Simon Rennie
| Simon Rennie | |
|---|---|
| Born |
April 29, 1980 Coventry, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Race engineer |
| Known for | Formula One; (Renault F1, Red Bull Racing) |
Simon Rennie (born April 29, 1980 in Coventry, England) is an English motor racing engineer, currently working for the Red Bull Racing Formula One team.
Career
Rennie began working for the Renault F1 Team in 2004. 2005 saw him acting as the Data Engineer for the winner of the previous World Driver's Championship, Spanish driver Fernando Alonso. Alonso and Renault retained the titles they won in 2005 in the 2006 season.
For the 2007 season Rennie was placed in the same role, this time with Finnish driver Heikki Kovalainen, who arrived at Renault after the departure of Alonso.[1]
In 2008, Rennie remained as a Data Engineer at Renault. He worked alongside the returning Alonso,[2] who came back to the team after a disastrous season at McLaren. Alonso and Renault won back-to-back victories in the now infamous Singapore race and in Japan two weeks later.
The 2009 season, saw Rennie promoted to Race Engineer to Fernando Alonso. The team failed to reach the race winning success of the previous year. Renault's year was dominated by the Crashgate scandal, where they were accused, and found guilty, of fixing the race in Singapore the previous season.
For the second successive season, he remained in his position in the Renault F1 team for the 2010 season, who had been going through major changes in leadership, personnel and sponsorship. He acted as the Race Engineer for Polish driver Robert Kubica.[3]
Rennie would have acted as Race Engineer to Kubica in the 2011 Formula One season, for the newly renamed Renault team, Lotus Renault F1, had it not been for a Rallying incident in Italy,[4] one month before the season opener in Bahrain, which resulted in Kubica being sidelined with multiple fractures and a partially severed right hand. Rennie was race engineer to German driver Nick Heidfeld, who was acting as the replacement for Kubica during his recovery, for the 2011 season.
During 2012, he was one of two race engineers for Kimi Räikkönen. The other of Räikkönen's engineers was Mark Slade. During the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Rennie told Räikkönen on the team radio about the advantage Räikkönen had over second-placed Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari and he would keep him updated on the Spaniard's pace. The Finn responded on the radio by saying "Leave me alone, I know what I'm doing." The message has received wide media coverage and was well received by the fans. Lotus team principal Eric Boullier said the message "has become a Formula One classic"
For the 2013 season Rennie joined the defending Drivers' and Constructor's champions Red Bull Racing to replace Mark Webber's long time race engineer Ciaron Pilbeam while Pilbeam took over as chief engineer for Räikkönen at Lotus for 2013, their roles effectively replacing each other.
References
- ↑ "Alonso will join McLaren in 2007". BBC Sport. Archived from the original on December 23, 2005. Retrieved 2005-12-19.
- ↑ "Alonso opts for return to Renault". BBC Sport. Retrieved 2007-12-10.
- ↑ "Kubica to join Renault for 2010". BBC Sport. Retrieved 2009-10-07.
- ↑ "Renault driver Robert Kubica requires further surgery". BBC Sport. 2011-02-08. Retrieved 2011-02-08.
