Nicholas John Peter Wirth (born 26 March 1966) is an automotive engineer and the founder and owner of Wirth Research. He is also the former owner of the

Simtek Simtek (Simulation Technology) was an engineering consultancy firm and Formula One racing team. The Formula One (F1) engineering consultancy arm, Simtek Research, was founded in 1989 by Max Mosley and Nick Wirth. It originally was involved i ...

Formula One team, a former aerodynamicist at

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 ...

and former technical director at the Benetton, and

Virgin Racing Virgin Racing (subsequently Marussia Virgin Racing) was a Formula One racing team which was under management of Manor Motorsport, Wirth Research and Richard Branson's Virgin Group and competed in with a British licence and in with a Russian ...

teams.

Education and early life

Wirth attended

Sevenoaks School Sevenoaks School is a highly selective coeducational independent school in Sevenoaks, Kent, England. It is the second oldest non-denominational school in the United Kingdom, dating back to 1432, only behind Oswestry (1407). Over 1,000 day pupils ...

from 1977 to 1984 and has B.Sc(Hons) in Mechanical Engineering ( First Class) from

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

and is the youngest-ever Fellow of the Royal

Institution of Mechanical Engineers The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) is an independent professional association and learned society headquartered in London, United Kingdom, that represents mechanical engineers and the engineering profession. With over 120,000 member ...

March

Wirth started his Formula One career as an aerodynamicist for

March Engineering March Engineering was a Formula One constructor and manufacturer of customer racing cars from the United Kingdom. Although only moderately successful in Grand Prix competition, March racing cars enjoyed much better success in other categories ...

, responsible for all aerodynamic concepts, schematics and design of windtunnel model components for the and

Leyton House Leyton House Racing was a Formula One List of Formula One constructors, constructor that raced in the 1990 Formula One season, 1990 and 1991 Formula One season, 1991 seasons. It was, in essence, a rebranding of the March Engineering, March team ...

March cars. In addition, he conceived and designed all components of the March

active suspension An active suspension is a type of automotive suspension on a vehicle. It uses an onboard system to control the vertical movement of the vehicle's wheels relative to the chassis or vehicle body rather than the passive suspension provided by large sp ...

system, which ran successfully in February 1989.

Simtek

Simtek Research was founded in 1989 by

Max Mosley Max Rufus Mosley (13 April 1940 – 23 May 2021) was a British racing driver, lawyer, and president of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), a non-profit association which represents the interests of motoring organisations and ...

and Nick Wirth. It originally was involved in many areas of Formula One, including wind tunnel construction and chassis building for third parties. Wirth was previously employed by March Team owner Mosley. From October 1993 to June 1995, Wirth was founder, owner, and technical director of Simtek Grand Prix, a Formula One racing team that first appeared in the

1994 Formula One season The 1994 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 48th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1994 Formula One World Championship for Drivers and the 1994 Formula One World Championship for Constructors, which were contes ...

. Simtek Research provided the team with engineering and design for the cars. The team suffered the blow of the death of

Roland Ratzenberger Roland Ratzenberger (; 4 July 1960 – 30 April 1994) was an Austrian racing driver who raced in various categories of motorsport, including British Formula 3000, Japanese Formula 3000 and Formula One. Having had sporadic success throughout the ...

during qualifying for the

San Marino Grand Prix The San Marino Grand Prix () was a Formula One championship race which was run at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari in the town of Imola, near the Apennine mountains in Italy, between 1981 and 2006. It was named after nearby San ...

. Simtek suffered a difficult first season and eventually pulled out of Formula One during the season which forced Simtek Research into bankruptcy.

Benetton and projects outside Formula One

From 1996 until 1999 Wirth was chief designer and later a board member of the Benetton Formula One team. In 1999 Wirth founded RoboScience, and created the RS-01 RoboDog in 2001. In 2003 he founded Wirth Research. In 2006 Wirth Research began working for the

FIA FIA is the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (English: International Automobile Federation), the world's governing body for all forms of motor sport where four or more wheels are used. Fia or FIA may also refer to: People * Fia Backst ...

in the Casumaro windtunnel in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

on the split rear wing (CDG) design that the FIA proposed for the 2008 F1 season. In 2007 Wirth Research became involved with the

Acura Acura is the luxury vehicle, luxury and performance division of Japanese automaker Honda, based primarily in North America. The brand was launched in the United States and Canada on March 27, 1986, marketing luxury and performance automobiles. It ...

LMP programme in the

American Le Mans Series The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) was a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada. It consisted of a series of endurance and sprint races, and was created in the spirit of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The American Le Mans' hea ...

and was involved with designing the LMP1 class car for 2009 season. Wirth used computational fluid dynamics extensively to design the LMP1 class car.

Virgin Racing

In 2009 Wirth Design teamed up with John Booth of

Manor Motorsport Manor Motorsport Ltd, currently trading as Manor Endurance Racing Ltd is a British motor racing company that was formed in 1990 by former single-seater champion John Booth. Manor has participated as a team in many motorsport disciplines since ...

to create a car for the

2010 Formula One season The 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 64th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. Red Bull Racing won its maiden Constructors' Championship with a 1–2 finish in 2010 Brazilian Grand Prix, Brazil, while Red Bull Racing's Se ...

. Wirth was appointed the technical director of the team.

Richard Branson Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is a British billionaire, entrepreneur, and business magnate. In the 1970s he founded the Virgin Group, which today controls more than 400 companies in various fields. Branson expressed ...

's company Virgin became a title sponsor and the team was renamed

. The car that Wirth designed for use in the 2010 season, the

Virgin VR-01 The Virgin VR-01 was a Formula One motor racing car designed by Nick Wirth for Virgin Racing in the season. It was driven by former Toyota driver Timo Glock and Brazilian ex- GP2 driver Lucas di Grassi. The car was the first Formula One racing ...

, is the first Formula One racing car designed entirely with

computational fluid dynamics Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a branch of fluid mechanics that uses numerical analysis and data structures to analyze and solve problems that involve fluid flows. Computers are used to perform the calculations required to simulate th ...

with no use of traditional

wind tunnel Wind tunnels are large tubes with air blowing through them which are used to replicate the interaction between air and an object flying through the air or moving along the ground. Researchers use wind tunnels to learn more about how an aircraft ...

s during the design or build process. Wirth also designed Virgin's second F1 car, the MVR-02, but its performance proved to be disappointing as it failed to close the gap to the leaders relative to the VR-01. In June 2011, Virgin announced that it had parted company with Wirth and abandoned its policy of only using CFD.

References

External links

Profile at grandprix.comProfile on the Virgin Racing website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wirth, Nick 1966 births Living people Formula One team owners English engineers British mechanical engineers Formula One designers English motorsport people People educated at Sevenoaks School Benetton Formula