Jock Clear

Jock Clear

Personal information
Nationality British
Born 12 September 1963
Portsmouth, Hampshire
Sport
Country  United Kingdom
Sport Formula One
Team Scuderia Ferrari

Jock Clear, born 1963[1] in Portsmouth, Hampshire,[2] is an English senior performance engineer working for Scuderia Ferrari. Before moving to Ferrari, he worked at Mercedes, where he was the race engineer for Lewis Hamilton (2013/14) and Michael Schumacher (2011/12). He was race engineer for Nico Rosberg from (2010 to 2012), Rubens Barrichello from (2006 to 2009) and Takuma Sato (from 2003 to 2005).

Clear attended The Portsmouth Grammar School[3] and graduated in 1987 with a degree in mechanical engineering from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.[4]

His career in motorsport began at Lola Cars, where he worked as a design engineer before moving to the position of head of composite design at Benetton Formula in 1989. In 1992 he worked as senior designer at Leyton House Racing, then joined Team Lotus where he became Johnny Herbert's race engineer in 1994. When Lotus collapsed at the end of the year, he transferred to Williams F1 and engineered David Coulthard,[5] who won his first Grand Prix in Portugal and finished third in the drivers' championship.[6]

Jacques Villeneuve joined Williams in 1996 and Clear was his race engineer; the Canadian won the world championship the following year under Clear's guidance. When Villeneuve moved to British American Racing for the 1999 season, his engineer followed suit.[7] The relationship continued until the 2003 Japanese Grand Prix, when Villeneuve walked out on the eve of the race. Takuma Sato took up the vacant seat[8] and drove to sixth position on his racing debut with the team.[9] Clear worked with Sato again in 2004-2005[10] and then with Rubens Barrichello from 2006-2009.[1] After the team became Brawn GP in 2009,[11] Barrichello won the European[12] and Italian Grands Prix[13] and finished in third place in the World Championship.[14]

In November 2007, Clear was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Engineering by Heriot-Watt University "in recognition of his outstanding success in applying engineering science in the most demanding and competitive environments and as a role model to young engineers."[15]

In December 2014, it was announced that Clear had been signed by Ferrari, and will move to the team for the 2015 Formula One season.[16]

In 2016 chief engineer Clear admitted that he was having trouble understanding the heating performance of the tyres which was slowing the car, "It is not an exact science. The feeling of the engineer and the driver plays a big part."[17]

References

  1. 1 2 F1network.net: Jock Clear. 24 February 2007. Retrieved 23 August 2009
  2. ↑ Absolute Speakers: Jock Clear. Retrieved 23 August 2009
  3. ↑ OP Club Home > Forthcoming Events > 2008 > Jock Clear speaks to OPs. 26 January 2008. Retrieved 23 August 2009
  4. ↑ Heriot Watt University: Mechanical Engineering - School of Engineering and Physical Sciences. 31 January 2008. Retrieved 23 August 2009
  5. ↑ People: Jock Clear. GrandPrix.com. Retrieved 4 November 2009
  6. ↑ The Official Formula 1 Website: David Coulthard. Retrieved 23 August 2009
  7. ↑ Crash.net: Unsung hero - Jock Clear. 1 August 2003. Retrieved 23 August 2009
  8. ↑ Kevin Eason. Sato in pole position after Villeneuve walks out on BAR. Times Online. 10 October 2003. Retrieved 23 August 2009
  9. ↑ The Official Formula 1 Website: Takuma Sato. Retrieved 23 August 2009
  10. ↑ The role of the F1 race engineer. F1 Technical. Retrieved 23 August 2009
  11. ↑ Brawn GP. BBC Sport. 2 November 2009. Retrieved 4 November 2009
  12. ↑ 'Delighted' Barrichello says: This one's for you, Felipe. Yahoo! Eurosport UK. 23 August 2009. Retrieved 23 August 2009
  13. ↑ Simon Arron. Italian Grand Prix: Rubens Barrichello wins. Telegraph.co.uk. 15 September 2009. Retrieved 4 November 2009
  14. ↑ FIA Formula 1 drivers' world championship. BBC Sport. 1 November 2009. Retrieved 4 November 2009
  15. ↑ Monthly Briefing from Court, Senate, PME and its boards - September/October 2007. Heriot-Watt University. 2007. Retrieved 23 August 2009
  16. ↑ Ferrari sign engineer Jock Clear from Mercedes to complete F1 revamp. The Guardian. 22 December 2014. Retrieved 24 December 2014
  17. ↑ "Tyre management still a mystery – Jock Clear - F1technical.net". f1technical.net. Retrieved 7 June 2016.
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