19/07/2005
NEWS STORY
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It would not be an understatement to say that one of the big surprises of the 2005 season, thus far, is the performance of the Red Bull team.
Give a thought therefore, for at least one of the men who deserves a share of the credit, but of whom nothing has been heard for some time.
When Ford dropped its bombshell on 17 September last year, announcing that it was pulling out of Formula One and putting both Jaguar Racing and Cosworth up for sale, few felt the pain more than Jaguar Racing Managing Director, David Pitchforth.
Along with Premier Performance Division boss Tony Purnell, Pitchforth, despite Ford’s best efforts, started to turn things around at Jaguar, and it is only fair to say that in 2005, Red Bull is reaping the benefits – although the lack of development this season is now beginning to show, as we saw in Magny Cours.
Soon after taking control of the team, Pitchforth had his budget cut by $50m, though some insiders claim the figure is even higher! In the bad old days before the arrival of Pitchforth, the team had thrown money at every problem, whilst its hiring and firing of 'star names' made the Milton Keynes outfit a laughing stock in the paddock.
Pitchforth soon got to work. Not only did the Blue Oval want improved performance from its British Racing Green F1 cars but Pitchforth also had to identify around $50m worth of cost savings! Mission impossible right? Wrong! With his budget slashed he realized that there was no room for luxuries such as Eddie Irvine. Meanwhile, the madness of using a windtunnel thousands of miles away in the USA came to an end when Pitchforth instigated the purchase of Tom Walkinshaw's old unit (former Ministry of Defence) and from a proven track record, he also successfully installed a half scale windtunnel in Bicester while the Ministry of Defence unit was being upgraded.
The team travelled to Australia in 2003, shortly after Pitchforth joined the company, with just three chassis - if Alex Shnaider believes he inherited a mess at Jordan, he should have seen what was Pitchforth had to deal with at Jaguar.
Slowly, but surely, Pitchforth and Purnell turned things around, in spite of the growing hostility from Ford and the obvious lack of resources. As well as installing best practice engineering, the two men set about hiring some of the most capable men in F1. Furthermore, Jaguar Racing benefited from an inspired organisational structure that saw new departments being headed up by some of the capable men in F1 (Mark Gillan in charge of Vehicle Performance, Ben Agathangelou in charge of Aerodynamics, Ian Pocock in charge of Engineering and Chris Hammond in charge of vehicle science). None these were celebrity engineers or designers! None of them demanded ‘budget busting’ salaries. And all of them came from the top end of the grid (Ben from Renault, Dr Gillan from McLaren and Pocock formerly of Pi and Ferrari). Their motive? To work alongside a credible, no-nonsense engineer like Pitchforth. Furthermore, moral back at base was restored after three terrible seasons!
In addition, it was Pitchforth who hired David Coulthard – something our sources tell us did not initially go down well with Red Bull - how times change given DC’s renewal for next year.
According to our sources, Pitchforth has spent the last six months on gardening leave - unable to do or say anything - other than tending his hollyhocks.
Now, the forty-year-old designer who got Jaguar back on to its feet, and given Red Bull its 'wings' in Formula One, is back, and we can think of a number of teams that might benefit greatly by giving him a call. In fact, given the state of F1, we wonder if DP wouldn’t be better off in charge of a car or aerospace company!