Frank Dernie
Dernie ( born April 3, 1950 in Lancashire ) is an English engineer and former designer of racing cars in Formula 1
Career
Dernie won a place at the prestigious Imperial College London, where he studied mechanical engineering. After graduating, he worked in the Transmission Development at David Brown Industries, then he constructed turntable for the Garrard Company.
The end of 1976 he moved to the Formula 1 team Hesketh Racing and was involved in the development of the 308E. Two years later after the end of the team Dernie accepted an offer from the newly formed Williams team, where he was assistant of aerodynamics chief designer Patrick Head. With his work in the wind tunnel at Imperial College, he supported Head and Neil Oatley in the construction of the FW07. The car was successful and Dernie remained Williams' aerodynamics until the mid- 1980s. He was responsible for building the team 's wind tunnel and instrumental in the development of active suspension. During his tenure at Williams was Alan Jones ( 1980), Keke Rosberg (1982) and Nelson Piquet (1987 ) to win the world championship.
In 1989 Dernie a range of Lotus and was the successor of Gérard Ducarouge as technical director of the team. After the end of Lotus in Formula 1 in late 1990, he moved to the same post at Ligier. As Guy Ligier sold the team two years later to Cyril de Rouvre, Dernie went back to England and worked with Ross Brawn, who had been his deputy at Williams. In 1993 he was at Benetton for a short time race engineer of Michael Schumacher, but then went back to Ligier, after the team Benetton team boss Flavio Briatore had been bought.
Tom Walkinshaw first took over the post of team bosses, but bought in April 1996, the Arrows team and took Dernie with there. However, a year later Walkinshaw took John Barnard as a technical manager, whereupon Dernie switched to Lola, to help in the rebuilding of the team after a failed foray into Formula 1. 2002 Dernie Lola left again in the direction of Williams, where he worked as a Technical Consultant. 2007, his contract was not renewed after his area of responsibility was taken over as part of a staff increase of a full-time team. In August of the same year he took up a post as a consultant for chassis issues at Toyota's Formula 1 team.