Samuel David Michael (born 29 April 1971) is an Australian motor sports engineer and designer, who held senior positions with

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, ...

constructors Williams and

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 Formu ...

. He is currently employed by

Supercar A supercar – also called exotic car – is a loosely defined description of street-legal, high-performance sports cars. Since the 2010s, the term hypercar has come into use for the highest performing supercars. Supercars commonly serve as t ...

team

Triple Eight Race Engineering Triple Eight Race Engineering, (branded as Red Bull Ampol Racing) is an Australian motor racing team competing in the Supercars Championship. The team has been the only Brisbane based V8 Supercar team since its formation, originally operating ...

Early career

Michael was born in

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to t ...

and grew up in

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

. After a brief stint working on

Neal Bates Neal Bates (born 19 March 1965) is an Australian rally and racing car driver. Throughout his career Bates has been associated with Toyota in the Australian Rally Championship and for 19 years his Neal Bates Motorsport outfit ran Toyota's official ...

Toyota Celica GT-Four The Toyota Celica GT-Four is a high performance model of the Celica Liftback that was produced from 1986 to 1999, with a turbocharged '' 3S-GTE'' engine, and full-time AWD. It was created to compete in the World Rally Championship, whose regul ...

rally car, Michael studied

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, ...

at the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensiv ...

with a thesis on

data acquisition Data acquisition is the process of sampling signals that measure real-world physical conditions and converting the resulting samples into digital numeric values that can be manipulated by a computer. Data acquisition systems, abbreviated by the acro ...

systems for racing cars. During his studies, Greg Siddle employed Michael on a part-time basis working on

Mark Larkham Mark "Larko" Larkham (born 29 December 1963 in Griffith) is a retired Australian racing driver, former racing team owner and television commentator. Open wheelers Mark Larkham's first impressions on the national racing spotlight was finishing ...

Formula Holden Formula Holden was an Australian open wheel racing category introduced in 1989. History Known during its development as Formula Australia, it was initially for chassis constructed from aluminium only, running a 3.8-litre Buick V6 engine a ...

, so that Michael could continue his studies.

Formula 1

Michael was recruited by UK-based Lotus in 1993. After Team Lotus went bankrupt in 1994 Gary Anderson, the chief designer at

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 ...

, took Michael on to established the team's

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in Europe as research and technological development (RTD), is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, and improving existi ...

department. Michael spent two years working in the Jordan factory on data acquisition, and installed a seven-post rig for simulating

suspension Suspension or suspended may refer to: Science and engineering * Suspension (topology), in mathematics * Suspension (dynamical systems), in mathematics * Suspension of a ring, in mathematics * Suspension (chemistry), small solid particles suspende ...

movement and designing an

active differential A differential is a gear train with three drive shafts that has the property that the rotational speed of one shaft is the average of the speeds of the others, or a fixed multiple of that average. Functional description The following descr ...

. In 1997, Michael joined the Jordan test team. In 1998 he was promoted to

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 Ralf Schumacher. When the German departed to go to Williams in 1999, Michael inherited

Heinz-Harald Frentzen Heinz-Harald Frentzen (born 18 May 1967) is a German former racing driver. He competed in multiple disciplines including Sportscars, Formula One and DTM. He had his most success in Formula One, entering over 150 Grands Prix and winning three. ...

. His partnership with Frentzen was successful, resulting in a win at the

French Grand Prix The French Grand Prix (french: Grand Prix de France), formerly known as the Grand Prix de l'ACF (Automobile Club de France), is an auto race held as part of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile's annual Formula One World Championsh ...

Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours is a motor racing circuit located in central France, near the towns of Magny-Cours and Nevers, some from Paris and from Lyon. It staged the Formula One French Grand Prix from 1991 (succeeding Circuit Paul Rica ...

, and then again at the

Italian Grand Prix The Italian Grand Prix ( it, Gran Premio d'Italia) is the fifth oldest national Grand Prix (after the French Grand Prix, the United States Grand Prix, the Spanish Grand Prix and the Russian Grand Prix), having been held since 1921. In 2013 it ...

Monza Monza (, ; lmo, label= Lombard, Monça, locally ; lat, Modoetia) is a city and ''comune'' on the River Lambro, a tributary of the Po in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capital of the Province of Mo ...

. In 2001,

Sir Frank Williams Sir Francis Owen Garbett Williams (16 April 1942 – 28 November 2021) was a British businessman, racing car driver, and the founder of the Williams Formula One team. He was the team principal from its foundation in 1977 until 2020. During th ...

brought Michael to Williams as Senior Operations Engineer. He took over the responsibility of managing the engineers at races and tests. In May 2004, Michael was promoted to

Technical Director A technical director (TD) is usually a senior technical person within e.g. a software company, engineering firm, film studio, theatre company or television studio. This person usually has the highest level of skill within a specific technical f ...

of Williams, leaving

Patrick Head Sir Patrick Michael Head (born 5 June 1946) is a British motorsport executive who is the co-founder and former Engineering Director of the Williams Formula One team. For 27 years from Head was technical director at Williams Grand Prix Engineer ...

to focus on engineering strategy. In late 2011, Michael joined McLaren as Sporting Director, becoming part of the senior technical management team. At McLaren, Michael came under pressure following a series of failures during pitstops, during the introduction of new equipment and procedures.

Martin Whitmarsh Martin Richard Whitmarsh (born 29 April 1958) is a British businessman and Group CEO of the Aston Martin Performance Technologies team since 21 September 2021. Whitmarsh is best known to motorsport insiders, media and fans for his long and succ ...

defended Michael's position, and shortly afterwards the changes began to pay off.

Return to Australia

At the end of 2014 Michael returned to Australia, after resigning from McLaren earlier that year. In mid-2016, Michael joined the Australian Institute for Motor Sport Safety board focusing on safety in motor sport. In late 2016, Michael took on a part-time mentoring role with

after Ludo Lacroix moved to

DJR Team Penske Dick Johnson Racing (formerly DJR Team Penske), is Australia's oldest motor racing team competing in the Supercars Championship. The team currently fields the #11 and #17 Ford Mustang GTs for Anton de Pasquale and Will Davison respectiv ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Michael, Sam 1971 births Living people University of New South Wales alumni Australian motorsport people Formula One designers Lotus Cars McLaren people Williams Grand Prix Engineering