Neil Oatley(born 12 June 1954) is a British design and development director inFormula Oneteams.
Neil Oatley | |
|---|---|
| Born | 12 June 1954 |
| Nationality |  British |
Career
editBorn in Britain, Oatley graduated fromLoughborough Universityin 1976 with an automotive engineering degree. He worked briefly outside motor racing before joining theWilliamsteam in 1977. There he became one of many young engineers to have worked alongsidePatrick Headearly in their careers before moving on to other organisations. Oatley worked as adraughtsmanbefore becoming arace engineerfor bothClay RegazzoniandCarlos Reutemann.
In 1984 Oatley was recruited byCarl Haasto work on theFORCE F1project, but the results were poor, and the team withdrew from Formula One in1986.
Oatley joined theMcLarenteam shortly after leaving FORCE and worked alongsideJohn Barnardin the design office. AfterGordon Murrayreplaced Barnard as technical director, Oatley was put in charge of the design of the naturally aspirated car for 1989—Steve Nicholshaving been appointed chief designer of the1988 chassis—and remained chief designer after Murray moved to the new McLaren road car project. His cars secured titles in1989,1990,1991,1998and1999.
Oatley continued to work as chief designer at McLaren until 2003, when he became executive director of engineering.