Mike Coughlan (born the February 17th 1959) is a British engineer , specialized in the automobile sport. It is since 2002 the designer as a chief of the single-seaters of the stable McLaren - Mercedes.

Biography

Graduate of the university of Brunel in the United Kingdom, Mike Coughlan began his career with beginning of the year 1980 within the Tiga company, specialized in the design of single-seaters for formulas of promotion. He joined the medium of the Formule 1 in 1984, within the Lotus stable, as an originator. Under the orders of the French chief technical officer Gerard Ducarouge, it takes part in the design of the single-seaters with which the Brazilian pilot Ayrton Senna sign its first victories in 1985,1986 and 1987. At the end of the years 1980, Coughlan is named designer as a chief of Lotus, but this period corresponds to the slow decline of the prestigious British stable.

In 1990, Coughlan leaves Lotus to join in Goldaming the technical antenna of the stable Benetton, under the responsibility of John Barnard, his chief technical officer. Designer as a chief of Benetton B191, it leaves the stable italo-British during the season 1991, following the rupture between Barnard and Benetton. It joined Tyrrell during two seasons, before finding John Barnard at Ferrari (or rather within Ferrari Design and Development , the technical antenna of Ferrari directed by Barnard to England) in 1993. In 1996, Barnard and Ferrari separate, and Coughlan follows its " mentor" at Arrows, in the capacity as chief technical officer associated, then of chief technical officer after the departure of Barnard in 1998. It is at this period that the name of Coughlan starts to more and more regularly appear in the specialized press, where one praises the audacity of his achievements, even if the results of Arrows really do not leave the ordinary one.

Extremely of this flattering reputation, Coughlan is recruited in 2002 by the powerful stable McLaren - Mercedes in the capacity as designer as a chief, under the responsibility of Adrian Newey, the chief technical officer. Its beginnings in its new team are marked in 2003 by the fiasco of the McLaren MP4-18 (which, of a too extreme design, will never be aligned in race) then by that of the McLaren MP4-19 of 2004, too slow. But it draws then the very powerful McLaren MP4-20, which should only with one very average reliability let escape into 2005 the world titles from Renault.

At the end of June 2007, Nigel Stepney, a framework of the Scuderia Ferrari, is shown of sabotage by its own employer. July 3rd, the name of Mike Coughlan appears in this business since it is shown by Ferrari to have received from Stepney of the confidential documents belonging to Scuderia. The very same day, while Stepney is officially dismissed by Ferrari, McLaren announces that it suspends Coughlan of its functions.

See too

Affaires of espionage Formulates 1 in 2007 of them

References

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