Frank Dernie

Frank Dernie (born 3 April 1950) is a veteran British engineer with extensive Formula One motorsport experience.

Career

Dernie was brought up in Lancashire and educated at Kirkham Grammar School before he studied engineering at the Imperial College London university. He joined the Hesketh F1 team for 1976 before becoming Patrick Head's aerodynamic assistant at Williams in time to help design the successful FW08 chassis. He also designed the team's active suspension and contributed to the establishment of a wind tunnel facility.

For 1989, Dernie joined Lotus, replacing Gérard Ducarouge as Chief Designer. However, the team was in decline and he left to join Benetton for 1991, but had to move in favour of Tim Wright and so went to Ligier for the 1995 season to become technical director.

He moved to Arrows for 1996 but only stayed for a year due to the arrival of John Barnard. He joined Lola in order to help the team re-establish itself after MasterCard Lola's disastrous F1 foray in 1997.

In 2002, Dernie left Lola to return to Williams as a consultant engineer in 2003. He left in early 2007 and in August the same year joined the Toyota F1 team as a consultant in 'aerodynamic and chassis related matters.'

References

• Grandprix.com biography, retrieved December 6, 2006.

• Profile on Historic Racing