A History of Nick Wirth and Simtek


This profile is unfortunately quite short due to the
relatively small amount of time that Simtek and Nick Wirth
have been involved in F1.

Nick Wirth was born in London on 26 March 1966. This makes
him by far the youngest team owner in Formula 1, and at 6
foot 6 inches in height the tallest.

Nick gained a First Class Honours Degree in Mechanical
Engineering and Naval Architecture and the very day he
graduated was employed as senior aerodynamicist for the
March Leyton House Grand Prix team (now defunct).

Two years later Simtek Research was formed with one of the
owners of March, Max Mosley (now president of the FIA).

Never one to stand still, the company grew quickly,
designing 3 Grand Prix cars as well as doing Formula 3000,
Indycar and Class C projects. Ligier also took advantage of
Simtek's services but Wirth was not satisfied that all of
his ideas were well used, and so decided to enter Formula 1
for himself.

Before the start of the 1994 F1 season, the relatively
unsponsored S941 rolled out of the factory and into the
view of the world's press. Despite a difficult season (the
tragic death of Roland Ratzenberger and the destuction of
another chassis at the Spanish GP) the team qualified for
every race and finished 11 (twice in the top ten).

The new S951 was finished just before the first GP of the
season and although neither chassis finished the race, the
predictions were of a successful season.

The driving combination of Jos Verstappen (also Benetton
test driver) and Domenico Schiattarella (later to be
changed with Hideki Noda) has proved a good one with Jos
running as high as sixth in the Argentine Grand Prix.


GP Wins: 0 
Constructors' Titles: 0 
Drivers' Titles: 0 


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MTV Simtek-Ford By Max Galvin 
Source: Simtek Grand Prix