James Key (born 14 January 1972) is a British engineer who works in

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, ...

as executive technical director for McLaren.

Education

James Key studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Nottingham. Lotus Engineering sponsored him to his degree in 1996.

Formula One career

Key joined

Jordan Grand Prix Jordan Grand Prix was a Formula One constructor that competed from 1991 to 2005. The team was named after Irish businessman and founder Eddie Jordan. The team was based at Silverstone, UK but raced with an Irish licence. In early 2005, the t ...

in 1998 spending several years as a data engineer, then became

race engineer A race engineer is a motorsport team member who analyses data to achieve the best performance from the vehicle and driver. The race engineer communicates with the team's data analyst, mechanics, and driver, both between and during races. Off the ...

for

Takuma Sato , nicknamed "Taku", is a Japanese professional racing driver. Sato is a two time winner of the Indianapolis 500, having won the event in 2017 and 2020. He was the first Asian driver to win the Indianapolis 500, and the twentieth driver to win th ...

. Following a year in the Wind Tunnel he transferred to the Vehicle Dynamics department, eventually becoming the department head during the team's final few seasons as Jordan Grand Prix. Shortly after the team's ownership transferred to MF1 Racing, he became Technical Director during the 2005 following a brief period as Technical Co-ordinator. He was one of the youngest Technical Directors of a Formula One team, at the age of 33 years, along with

Sam Michael Samuel David Michael (born 29 April 1971) is an Australian motor sports engineer and designer, who held senior positions with Formula One constructors Williams and McLaren. He is currently employed by Supercar team Triple Eight Race Engineer ...

(born in 1971) who became the technical director of the Williams F1 team at the age of 33 during the 2004 season. Key retained his position during the team's transition through

Spyker F1 The Spyker F1 Team, known as the Etihad Aldar Spyker F1 Team for sponsorship reasons, was a Formula One team that competed in the 2007 Formula One season, 2007 Formula One World Championship with a List of Formula One constructors#Team's nationa ...

to Force India F1. In April 2010 he left Force India to join the

Sauber Sauber Motorsport AG is a Swiss motorsport engineering company. It was founded in 1970 (as PP Sauber AG) by Peter Sauber, who progressed through hillclimbing and the World Sportscar Championship to reach Formula One in . After operating it un ...

team, replacing

Willy Rampf Willy Rampf (born 20 June 1953) is a German car engineer who is currently a technical consultant for Williams Racing and was the former technical director of the Sauber Formula One team. Career Rampf was born in Maria Thalheim, studied Automo ...

as Technical Director. He remained there for almost two years, before leaving in February 2012 to accept an undisclosed offer with one of the British-based teams. On 6 September 2012, it was announced that Key had joined

Scuderia Toro Rosso Scuderia Toro Rosso (; literal translation of "Red Bull Racing Team"), commonly known as Toro Rosso or by its abbreviation STR, was an Italian Formula One racing team. It was one of two Formula One teams owned by Austrian beverage company Re ...

as Technical Director, replacing Giorgio Ascanelli. On 26 July 2018, McLaren confirmed that Key had agreed to become technical director of the team, replacing the ousted Tim Goss. On 22 February 2019 it was announced that Key would join McLaren from 25 March 2019, just after the Australian Grand Prix. He forms a triumvirate with Andrea Stella as Racing Director and Piers Thynne as Production Director, all under Team Principal Andreas Seidl.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Key, James Formula One designers Spyker 1972 births Living people Place of birth missing (living people) British motorsport designers Scuderia Toro Rosso McLaren people Force India Sauber Motorsport