Frank Coppuck is a British engineer and racing car designer, who helped design the

Pacific PR01 The Pacific PR01 is a Formula One car, designed by Paul Brown for the 1993 season. However, due to financial problems, it did not race until 1994. Name and livery The car name PR01 is named after Pacific Racing, with 01 being their first year in ...

and PR02

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, ...

cars. A nephew of Formula One engineer

Gordon Coppuck Gordon Coppuck (born 8 December 1936 in Fleet, Hampshire) is a British racing car designer who was chief designer for McLaren and later worked for March Engineering, March and co-founded Spirit Racing, Spirit. Born in December 1936, he attended ...

. After graduating from

Kingston Polytechnic , mottoeng = "Through Learning We Progress" , established = – gained University Status – Kingston Technical Institute , type = Public , endowment = £2.3 m (2015) , ...

with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

in mechanical and aeronautical engineering he went to work for the

Royal Aircraft Establishment The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), bef ...

at Farnborough. In 1979 he moved to

British Aerospace British Aerospace plc (BAe) was a British aircraft, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer. Its head office was at Warwick House in the Farnborough Aerospace Centre in Farnborough, Hampshire. Formed in 1977, in 1999 it purchased Marconi ...

at Weybridge, working on aircraft wing design and composites engineering. His motor racing career did not start until 1985 when he was hired to join the FORCE Lola team at Colnbrook. When that team closed down in 1986 he moved to

Tyrrell Racing The Tyrrell Racing Organisation was an auto racing team and Formula One constructor founded by Ken Tyrrell (1924–2001) which started racing in 1958 and started building its own cars in 1970. The team experienced its greatest success in the e ...

, as a composites and race engineer. After a brief spell with the

March March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is the second of seven months to have a length of 31 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the first day of Marc ...

Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury car manufacturer and a subsidiary of Stellantis. The company was founded on 24 June 1910, in Milan, Italy. "Alfa" is an acronym of its founding name, "Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili." ...

Indycar INDYCAR, LLC, is an American-based auto racing sanctioning body for Indy car racing and other disciplines of open wheel car racing. The organization sanctions five racing series: the premier IndyCar Series with its centerpiece the Indianapolis ...

program he moved to

Team Lotus Team Lotus was the motorsport sister company of English sports car manufacturer Lotus Cars. The team ran cars in many motorsport categories including Formula One, Formula Two, Formula Ford, Formula Junior, IndyCar, and sports car racing. More ...

following the departure of chief designer

Mike Coughlan Michael Coughlan (born 17 February 1959) is a British motor racing engineer and designer. He was Chief Designer for the McLaren Formula One team from to , where he was suspended for his part in the spygate scandal between McLaren and Ferrari, ...

. This coincided with the takeover of the team by Peter Collins and Peter Wright, and Coppuck was involved in the design of the team's aborted Lotus 103 car, and in revamping the

Lotus 102 The Lotus 102 was a Formula One racing car designed by Lotus for use in the 1990 Formula One season and would eventually go on to compete in 37 races spanning three seasons from until . Development Using the 101 as its basis Frank Dernie inco ...

design. At the end of 1991 he moved to the United States where he worked in CART with Dick Simon Racing. Later that year he returned to Britain and became technical director of TOM'S GB, working with

John Barnard John Edward Barnard (born 4 May 1946, Wembley, London) is an English engineer and racing car designer. Barnard is credited with the introduction of two new designs into Formula One: the carbon fibre composite chassis first seen in with Mc ...

on the design of a secret Formula One car. When Toyota decided not to enter, Coppuck joined

Pacific Grand Prix The Pacific Grand Prix ( ja, パシフィックグランプリ) was a round of the Formula One World Championship twice in the mid-1990s and non-championship events in the 1960s. The non-championship events were held at Laguna Seca from 1960 th ...

as chief designer for the Pacific PR02. After Pacific closed its doors at the end of the 1995 season Coppuck moved to Benetton but stayed only a year before going back to TOM'S GB. He then moved on to

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 ...

where he was in charge of the

McLaren GT The McLaren GT is a sports car designed and manufactured by British automobile manufacturer McLaren Automotive. It is the company's first dedicated grand tourer and is based on the same platform underpinning the 720S with the addition of a car ...

program.

External links

Profile on GrandPrix.com
Year of birth missing (living people) Formula One designers British motorsport people Living people {{F1-bio-stub