Associated Press
BRACKNELL, England -- Harvey Postlethwaite, a leading
figure in Formula
One race car design and engineering, has died at the
age of 55.
Postlethwaite died of heart attack Tuesday night in
Barcelona, Spain, where
he was overseeing a test session for Honda's new car.
He started his F1 career in 1971 with March
Engineering and designed the car
which James Hunt drove to victory for the Hesketh team
in the Dutch Grand
Prix at Zandvoort in 1975.
Postlethwaite was the designer for the Wolf team which
won its debut Grand
Prix in 1977 and, with Jody Scheckter as driver,
finished the season as
runner-up in the constructors' championship.
Postlethwaite joined Ferrari in 1981 and designed a
chassis for the Italian
team's new turbocharged engine. Postlethwaite-designed
Ferraris won the
constructors' title in 1982 and 1983.
He returned to Britain in 1988 as technical director
of the Tyrrell team. His
raised-nose car design of 1990 revolutionized F1
aerodynamics and is a
standard feature of single-seater design.
Postlethwaite briefly rejoined Ferrari as technical
director in 1991, then
moved to the Swiss Sauber team before returning to
Tyrrell in 1994. He
became joint managing director of Tyrrell before the
team's sale in 1997.
Postlethwaite joined Honda as technical director of
its exploratory F1 project.
The Japanese manufacturer is expected to rejoin the F1
circuit next season.
He is survived by his wife, Cherry, and two children,
Ben and Amey.
Im not huge on F1, but I just came across this while reading my racing
news sources today. The only reason I recognized the name was I knew he
was responsible for the raised nose design.
Scott
PA-Scott
G.T.S. Racing - http://home.earthlink.net/~sbhusted/GTS/gts.html
--
Scott B. Husted
PA-Scott on TEN
http://home.earthlink.net/~sbhusted
ICQ# 4395450
What a sad piece of news! Harvey Postlethwaite was not only one of the best
minds in F1 engineering, he was THE most innovative, and THE most
entertaining. His articles in F1Racing were always a delight! He'll be
missed.
DD
