Nick Chester

He graduated from Cambridge University in 1991.

Chester joined Simtek Research in vehicle simulation, moving to their Formula One entry in 1994. 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.[1]

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 2002–2004, overseeing the Italian's only F1 victory (Monaco 2004).[2]

Chester took on the position of head of the Vehicle Performance Group in 2005, contributing towards Renault's double championship wins of 2005 and 2006, including the development of the tuned mass damper system, which was a major innovation.[3] In 2010 Chester was made head of performance systems.

In 2012, Chester was appointed engineering director of Lotus, playing a major part in the race winning E20 and E21. 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.[4]

In January 2020 Chester was replaced by Pat Fry at Renault.[5]

• Race Engineer – Arrows Grand Prix (1995–2000)
• Race Engineer – Benetton Formula (2000–2001)
• Race Engineer – Renault F1 (2002–2005)
• Head of Vehicle Performance Group – Renault F1 (2005–2010)
• Head of Performance Systems – Renault F1 (2010–2012)
• Engineering Director – Lotus F1 (2012–2013)
• Technical Director – Lotus F1 (2013–2015)
• Chassis Technical Director – Renault F1 (2016–2019)