan Jenkins , Neil Oatley , Tim Wright and Gordon Kimball developed the TAG-Porsche-powered cars, with which Alain Prost and Niki Lauda three drivers 'and two constructors' titles could get.

After Barnard's move to Ferrari at the end of 1986, Nichols and Gordon Murray took over the development of the MP4 / 4 , the first McLaren with a Honda engine, which in 1988 won 15 of 16 races with Ayrton Senna and Prost. At the end of the season there was tension between Dennis and Nichols and he went to Ferrari in January 1989, where he replaced Barnard, who had moved on to Benetton , as head of design.

Together with the aerodynamicist Jean-Claude Migeot , Nichols developed the Ferrari F92A , but it was not able to achieve the desired success. Nichols switched to Sauber , where he designed the Sauber- Ilmor C13. In 1993 he was not involved in racing and in 1994 only worked for Jordan for a few months .

In July 1995, Nichols returned to McLaren and took a position at McLaren Automotive , where he not only worked for Formula 1, but was also involved in other projects. At the end of 2000 he replaced Gary Anderson as technical director at Jaguar , but the Jaguar R3 developed under his direction was unsuccessful and he left the team in early 2002.

Web links

• Statistics of Formula 1 cars designed by Nichols