People

Malcolm Oastler

A mechanical engineering graduate of the NSW University of Technology, Oastler was a successful Formula Ford racer in Australia in the early 1980s but decided to move to Europe in 1985 in the hope of furthering his racing career. Without any backing he worked as a mechanic for Milldent Motorsport in Hinckley, Leicestershire, preparing cars for customer racers. This enabled him to have a few races in Formula Ford 2000 but in 1986 he joined Reynard and began to work as a designer for Reynard's Formula Ford cars. He contributed to all the major Reynard designs and in 1998 was named as chief designer for the British American Racing operation, on a three-year secondment from Reynard to BAR. In mid-July 1999 Oastler was named technical director of the team in the course of one of its reshuffles but that role returned to Reynard in 2000, leaving Oastler as chief designer once again. When BAR was taken over by David Richards at the end of 2001 Oastler was dropped although he reappeared at Jaguar Racing in the course of 2002 as a consultant working on the design of the new R4 chassis. He was appointed chief engineer of Jaguar Racing in January 2003 but in March 2004 announced that he was retiring from the sport and returning to Australia.