Jock Clear
Clear in 2016
Personal information
Born (1963-09-12) 12 September 1963 (age 60)
Portsmouth, Hampshire, United Kingdom
Sport
SportFormula One
TeamScuderia Ferrari

Jock Clear (born 12 September 1963)[1] is an English senior performance engineer working for Scuderia Ferrari, where he is currently the driver coach for Charles Leclerc,[2] along side Calum MacDonald for Carlos Sainz Jr. Before moving to Ferrari, he worked at Mercedes, where he was the performance engineer for Lewis Hamilton (2013–14) and Michael Schumacher (2011–12). He was also the race engineer for Nico Rosberg (2010–2011), Rubens Barrichello (2006–2009), Takuma Sato (2003–2005), Jacques Villeneuve (1996–2003), David Coulthard (1995) and Johnny Herbert (1994).

Early life

Born in Portsmouth, Hampshire,[3] Clear attended The Portsmouth Grammar School[4] and graduated in 1987 with a degree in mechanical engineering from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.[5]

Jock Clear with British American Racing at the 2004 US Grand Prix

While a student at Heriot-Watt, Clear was stand-off for the University's 1st XV rugby team.

Career

His career in motorsport began at Lola Cars, where he worked as a design engineer before moving to the position of head of composite design at Benetton Formula in 1989. In 1992 he worked as senior designer at Leyton House Racing, then joined Team Lotus where he became Johnny Herbert's race engineer in 1994. When Lotus collapsed at the end of the year, he transferred to Williams F1 and engineered David Coulthard,[6] who won his first Grand Prix in Portugal and finished third in the drivers' championship.[7]

Jacques Villeneuve joined Williams in 1996 and Clear was his race engineer; the Canadian won the world championship the following year under Clear's guidance. When Villeneuve moved to British American Racing for the 1999 season, his engineer followed suit.[8] The relationship continued until the 2003 Japanese Grand Prix, when Villeneuve walked out on the eve of the race. Takuma Sato took up the vacant seat[9] and drove to sixth position on his racing debut with the team.[10] Clear worked with Sato again in 2004–2005[11] and then with Rubens Barrichello from 2006 to 2009.[1] After the team became Brawn GP in 2009,[12] Barrichello won the European[13] and Italian Grands Prix[14] and finished in third place in the World Championship.[15]

In November 2007, Clear was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Engineering by Heriot-Watt University "in recognition of his outstanding success in applying engineering science in the most demanding and competitive environments and as a role model to young engineers."[16]

In December 2014, it was announced that Clear had been signed by Ferrari, and would move to the team for the 2015 Formula One season.[17]

References

  1. ^ a b F1network.net: Jock Clear. 24 February 2007. Retrieved 23 August 2009
  2. ^ Osten, Phillip van (12 February 2019). "Ferrari shakes up race crews - Clear to oversee Leclerc". F1i.com. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
  3. ^ Absolute Speakers: Jock Clear Archived 22 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 23 August 2009
  4. ^ OP Club Home > Forthcoming Events > 2008 > Jock Clear speaks to OPs[permanent dead link]. 26 January 2008. Retrieved 23 August 2009
  5. ^ Heriot Watt University: Mechanical Engineering - School of Engineering and Physical Sciences. 31 January 2008. Retrieved 23 August 2009
  6. ^ People: Jock Clear. GrandPrix.com. Retrieved 4 November 2009
  7. ^ The Official Formula 1 Website: David Coulthard. Retrieved 23 August 2009
  8. ^ Crash.net: Unsung hero - Jock Clear. 1 August 2003. Retrieved 23 August 2009
  9. ^ Kevin Eason. Sato in pole position after Villeneuve walks out on BAR. Times Online. 10 October 2003. Retrieved 23 August 2009
  10. ^ The Official Formula 1 Website: Takuma Sato. Retrieved 23 August 2009
  11. ^ The role of the F1 race engineer. F1 Technical. Retrieved 23 August 2009
  12. ^ Brawn GP. BBC Sport. 2 November 2009. Retrieved 4 November 2009
  13. ^ 'Delighted' Barrichello says: This one's for you, Felipe. Yahoo! Eurosport UK. 23 August 2009. Retrieved 23 August 2009
  14. ^ Simon Arron. Italian Grand Prix: Rubens Barrichello wins. Telegraph.co.uk. 15 September 2009. Retrieved 4 November 2009
  15. ^ FIA Formula 1 drivers' world championship. BBC Sport. 1 November 2009. Retrieved 4 November 2009
  16. ^ "Monthly Briefing from Court, Senate, PME and its boards: September/October 2007" (PDF). Heriot-Watt University. 2007. p. 4. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 December 2008. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
  17. ^ Ferrari sign engineer Jock Clear from Mercedes to complete F1 revamp. The Guardian. 22 December 2014. Retrieved 24 December 2014
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