![]() ![]() High power front-wheel drive cars are tricky to set up because you can understeer straight off the track if you apply full throttle too early in a corner. I understand your dilemma because I designed and developed the suspension for the 300hp front-wheel drive turbocharged FR200 Focus when I worked for Ford Racing. Professional race engineers need to understand the weather and how it effects the air density especially when racing at Indy and other oval tracks. ![]() Another important area of experience to collect is meteorology. In most smaller teams these roles are combined such that you may perform all of these jobs simultaneously. It is important to gain experience as a systems engineer (DAG) maintaining sensors and vehicle systems, as a damper technician building and maintaining dampers, as an assistant race engineer analyzing data (using Motec, Pi or similar software) and using simulation tools, and as a race engineer deciding what setup changes to make and working with the driver. The ladder system for engineers is similar to drivers and mechanics: start by engineering club racing cars at the regional and national level, then progress to engineering cars in professional racing classes. Ind圜ar teams like ours are looking for engineers with experience and success in the Atlantic and Indy Lights levels that are looking to move up. You are certainly off to a great start by transitioning from FSAE to USF2000, Continentals and Atlantics. “From Formula SAE to Formula 1 and the Indy 500, I look forward to answering questions about race car engineering, strategy, and how to be competitive at every level of the sport,” said O’Connell. For 2013, RLL Racing will field as many as three cars in the IZOD Ind圜ar Series and develop two brand-new BMW Z4 GTE cars in the American Le Mans Series. ![]() The team captured INDYCAR poles and wins in the 20 seasons, and from 2009 through 2012 successfully raced the BMW M3 GT, capturing the ALMS manufacturer and team championships in 20, along with the driver’s championship in 2011. The lure of racing enticed him back to the sport at the end of 2006 when he joined Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing as technical director. In 2005 he was promoted to SVT Chief Vehicle Engineer and headed a team of 25 engineers to develop the Shelby GT500 Mustang as well as the suspension redesign of the Ford GT. He returned to Michigan in 2002 and continued in product development on the new Mustang program. He became Ford Racing’s CART program manager in 1998, and three years later transferred to England to work for the Jaguar Racing Formula 1 team as head of Research and Development. O’Connell graduated that year with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, and began working for Ford Motor Company in product development. After switching to Cornell University, he led a team of 15 engineers which produced two more Formula SAE cars, finishing first in design in 1987 and first overall in 1988. The project was completed in just 14 weeks and earned third place in the design category. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Technical Director Jay O’Connell’s interest in race car engineering was spawned at a young age and first bore fruit in 1986 when he led a team of five at Brown University to design and build a Formula SAE race car. ![]()
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