Tim Densham | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1955-03-31)March 31, 1955 (age 70) |
| Citizenship | British |
| Occupation | Engineer |
| Known for | Formula One Engineer |
| Title | Former Chief Designer |
Tim Densham (born 31 March 1955[1]) is a former BritishFormula One engineer. He was most recently the chief designer at theRenaultFormula One team.[2]
Densham started his career in motorsport withTeam Lotus – the top team at the time – and started working at Ketteringham Hall underColin Chapman. Densham soon was promoted to the position of race engineer, where he worked withElio de Angelis in 1984 andJohnny Dumfries the following year. He went on to work withSatoru Nakajima when the team landed Honda engines in 1986. Away from the race tracks, he did a lot of testing work withAyrton Senna[3] andNelson Piquet and eventually became assistant chief engineer in charge of Team Lotus research and development department. Team Lotus, however, was plagued with financial issues, so in 1990 Densham decided to move on and found a job withBrabham.[2]
He worked as a designer once again and was the race engineer forStefano Modena in 1990 andMark Blundell in 1991. WhenSergio Rinland left the team at the end of 1991 Densham was named chief designer for the BT61 project but the team went bankrupt so it closed down in the middle of the season with the new car never having been built. In late 1992 Densham joinedTyrrell as a design engineer. He was soon back on the racing team as race engineer toAndrea de Cesaris,Mark Blundell (again) andUkyo Katayama, who he engineered in 1995 and 1996.[2]
At the start of 1998, however, Densham decided that he no longer wanted to attend races as he had in the past and moved to the test team. In the mid-season he quietly left Tyrrell and soon afterwards began working at a secret design center in Leatherhead, Surrey, on theHonda F1 car.[4] This was built by Dallara in Italy and ran for the first time in December withJos Verstappen at the wheel. The death ofHarvey Postlethwaite in 1999 resulted in Honda canceling the program and Densham was recruited to be chief designer atBenetton. He led the engineering department which designed theBenetton-Playlife B200 and remained with the team after it was taken over by Renault Sport.[5]
With Renault, Densham designed cars won back to back drivers' and constructors' titles in 2005 and 2006 and were one of the most competitive teams in the mid to late 2000s. In 2011 Densham left Renault and retired from Formula One.[6]
