Who are the major F1 designers and engineers today?

Enrico Balbo is the head of aerodynamics or at least one of the few team leaders of aero there. I suspect he has played a huge role in the superior aero the Red Bull's have. Ferrari have already tried to poach him and failed.

 

James Allison - MercedesAMGF1

Dan Fallows - AMRF1

Pierre Wache - French Engineer (RedBull)

Loic Serra - MercedesAMGF1 currently but will be going to Ferrari in 2025.

Jonathan Wheatley - RedBull

Mike Elliot - MercedesAMGF1

 

Ferrari is trying to sign from RedBull:

Ben Waterhouse - Head of Performance Engineering

Alessandro Germani - Aerodynamics Development Team Leader

David Morgan - Aero Trackside Performance Team Leader

 

Johnathan Wheatley is certainly impressive as sporting director, and has a very good CV in the sport, but he’s not a designer or engineer as far as I know. Or am I missing something?

 

Elliot was a disaster and Allison's stock price has to have gone down a little. The Mercedes technical department ain't the same. The true brains behind their cars were Aldo Costa (Byrnes protegee) and Paddy Lowe on the chassis, and Andy Cowell on the engine side. Since losing those leaders, Mercedes have had constant issues. The team were costing off of the energy of those guys in 20' and 21'. It's become apparent how weakened the team is by the departure by these new regulations.

Ferrari have actually done a better job at understanding the new regs over Mercedes. Had it not been for Sainz Vegas incident, they would've been them again.

Enrico Cardile has done great job since replacing Binotto and Sanchez. He's led the turn around on last years car, and seems to have finally corrected Ferrari's tire issues with this new car. I don't think Ferrari should shake up things too much right now, imho. The current department is during a good job with Binotto and his people finally gone.

 

I seriously question if Mercedes ever could develop an efficient aero package. They enjoyed a huge horsepower advantage for almost a decade. 2014-16 was perhaps upwards of 75 hp. Paddy Lowe came out and said Mercedes were turning their engines down to hide how much of an advantage they had.

With a big power advantage they could throw on a ton of dirty downforce so the car could get through the corners but still have good top speed.

Red Bull on the other hand pretty much always had a top level chassis. Id say the best since at least 2018.

 

IDK about that.

Mercedes had some chassis that were the class of the field up to 2020. Aldo Costa is the only guy during those times that could build a car as good as Newey, imho. He came from the Byrne-Brawn school. They were more aero efficient than Ferrari in 17-18' - it's what made the most difference, not the PU.

Red Bull actually had some cars that were dogs handing wise. It wasn't all Renault's fault as some think. Sometimes, Newey does get it wrong, as he did in the 2000's, when his extreme designs had tons of problems at McLaren.

What's led to Red Bull's success this cycle is that they figured what caused porpoising for their cars right away. They didn't have to change anything on their car. It was some sort of suspension trick that remedied the problem. After that, it was easy for them to develop the car, because they could expect predictable results that correlate to the wind tunnel and simulator.

 

Fully agree with Costa being one of the major leaders in Mercedes victorious seasons.



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Pity he didnt achieve that much at SF