Neil Martin (motorsport)

Neil Martin (born 3 September 1972) is an English Formula One strategist, the former head of the Operations Research department at Scuderia Ferrari.

After studying mathematics and computer science at the University of Southampton, he wrote his operations research MSc paper on risk assessment. Originally intending to seek a job in the City of London, he showed the paper to McLaren Racing, who offered him a job.

Martin was responsible at McLaren for the direction of strategic development of technology and race strategies, developing software to provide instant access to data on specific car component while on track. His role came to public prominence at the 2005 Monaco Grand Prix, when he helped Kimi Räikkönen win the race by making a key strategic call during a safety car incident, by sending an email from McLaren's Woking base to stay out rather than pit.

Headhunted by Red Bull Racing in May 2005, he joined the team as Chief Strategist in January 2006.

In January 2011, after Ferrari made a poor strategic call during the 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix which lost driver Fernando Alonso the 2010 World Championship to Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel, Martin joined Ferrari alongside ex-McLaren engineer Pat Fry in a revamped Ferrari race operations and engineering team. He left Scuderia Ferrari at the end of 2014.