MAY 27, 2005

David North and Jordan?

The word on the street in Germany is that Jordan has signed veteran F1 engineer David North to be its new technical director. The team had been planning to work with Dallara to build a car next year but it seems that the deal has now fallen out of bed and that Dallara will do some sub-contracting work but the chassis will be designed by Jordan.

North is an aerospace engineer who worked initially for the British Aircraft Corporation before joining Brabham as a design engineer with Gordon Murray at Brabham in 1976. He was involved in the design of the controversial Brabham fan-car and later in the famous "skateboard" Brabham BT55. In 1987 he became chief designer of the team and worked with John Baldwin and Sergio Rinland on the design of the BT56.

In the summer of 1987 he left Brabham to join Ralt but then moved on to become the head of transmission design at McLaren between 1988 and 2002. In 2003 he moved to Renault.

The news has yet to be confirmed.