Steve Nichols

Steve Nichols (born 20 February 1947 in Salt Lake City, Utah) is an American engineer who is best known as a car designer for many Formula One teams from the mid-1980s until 2001.

Profile

Ayrton Senna's 1988 McLaren MP4/4. In the background is Alain Prost's 1987 McLaren MP4/3.

Nichols graduated from the University of Utah in 1972. He began his career as a development engineer at Hercules Aerospace in 1973. In mid-1980 he moved to motorsport and joined McLaren in Formula One. In 1987 he became head car designer in McLaren following the departure of John Barnard to Ferrari.

His first car, the McLaren MP4/3 powered by the turbocharged TAG-Porsche V6 engine, carried Alain Prost to three victories in 1987, the last of which being the 1987 Portuguese Grand Prix where Prost scored his 28th win, passing Jackie Stewart's record of 27 that had stood since 1973. McLaren's second team driver Stefan Johansson, scored five podium finishes during the season. At the end of the season, the MP4/3 had given McLaren second place behind Williams in the Constructors' Championship.

Nichols' second car was the highly successful McLaren MP4/4, powered by a turbocharged Honda V6. The MP4/4, driven by Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, almost completely dominated the 1988 season with 15 race victories from 16 races, as well as 15 pole positions. The only race the MP4/4 didn't win was the Italian Grand Prix which was won by Gerhard Berger's Ferrari. Berger also claimed the only non-McLaren pole of the year at the British Grand Prix. McLaren won the 1988 Constructors' Championship by a record 134 points from Ferrari, having wrapped up the title in Round 11 in Belgium. Senna and Prost also finished the Drivers' Championship in first and second place, giving the talented Brazilian his first World Championship.

While there have been claims that the design of the MP4/4 was based on the Brabham BT55 designed by Gordon Murray in 1986, and indeed a number of articles give Murray the credit for designing the MP4/4, many at McLaren, including team manager Jo Ramírez, have pointed out that the MP4/4 was actually a development of the MP4/3 and that Murray, who became McLaren's Technical Director in 1987, had very little to do with the design of either of Nichols' cars.

At the end of 1989, he moved to Ferrari. At Ferrari he reunited with Alain Prost. He stayed at Ferrari until December 1991, and later joined with Sauber to help Peter Sauber move into Formula One. In 1993 he moved to Jordan as chief designer; later in 1995 he was back at McLaren as a technical consultant. He assisted McLaren back to the front of the grid and winning the world title in 1998 and 1999.

In 2001 he joined Jaguar Racing as technical director.^[1] Although his success gave the first podium for Jaguar in Monaco, Nichols left at the end of the 2001 season.

References

• Profile at grandprix.com

McLaren Honda
Founder Bruce McLaren McLaren Technology Group Ron Dennis (25%) TAG Group (25%) Mumtalakat (50%) Head management Éric Boullier (Racing Director) Current personnel Tim Goss Neil Oatley Peter Prodromou Andrea Stella Former personnel John Barnard Alastair Caldwell Jost Capito Gordon Coppuck Mike Coughlan Pat Fry Steve Hallam Norbert Haug Robin Herd Paddy Lowe Neil Martin Teddy Mayer Sam Michael Gordon Murray Jonathan Neale Adrian Newey Steve Nichols Jo Ramírez Nicholas Tombazis Martin Whitmarsh 2016 race drivers 14. Fernando Alonso 22. Jenson Button 2016 test and reserve drivers Stoffel Vandoorne Nobuharu Matsushita (Development) McLaren young driver programme Stoffel Vandoorne Nyck de Vries Ben Barnicoat World Champions Emerson Fittipaldi Lewis Hamilton James Hunt Mika Häkkinen Niki Lauda Alain Prost Ayrton Senna Former drivers See category Drivers' titles 1974 1976 1984 1985 1986 1988 1989 1990 1991 1998 1999 2008 Constructors' titles 1974 1984 1985 1988 1989 1990 1991 1998
Cars: Formula One M2B M4B M5A M7A M7B M7C M7D M9A M14A M14D M19A M19C M23 M26 M28 M29 M29F M30 MP4 (MP4/1) MP4B (MP4/1B) MP4/1C MP4/1E MP4/2 MP4/2B MP4/2C MP4/3 MP4/4 MP4/5 MP4/5B MP4/6 MP4/6B MP4/7A MP4/8 MP4/9 MP4/10 MP4/10B MP4/10C MP4/11 MP4/11B MP4/12 MP4/13 MP4/14 MP4/15 MP4-16 MP4-17 MP4-17D MP4-18 MP4-19 MP4-19B MP4-20 MP4-21 MP4-22 MP4-23 MP4-24 MP4-25 MP4-26 MP4-27 MP4-28 MP4-29 MP4-30 MP4-31 Formula Two M4A M21 Sports cars Zerex Special M1A M1B M1C M6A M6B M6GT M8A M8B M8C M8D M8E M8F M8FP M12 M20 F1 GTR 12C GT3 650S GT3 P1 GTR USAC/IndyCar M15 M16A M16B M16C M16C/D M16E M24 F5000/Libre M3 M10A M10B M18 M22 M25 Development cars M2A MP4-29H/1X1 Road cars F1 F1 LM SLR (for Mercedes-Benz) MP4-12C P1 X-1 650S 675LT Engines M838T Merged team Project Four Racing Related West Competition