People

Jean-Francois Nicolino

Born in Nice, on the French Riviera, in 1964 Nicolino grew up fascinated by motor racing, architecture and playing petanque - the famous ball game played in the squares of villages all across France.

He was an academic high-flyer. France is a country where engineers are held in high esteem and he won a place at one of the top engineering colleges. The Ecole Nationale Superieure d'Electronique, d'Electrotechnique, d'Hydraulique et d'Informatique de Toulouse has such a long name that the students call it "N7" but it has been turning out top engineers since it was created in 1907. From there he went on to a second engineering degree at the Ecole Nationale Superieure du Petrole et des Moteurs in Marseilles. With such impressive qualifications he was quickly picked up by Automobiles Peugeot, which he joined in 1989.

For the first two years he was in charge of organizing the production of Peugeot's 24-valve V6 engine but in 1991 he was transferred to Peugeot Talbot Sport - as it was then called - and worked as an ontrack motor engineer with the Peugeot 905 sportscar team. That year the team won four races but was beaten to the World title by Jaguar. The following year Yannick Dalmas and Derek Warwick won the title and the team swept to victory in the Le Mans 24 Hours with Dalmas, Warwick and Mark Blundell. This was followed by a famous 1-2-3 at Le Mans in 1993.

The company then turned its attention to Formula 1 and Nicolino headed the research and development program for the V10 engine which did well in the first year with McLaren, scoring several podium finishes in its first season. Political upheavals meant that Peugeot ended up with Jordan, Prost Grand Prix . When Peugeot decided to quit F1 the operation was sold to Asiatech, Nicolino stayed on with the organisation, supplying Arrows in 2001 and Minardi in 2002 but at the end of that year Asiatech closed its doors.