Willy Rampf

Willy Rampf
Born	(1953-06-20)June 20, 1953 Düsseldorf,West Germany
Nationality	German
Occupation	Engineer
Years active	1979–present

Willy Rampf(born 20 June 1953) is a German car engineer who is currently a technical consultant forWilliams Racingand was the former technical director of theSauberFormula Oneteam.

Career

Rampf was born inMaria Thalheim,studied Automotive Engineering at theMunich University of Applied Sciences,and has worked as a development engineer forBMWsince 1979. From 1989 to 1993, Rampf worked for BMW inSouth Africa,where he discoveredFormula One.

TheSauberteam made its debut in Formula One at theSouth African Grand Prixin 1993. Rampf was invited to the race, and half a year later he signed a contract to becomerace engineerfor the Sauber team.

Rampf was the engineer of Sauber driverHeinz-Harald Frentzenfor three years. In the 1997 season, he worked for driversNicola Larini,Norberto FontanaandGianni Morbidelli.At the end of the 1997 season, Rampf returned to BMW, where he would lead the motorcycle project for theDakar Rally.BMW motorcyclistRichard Sainctwould win that race.

At the end of 1999, Rampf returned to Sauber, where he became technical director on 1 April 2000. He remained in that position when Sauber was taken over by BMW in 2005, and when the company withdrew its backing in 2009.

Rampf left his position at Sauber in April 2010, and was replaced byJames Key.

He joinedVolkswagen Motorsportas technical director in August 2011, overseeing the design of thePolo R WRC.

References

• Willy Rampf: the unknown technical directorArchived17 January 2010 at theWayback Machine.Joe Saward.grandprix.com,26 January 2002. Retrieved 5 July 2008.
• Exclusive interview - BMW Sauber's Willy Rampf.Formula1.com20 February 2008. Retrieved 5 July 2008.