Mike Coughlan

Mike Coughlan (born 17 February 1959)^[1] is a British motor racing engineer and designer. He was Chief Designer for the McLaren Formula One team from 2002 to 2007, where he was suspended for his part in the spy scandal between McLaren and Ferrari, before his contract was subsequently terminated. He was then Chief Technical Officer for Williams F1 from June 2011 to July 2013, before abruptly stepping down "with immediate effect," according to the team.^[2]

Career

Coughlan studied Mechanical Engineering at Brunel University, graduating in 1981.

Early career

He first designed cars for Tiga Race Cars, which competed in junior formulae, until 1984, when he joined the Lotus Formula One team. As the team's fortunes waned, it was reorganised at the end of 1990, and Coughlan joined John Barnard's design company as it switched between producing chassis for Benetton, Ferrari and Arrows. Barnard parted company with Arrows after falling out with Tom Walkinshaw during the 1998 season, but Coughlan stayed on, taking the role of Technical Director in the following year. When Arrows collapsed in 2002, he was invited to join McLaren.

His A23 car, developed in 2002 for Arrows before the team folded, became the Super Aguri team's SA05 racecar four years later.^[3]

Ferrari espionage case

On 3 July 2007, Coughlan was suspended by McLaren following allegations of espionage against Ferrari.^[4] A Scuderia Ferrari press release said:

The search warrant is understood to have related to Coughlan's home and the "positive outcome" is reported to be documents claimed to have originated at Ferrari's Maranello factory.^[6] Stepney's dismissal from Ferrari had been announced earlier the same day.^[7] On 6 July Honda F1 released a statement confirming that Stepney and Coughlan approached the team regarding "job opportunities" in June 2007.^[8] Since the revelation of Coughlan's involvement in the affair McLaren provided a full set of drawings and development documents to the FIA, detailing all updates made to the team's chassis since the incident occurred at the end of April.^[8]

Stefan GP

Coughlan worked for Stefan Grand Prix in late 2009 when the Serbian team was trying to gain an entry into Formula One for the 2010 season.^[9]

Ocelot

Coughlan led the project for the design of the Ocelot armoured vehicle.^[10]

Michael Waltrip Racing

Coughlan was hired by Michael Waltrip Racing as director of vehicle design where he was responsible for overseeing all design, production, engineering and quality control programs.^[11] He left the team prior to the end of his contract to join the Williams Formula One. Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR) sued Coughlan and the Williams F1 team in U.S. District Court in Charlotte. The complaint asserted that Coughlan breached his contract by leaving the team prior to the end of the contract and also asserted that Williams Formula One interfered with the contract by hiring Coughlan.^[12] The lawsuit alleged that Coughlan's departure impacted the team's performance, resulting in a loss of prize money and potential sponsorship.

Michael Waltrip Racing, Couglan and the Williams F1 team reached a settlement, the terms of which were not disclosed, on 18 October 2011; the lawsuit was dismissed as part of that settlement.^[13]

Williams Formula One Team

On 3 May 2011 it was announced that Coughlan was hired by the Williams F1 team as the chief engineer, in part replacing the then technical director Sam Michael and chief aerodynamicist Jon Tomlinson.^[14] After the relative success of 2012, Williams endured a difficult start to the 2013 season, failing to score a point with their FW35 before announcing, on 16 July that Coughlan had been replaced with immediate effect by Pat Symonds.^[15] Coughlan's period as chief engineer was dominated by a period of investigation into exhaust driven diffusers, that was described as "a disastrous technical foray".^[16]

Richard Childress Racing

On 9 November 2013 it was announced that Richard Childress Racing has hired Mike Coughlan as the team's new Technical Director, effective immediately.

References

McLaren Founder Bruce McLaren McLaren Technology Group Ron Dennis (25%) TAG Group (25%) Mumtalakat (50%) Head management Éric Boullier (Racing Director) Ron Dennis (Group CEO & part owner) Jonathan Neale (Interim CEO) Current personnel Tim Goss Neil Oatley Peter Prodromou Former personnel John Barnard Gordon Coppuck Mike Coughlan Pat Fry Steve Hallam Norbert Haug Robin Herd Paddy Lowe Neil Martin Teddy Mayer Sam Michael Gordon Murray Adrian Newey Steve Nichols Jo Ramírez Nicholas Tombazis Martin Whitmarsh 2015 race drivers 14. Fernando Alonso 20. Kevin Magnussen 22. Jenson Button 2015 test and reserve drivers Kevin Magnussen Stoffel Vandoorne Oliver Turvey 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 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

Williams Martini Racing Founders Sir Frank Williams Patrick Head Team principal Sir Frank Williams Current personnel Claire Williams Pat Symonds Rob Smedley Dickie Stanford Steve Nielsen Former personnel Ross Brawn Mike Coughlan Frank Dernie Gavin Fisher Sam Michael Adrian Newey Neil Oatley Adam Parr Enrique Scalabroni Geoff Willis Toto Wolff 2015 Race drivers 19. Felipe Massa 77. Valtteri Bottas 2015 Reserve drivers Adrian Sutil 2015 Test drivers Susie Wolff 2015 Development drivers Alex Lynn World champions Alan Jones Keke Rosberg Nelson Piquet Nigel Mansell Alain Prost Damon Hill Jacques Villeneuve Former drivers See category Drivers' titles 1980 1982 1987 1992 1993 1996 1997 Constructors' titles 1980 1981 1986 1987 1992 1993 1994 1996 1997 Formula One cars   Frank Williams Racing Cars FW01 FW02 FW03 FW04 FW05 Williams Grand Prix Engineering/WilliamsF1 FW06 FW07 FW07B FW07C FW08 FW08C FW09 FW09B FW10 FW11 FW11B FW12 FW12C FW13 FW13B FW14 FW14B FW15C FW16 FW16B FW17 FW17B FW18 FW19 FW20 FW21 FW22 FW23 FW24 FW25 FW26 FW27 FW28 FW29 FW30 FW31 FW32 FW33 FW34 FW35 FW36 FW37 FIA Formula Two cars JPH1 JPH1B Le Mans prototypes BMW V12 LM BMW V12 LMR Rally cars Metro 6R4 Touring cars Renault Laguna (BTCC)