Alastair Caldwell (born 1943) is a British-New Zealand motorsports manager. He was the

McLaren McLaren Racing Limited is a British motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. McLaren is best known as a Formula One constructor, the second oldest active team, and the second most successful Formul ...

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

motor-racing team manager from 1974 to 1978.

Early life

Caldwell's father was an army officer and he was born in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

but the family emigrated to

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

when he was 7 years old and his father became a senior civil servant there. Caldwell attended

Auckland Grammar School Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...

and acquired British/New Zealand dual nationality. He was interested in cars from a young age and learnt to drive at 12. He left school for a job as an apprentice mechanic at the post office.

McLaren

After qualifying as a mechanic Caldwell joined McLaren for the

1967 Italian Grand Prix The 1967 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza on 10 September 1967. It was race 9 of 11 in both the 1967 World Championship of Drivers and the 1967 International Cup for Formula One Manufacture ...

. He then rose to be what would now be called the technical director of the team. Drivers he worked with included

Emerson Fittipaldi Emerson Fittipaldi (; born 12 December 1946) is a Brazilian former automobile racing driver who won both the Formula One World Championship and the Indianapolis 500 twice each and the CART championship once. Moving up from Formula Two, Fittip ...

James Hunt James Simon Wallis Hunt (29 August 1947 – 15 June 1993) ''Autocourse Grand Prix Archive'', 14 October 2007. Retrieved 4 November 2007. was a British racing driver who won the Formula One World Championship in . After retiring from racing in ...

and

Jochen Mass Jochen Richard Mass (born 30 September 1946) is a German former racing driver. Life and career Born in Dorfen, Bavaria 50 km (31 mi) from Munich, Mass participated in 114 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 14 Jul ...

. He was involved in the design, production and preparation of the cars for racing and was the inventor of an air-starter to make the cars lighter and also introduced a sixth gear, skirting to increase down force and team uniforms to replace the assortment of overalls and other clothes that were previously worn.Alastair Caldwell website
Retrieved 26 June 2015

Later career

In 1979 he moved to the

Brabham Brabham () is the common name for Motor Racing Developments Ltd., a British racing car manufacturer and Formula One racing team. Founded in 1960 by Australian driver Jack Brabham and British-Australian designer Ron Tauranac, the team won four ...

team where he worked with the

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

ian driver

Nelson Piquet Nelson Piquet Souto Maior (, born 17 August 1952) is a Brazilian retired racing driver and businessman. Since his retirement, Piquet, a three-time World Champion, has been ranked among the greatest Formula One (F1) drivers in various motorspo ...

and in 1981 moved to the German ATS team. Having decided not to set up his own team he then left motor racing to set up a

self storage Self storage (a shorthand for "self-service storage," and also known as "device storage") is an industry that rents storage space (such as rooms, lockers, containers, and/or outdoor space), also known as "storage units," to tenants, usually on ...

business. He has also competed in classic car rallies in cars including the

Porsche 912 The Porsche 912 is a sports car produced by Porsche AG of Stuttgart, Germany, for the 1965 through 1969 model years. An entry-level variant of the 911, it was also offered in compact 2+2 Coupé and Targa body styles. The nimble-handling 912 was a ...

and won the Liège-Brescia-Liège rally for cars up to 700cc in a

BMW 700 The BMW 700 is a small rear-engined car which was produced by BMW in various models from August 1959 to November 1965. It was the first BMW automobile with a monocoque structure. The 700 was a sales success at a time when BMW was close to finan ...

. He was a technical advisor on the 2013 film '' Rush'' about the

rivalry A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant o ...

between the drivers James Hunt and

Niki Lauda Andreas Nikolaus "Niki" Lauda (22 February 1949 – 20 May 2019) was an Austrian Formula One driver and aviation entrepreneur. He was a three-time Formula One World Drivers' Champion, winning in , and , and is the only driver in Formula ...

during the 1976 Formula One motor-racing season. In the film he was portrayed by

Stephen Mangan Stephen James Mangan (born 16 May 1968) is an English actor, comedian, presenter and writer. He has played Guy Secretan in ''Green Wing'', Dan Moody in '' I'm Alan Partridge'', Seán Lincoln in ''Episodes'', Bigwig in ''Watership Down'', Postma ...

and he also had a cameo role on screen as a race official. Alastair Caldwell interview Maidenhead Advertiser
Retrieved 26 June 2015

References

External links

Alastair Caldwell official website

McLaren Group
{{DEFAULTSORT:Caldwell, Alastair 1943 births Living people People educated at Auckland Grammar School Sportspeople from Sheffield Formula One people McLaren people English motorsport people New Zealand motorsport people