Gérard Ducarouge

Gérard Ducarouge ( born October 23, 1941) is a French engineer and former designer of racing cars in Formula 1

Career

Matra

After studying at the Ecole Nationale d' Technique Aéronautique Ducarouge worked from 1966 Matra MS620 initially on sports cars, with, inter alia, Jean -Pierre Beltoise went to the start in the race. 1968 rose Matra as a chassis supplier for Tyrrell and with its own team in the Formula 1. Ducarouge here was responsible for the chassis development. After the end of the Formula 1 involvement Ducarouge 1972, focused on the development of the MS670 for the 24- hour race at Le Mans, in which the driver Henri Pescarolo pairings / Graham Hill and François Cevert / Howden Ganley at the first attempt a double victory could be celebrated. In the two following years won with Henri Pescarolo Matra and Gérard Larrousse the 24 - hour race.

Ligier

The end of 1974 ended Matra his racing operations and sold the team to Guy Ligier. Ducarouge worked in 1975 at the first Formula 1 car of the Ligier team, the JS5, which debuted with Matra engines and Jacques Laffite at the wheel in 1976. 1977 could enter the first victory Laffite at the Grand Prix of Sweden. For 1979 designed Ducarouge the JS11, a ground effect car, with the Laffite won the first two races of the season. Patrick Depailler took yet another victory and at the end of the season was third place in the Constructors' Championship. The most successful season was in 1980 with the JS11/15 and drivers Laffite and Didier Pironi with second place in the constructors' championship.

After parts of the Ligier team were sold to Talbot, moved to Italy in 1981 Ducarouge to Autodelta, where he developed the Alfa Romeo 182 for the 1982 season. However, Alfa Romeo moved the development activities of Autodelta to Paolo Pavanellos Euro Racing team and Ducarouge lost his post as technical director.

Lotus

Ducarouge then moved in 1983 Formula 1 Team Lotus and Lotus Renault built the 94T, with Elio de Angelis was able to prove the 1984 World Cup third - place. From 1985 to 1987, the young Ayrton Senna in the Lotus 97T, 98T and 99T by Gérard Ducarouge celebrated its first six wins. After Senna's move to McLaren Ducarouge stayed one more year at Lotus and then went back to France for the newly formed team of Gérard Larrousse.

The Larrousse team used chassis of Lola, which were developed by Ducarouge and Lola Chris Murphy. In 1991 Ducarouge back to Ligier, where he, as Flavio Briatore took over the team until mid-1994, as CTO worked. By 2002 Ducarouge was then head of development of the Renault Espace F1 project, in which a V10 Renault engine in Formula 1 and a semi-automatic transmission of Williams has been integrated into a prototype Espace. Since 2003 Ducarouge is Technical Director at Venturi.