Rory Byrne working with Simone Resta at Ferrari
Thomas Maher February 24, 2015 F1 - Latest News Leave a comment
Rory Byrne, a formidable car designer whose name carries as much weight as Adrian Newey within the paddock, has been working with Ferrari for some time. The legendary South African car designer has been semi-retired for almost a decade, but can’t seem to stay away from F1. Byrne worked with Benetton during the mid-90s, designing the title winning cars from 1994 & 1995, before moving to Ferrari with Michael Schumacher in 1996. He was part of the ‘dream team’ of Michael, Jean Todt, Ross Brawn & himself, and dominated the sport with Ferrari until 2004, only ever being beaten by Adrian Newey designs.
He retired at the end of 2006, but popped back up again in 2008, as well as being asked by Ferrari to step in during 2012, which he did. The man who replaced Byrne was Aldo Costa, who left Ferrari in 2011 to join Mercedes, designing the dominant W05 of 2014. Pat Fry replaced Costa, to no success, and Simone Resta has now taken over design of the 2015 SF15-T, overseen by James Allison.
However, Resta is being ably backed up by Byrne, with Team Principal Maurizio Arrivabene revealing during the Barcelona test at the weekend that Rory is back in Maranello. Maurizio told ESPN:
“I spoke with Rory, I’ve known him for a long time. I asked him ‘are you keen to work together with us, with your success, in the future to be a bit more involved?’ Without taking anything away from Simone Resta, who is our chief designer. It’s unbelievable, a guy like this of his age, and he’s still enthusiastic like a baby. I was really surprised. One night near to Christmas I went to a restaurant and I found Rory, who was eating very, very quickly, and I said ‘Rory, calm down, where do you have to run!?’ He had to run immediately back to the factory for a meeting with Resta.â€
Resta is a fresh face when it comes to overall car design, and Arrivabene explained that Byrne’s experience can only prove beneficial in the long run. So far, the SF15-T appears to be a well designed car, with both drivers reporting satisfaction with the way it handles. As for its speed, the car has usually mixed near the top of the timesheets in all the test sessions so far.
“Rory is working with Simone, he’s giving to Simone as a mentor because of his experience and he’s working on some detail of the car. Most people might think Rory is part of history, I don’t think so. We are talking about the chief designer guru all the time but Rory isn’t one of the guys who didn’t win, he’s one of the guys who won a lot.
“Having a father or mentor for Simone is not a bad thing especially not when his enthusiasm is going up to the sky. I was talking to James [Allison] about it and he said ‘why not?’. Rory has my utmost respect, especially for that night I saw him eating with the light inside his eyes.â€
http://formulaspy.com/formula-1/formula-1-news/rory-byrne-working-simona-resta-ferrari-11039