MARCH 13, 1995

Who is David Brown?

If your name is David Brown, there is a career for you somewhere in Formula 1 racing.

If your name is David Brown, there is a career for you somewhere in Formula 1 racing. The most famous of the racing David Browns was the man after whom all Aston Martins are designated DB. He was born in 1904, raced in the 1920s and in 1959 realized his dream of taking Aston Martin to victory at Le Mans. His F1 cars achieved little between 1959-1960 despite being driven by the likes of Roy Salvadori and Carroll Shelby; but he went on to be knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

The next David Brown to find himself in the racing limelight was the 36-year-old engineer who joined Williams Grand Prix Engineering 14 years ago after an apprenticeship with British Leyland. This DB first came to prominence when he engineered Nigel Mansell in 1987 and 1988. He then worked with Thierry Boutsen until Mansell returned to Williams at the start of 1991. Since then Brown has enjoyed considerable success, engineering Mansell and then Alain Prost to world titles. Last year he worked with Ayrton Senna, and then Coulthard, and this year teams up with Damon Hill.

But now there is another David Brown engineering in F1. This DB is 27 years old and will be looking after the second Tyrrell-Yamaha this season. A graduate of mechanical engineering from Leeds Univerity, England, he has spent recent years designing Formula 3 cars at Reynard. Last year he worked as a design and racing engineer on the Reynard F3000 program.