Tony Purnell
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Tony Purnell (born May 23, 1958 in Carshalton, Surrey, England) is a businessman and former principal of the Jaguar and Red Bull Formula One teams.
Before entering motor sport Purnell had a lengthy academic career in England and the United States. A pupil of The John Fisher School, Purley, Surrey; he gained a scholarship to study Mechanical Engineering at Manchester University in the 1970s: then won the Kennedy Scholarship at MIT where he completed his Masters Degree. His dissertation was on the subject of Formula One aerodynamics.
After a short time at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Purnell returned to the United Kingdom as a researcher at the prestigious Cambridge University. Here he began work on wind tunnel analysis software for the Lola organisation and consulted for the short-lived FORCE F1 team.
Purnell went on to found Pi Research around his software and by the late 1990s had built the company into a highly successful global electronics business. In 1999 this company was purchased by the Ford Motor Company making Purnell a multi-millionaire. Still under Purnell's management, Pi Research was made part of Ford's Premiere Performance Division alongside Cosworth and the Jaguar Formula One team.
By 2002 the Jaguar team had failed to live up to its early promise under the direction of Neil Ressler, Bobby Rahal and finally Niki Lauda. In late 2002 the Austrian was unceremoniously dumped by Ford who now required a new principal for their flagship motor sport brand. Purnell was given the job, and alongside fellow countryman David Pitchforth, immediately set about restoring the teams fortunes.
The next two seasons saw a gradual improvement in results as Australian Mark Webber was signed to replace Eddie Irvine, and management stability began to pay dividends, but with parent company Ford needing to make financial savings the teams future was uncertain. By late 2004, after a series of budget cuts, Ford announced their withdrawal from Formula One placing Jaguar Racing, Pi Research and Cosworth up for sale.
With Jaguar's future now in serious doubt Purnell set about trying to locate a new owner, and on November 15, 2004, Red Bull announced that they had purchased the team. Red Bull Racing was born and new team owner Dietrich Mateschitz appeared to give his backing for Purnell to continue in his role of team principal.
The period of stability which Purnell had strived to achieve at Jaguar was short-lived however. By January 7, 2005 it had been announced that F3000 team owner Christian Horner would succeed him as principal and he left the team.
During his relatively short time as manager of Jaguar Racing, Tony Purnell gained massive respect in Formula One for his pragmatic and realistic appraisal of the sport from press and fans alike. Numerous rumors surfaced linking Purnell to other Formula One teams, but in December 2006 it was announced that Purnell would return to the sport as a technical consultant to the governing body, the FIA. [1]
