Who is Steve Nichols?

Former Jaguar's technical director is a familiar name on the grand prix scene, but has been out of circulation for the past couple of years.

Born in February 1947, the American completed his education by graduating cum lauda with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Utah.

Shortly after completing his formal education, Nichols found himself working with the renowned Hercules Aerospace company as a development engineer, undertaking design and structural analysis of rocket motor components using conventional and finite element computer techniques. This role occupied four years of his early career, from 1972-1976, before he moved on to his first taste of working in the motorsport industry.

A senior design position with the Maremont Corporation gave Nichols the responsibility of heading up the Racing Damper Design Group, working on the development of suspension components for various race categories including Indycars, NASCAR, off-road racing and Formula Ford between 1976 and 1980.





From here, Nichols progressed to his first race team, crossing the Atlantic to take up the post of senior design engineer with McLaren International. Joining the team before it really made it big, he was able to play an important part in making McLaren one of the major players in Formula One, including being the chief designer of the all-conquering MP4/4 that won 15 of the 16 races in 1988. At this point, Nichols was a familiar face at the various circuits, acting as race engineer for Ayrton Senna in both competition and testing.

As with so many of the sport's big names, the lure of Ferrari eventually proved too great for the American, and he jumped ship to link up with the Italian team's technical department at Ferrari Gestione Sportiva before the 1990 season began. As chief designer, Nichols was responsible for the design, research and development of the Scuderia's GP machines, as well as engineering in the field at both races and test sessions.

After two years at Ferrari, however, he was on the move again, this time to take up a short-lived appointment at Sauber, where, as technical director, he was responsible for all aspects of the race team's performance.

Sauber transposed into Jordan in late 1993, following several months away from the sport altogether, and Nichols took up the challenge of moving the Silverstone team towards the sharp end of the grid. Although, as chief designer, his main brief was to produce the cars to be driven by Rubens Barrichello and Thierry Boutsen, he also found himself in pit-lane working at developing his creation throughout the year.

His tenure with the Irish team lasted just over a year and, following another disappointing campaign for Jordan, Nichols was quick to accept the chance to return to McLaren.


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Schedule: The 2015 Bahrain Grand Prix


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