MAY 8, 2009

USF1 hires NASCAR star designer

USGPE team principals Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor were in the paddock in Barcelona and revealed that they have a design group already in action for the planned F1 team. The biggest name is that of Dr Eric Warren, a star name from the NASCAR world. Warren has a doctorate in aerodynamics and worked at NASA before being hired by Kranefuss-Haas Racing. That team transformed into Penske-Kranefuss Racing and Warren moved on to work for Penske Racing and became chief engineer in 1999. Two years later he left the team to establish his own aerodynamic business, called Competition Aerodynamics and was also involved in a computational fluid dynamics company. In 2002 he returned to NASCAR as technical director of Evernham Motorsports and he stayed with the company until 2007, during which time the team won 12 races. Warren then moved on to become technical director of Michael Waltrip Racing for 13 months, helping to upgrade the team to a more competitive level. He left MWR last autumn.

USF1 says that it is working closely with Corvid, one of the most advanced CFD companies in the United States, which does a large amount of work for the Department of Defense.