Jacky Eeckelaert | |
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| Born | (1955-01-11)11 January 1955 (age 70) Antwerp, Belgium |
| Nationality | Belgian |
Jacques "Jacky" Eeckelaert (born 11 January 1955) is a Belgian automotive engineer who has worked in many categories ofmotorsport. He currently works forAbt Sportsline as Technical Director in theDTM.
A native ofAntwerp, Eeckelaert studied mechanical engineering at theCatholic University of Leuven and then spent four years working inFord's engine development department, before becoming head of the technical department ofChampion's European wing.
He also competed as a racing driver, competing for privateer teams inFormula Ford andFormula Three. In 1985 he left Champion to become Team Manager of theKeerbergs Transport Racing team, which competed in theGerman andFrench F3 series. He moved to theDAMSInternational Formula 3000 team in 1991 and then to theDanielson team, which ran Peugeot 905 Spidersportscars, a year later.
In 1994, Eeckelaert moved directly into the employ ofPeugeot Sport, successfully overseeing the marque's championship campaign in that year'sFrench Supertouring Championship withLaurent Aïello. For1995, he was placed in charge of Peugeot's Formula One engine testing programme, in which capacity he liaised between theJordan team and the Peugeot headquarters. For the1998 season, Peugeot switched to supplying theProst team, and Eeckelaert joined the outfit as its Chief Engineer, although his role was downgraded to cover only the test team the following year. At the end of1999, he was offered a similar role at theSauber team and two years later returned to the Grands Prix asKimi Räikkönen'srace engineer. In2002, he was appointed the team's Head of Track Engineering.
He moved to theHonda team in2006 as Chief Engineer in the Advanced Research programme. In2007, he was promoted to Engineering Director, after predecessorMark Ellis moved to sister teamSuper Aguri. Eeckelaert himself then moved to Super Aguri, only for the team to shut down after running out money part-way through the2008 season. After spending a year in sportscars, he returned to F1 in2010 with the newHRT team, and has been placed in charge of the team's2012 car afterGeoff Willis left the team and plans to hireJörg Zander fell through. TheHispania F112 will be the first F1 car over which Eeckelaert will have chief responsibility to design. Before the new car was launched, however, he left the team to work for former Hispania team principalColin Kolles's sportscar team, which is runningLotus-badged LMP2 cars in the2012 FIA World Endurance Championship season. His position at Hispania was taken by Chief Designer Jean-Claude Martens.
In November 2012 Eeckelaert moved to the GermanDTM teamAbt Sportsline, where he works as Technical Director.
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