Alastair Caldwell (born 1943) is a British-New Zealand motorsports manager. He was theMcLarenFormula One motor-racing team manager from 1974 to 1978.
Caldwell's father was an army officer and he was born in Sheffield,West Riding of Yorkshire but the family emigrated to New Zealand when he was 7 years old and his father became a senior civil servant there. Caldwell attendedAuckland Grammar School and acquired British/New Zealand dual nationality. He was interested in cars from a young age and learnt to drive at 12. He left school for a job as an apprentice mechanic at the post office.
After qualifying as a mechanic Caldwell joined McLaren for the1967 Italian Grand Prix. He then rose to be what would now be called the technical director of the team. Drivers he worked with includedEmerson Fittipaldi,James Hunt andJochen Mass. He was involved in the design, production and preparation of the cars for racing and was the inventor of an air-starter to make the cars lighter and also introduced a sixth gear, skirting to increase down force and team uniforms to replace the assortment of overalls and other clothes that were previously worn.[1]
In 1979 he moved to theBrabham team where he worked with the Brazilian driverNelson Piquet and in 1981 moved to the GermanATS team. Having decided not to set up his own team he then left motor racing to set up aself storage business.[1] He has also competed in classic car rallies in cars including thePorsche 912 and won theLiège-Brescia-Liège rally for cars up to 700cc in aBMW 700. He was a technical advisor on the 2013 filmRush about therivalry between the drivers James Hunt andNiki Lauda during the 1976 Formula One motor-racing season. In the film he was portrayed byStephen Mangan and he also had a cameo role on screen as a race official.[2]
