FEBRUARY 1, 2005

Gordon Murray leaving McLaren

We hear that celebrated Formula 1 engineer Gordon Murray is to leave the employ of McLaren after 18 years with the team. The 60-year-old South African engineer was a major player in F1 in the 1970s with the Brabham team, winning two World Championships with Nelson Piquet. He stayed with Brabham until the end of 1986 and then joined McLaren where he was named chief designer. He worked initially on the F1 programmes but then moved up to become the designer of the McLaren F1 road car. In racing form this won the Le Mans 24 Hours at its first attempt in 1995. Murray then moved on work on the design team for the new Mercedes-badged McLaren supercar.