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Nick Hayes

The man in charge of the design team of the Cosworth V10 engine is Nick Hayes.

Born in Coventry, the automobile capital of England, - and the home of Jaguar - Hayes decided that he wanted to be a racing car designer after visiting Silverstone to see a race in 1972. His aim was to become a mechanical engineer and he duly won a place at Salford University to study for a degree in mechanical engineering. In his final year he won the prestigious Institute of Mechanical Engineers' design prize.

Having been sponsored at university by the Rolls Royce Aero-Engines company, one of the world's largest makers of jet engines, he got a job working for them. Although the company shared its name with the luxury car company, the two firms had been unrelated since 1971 and so Hayes was unable to get into the automotive world until he had served three years on aero engine design.

He then applied for a job at Cosworth Engineering in Northampton. At the time - 1984 - Cosworth was in the process of re-evaluating its involvement in Formula 1 after years of success with the DFV engine and its derivatives. The Ford Motor Company had taken the decision to finance a Cosworth-designed V6 turbo Formula 1 engine. Unfortunately the engine was late arriving and the FIA decided to change the F1 regulations and so new plans were laid for a new normally-aspirated V8 F1 engine and a three-year deal was agreed with Benetton for the 1987-1990 period. Hayes worked as the liaison engineer between Cosworth and the team but gradually found himself drawn away from the on-track activity and towards engine design.Under the guidance of Cosworth's chief designer Geoff Goddard, Hayes became one of Cosworth's top designers. He worked on a series of different V8 engines leading up to the HB with which Michael Schumacher won the F1 World Championship in 1994. This was followed by a V12 study, the V8 Zetec-R, the V10 Zetec-R and in 1999 the Cosworth CR01, which won a race in the hands of Johnny Herbert. Hayes continued to lead the design team of Cosworth Racing until 2004. A year later he was named as engine research and development director of Richard Childress Racing in the NASCAR Nextel Cup.