Nick Chester

Nick Chester (born 22 March 1969)^[2] is a motorsport engineer.

Early life

Chester graduated in engineering from Cambridge University^[2] in 1991.^[3][4]

Career

Chester joined Simtek Research in vehicle simulation, moving to their Formula One entry in 1994.^[3] He moved on to Arrows in 1995, first for vehicle simulation, and then to suspension design. He became performance engineer for Damon Hill and Pedro Diniz, then race engineer for Mika Salo and Pedro de la Rosa.^[5]

In 2000, Chester joined Benetton as test engineer to Alexander Wurz, Giancarlo Fisichella, and Mark Webber. He became performance engineer for Fisichella in 2001 and Jarno Trulli from 2002 to 2004, overseeing the Italian's only F1 victory (Monaco 2004).^[6]

Chester took on the position of head of Renault's Vehicle Performance Group (VPG) in 2005,^[3] contributing towards Renault's double championship wins of 2005 and 2006 (F1 Constructors' Championship and Drivers' Championship for Fernando Alonso).^[7] Chester oversaw the development of the tuned mass damper system, which was a major innovation. In 2010 Chester was made head of performance systems.^[3]

In 2012, Chester was appointed engineering director of Lotus, playing a major part in the race winning E20 and E21 F1 cars. A year later, he replaced James Allison as the team's Technical Director, therefore being responsible for the design and development of every Formula One car to come out of Enstone from May 2013 until January 2020.^[8]

In January 2020 Chester was replaced by Pat Fry at Renault.^[9] Chester joined the Mercedes-Benz EQ Formula E Team as technical director in July 2020.^[4][10]

Career timeline

• Performance engineer – Arrows Grand Prix (1995–2000)^[11]
• Performance engineer – Benetton Formula (2000–2001)^[12]
• Performance engineer – Renault F1 (2002–2005)^[6]
• Head of vehicle Performance Group – Renault F1 (2005–2010)^[12]
• Head of performance systems – Renault F1 (2010–2012)^[12]
• Engineering director – Lotus F1 (2012–2013)^[8]
• Technical director – Lotus F1 (2013–2015)^[8]
• Chassis technical director – Renault F1 (2016–2019)^[11]
• Technical director – Mercedes-Benz Formula E (2020–2022)^[10]
• Technical director – McLaren Formula E (2022–2023)

References

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Arrows

Arrows Grand Prix International (1978–1990)

Notable personnel Franco Ambrosio Alan Rees Jackie Oliver Tony Southgate David Wass Notable drivers  ITA Mauro Baldi  Austria Gerhard Berger  BEL Thierry Boutsen  ITA Alex Caffi  USA Eddie Cheever  FRG Christian Danner  GBR Martin Donnelly  GBR Brian Henton  Australia Alan Jones  FRG Jochen Mass  ITA Riccardo Patrese  FRG Bernd Schneider  BRA Chico Serra  ITA Siegfried Stohr   SWI Marc Surer  FRG Rolf Stommelen  New Zealand Mike Thackwell  CAN Jacques Villeneuve Sr.  GBR Derek Warwick  FRG Manfred Winkelhock Cars FA1 A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 A8 A9 A10 A10B A11 A11B

Japan Footwork Arrows (1991–1996)
Notable personnel Alan Jenkins Wataru Ohashi Jackie Oliver Mark Preston Notable drivers  ITA Michele Alboreto  ITA Alex Caffi  BRA Christian Fittipaldi  JPN Taki Inoue  ITA Gianni Morbidelli  ITA Max Papis  BRA Ricardo Rosset  JPN Aguri Suzuki  Netherlands Jos Verstappen  GBR Derek Warwick Cars A11C FA12 FA12C FA13 FA13B FA14 FA15 FA16 FA17

TWR Arrows (1997–2002)

Notable personnel Nick Chester Mike Coughlan Chris Dyer Eghbal Hamidy Laurent Mekies Steve Nielsen Ossi Oikarinen Nicolò Petrucci Mark Preston Sergio Rinland Rob Taylor Tom Walkinshaw John Walton Notable drivers  BRA Enrique Bernoldi  SPA Pedro de la Rosa  BRA Pedro Diniz  GBR Damon Hill  GER Heinz-Harald Frentzen  FIN Mika Salo  Japan Toranosuke Takagi  Netherlands Jos Verstappen Cars A18 A19 A20 A21 A22 A23