WORKING AT BRAWN GP - PHIL ARNABOLDI

Every month, Brawn GP will introduce one of the team’s dedicated employees. Their work may be different but they all are driven by the passion of Formula One and the desire to achieve on-track success.

Next up is Phil Arnaboldi, Head of Car Concept at the team:

Name: Phil Arnaboldi
Job Title: Head of Car Concept
Age: 42
Lives: Banbury
Hobbies: I have two young children so most of my spare time involves unicorns, pandas, diggers and tractors!


Q. What studies did you complete before you worked in Formula One?
A. I always wanted to work in motorsport but as the teams tend to prefer people with experience, I decided to follow the aerospace route. I was accepted for a Ministry of Defence Apprenticeship to become a model maker and during this time I attended college in the evenings and weekends to obtain an HND in Mechanical Engineering. The apprenticeship and my studies gave me the experience I needed to go back to the motorsport teams and try again.

Q. Where did you work before Brawn GP?
A. I started work at the Royal Aircraft Establishment in Farnborough in 1984 as a model maker which involved working on various different aircraft and aerospace projects, including the Eurofighter. In 1989 I joined McLaren as a CNC programmer/machinist and worked my way through the various shop floor departments before becoming a designer in 1995.
From there, I moved to Sauber in 2000 and became their Concept Designer which was fantastic experience and gave me the opportunity to live in Switzerland. I returned to England in 2007 and joined M-Sport as Senior Designer. M-Sport are responsible for the Ford WRC programme which gave me some valuable experience outside of Formula One. I learnt a great deal from the rally guys and the cars are equally as impressive as a Formula One car but with a different purpose and design philosophy required. I joined the Honda Racing F1 Team in 2008 as Head of Car Concept and immediately started working on the car which became this year’s racer, the BGP 001.

Q. Describe your job on a day-to-day basis?
A. I am responsible for the layout and packaging of the car. Most of my time involves working with CAD (Computer Aided Design) software to come up with designs which enable our car performance targets to be met. I work closely with all of our design groups to juggle the factors that allow the car design to evolve. The mass, weight distribution, fuel volume, wheelbase, functionality and the FIA technical regulations are all taken into account as well as fitting the various systems and components within the constantly changing bodywork surfaces that the aerodynamicists find in the wind tunnel. A typical day can vary from fitting the driver into a mock-up of the car to check that he physically has enough room to drive, to negotiating with our aero guys about how we can move the package of the car around to allow them to introduce the latest aero tweak or surface shape. All of this has to be drawn and checked on CAD to see the effect that any changes may have on the car layout and I have a small group of very experienced guys that work on this constantly.

Q. What do you like about working in Formula One?
A. The constant pace of development. Ideas can be assessed, designed, manufactured, tested and on the race track in a remarkably short time scale. This means that the big question of ‘Does it make the car go faster?’ can be answered very quickly. You can then push this line of development further or try something completely different starting the cycle again.

Q. What’s the best thing about working for Brawn GP?
A. Everyone at Brawn GP has been through a lot together following our experience over the winter and that has lead to a very close-knit team. It makes for a very pleasurable working environment when you know that everyone is pushing to achieve the same goals and compete at a very high level in Formula One.

Q. What's the most challenging aspect of your job?
A. The most challenging aspect is to find a home for all the systems and components that are competing for space in the car as well as reducing the bodywork size to allow the aero guys freedom to maximise what they find in the wind tunnel.

Q. What has been the best moment of the 2009 season so far?
A. The highlight of 2009 so far was seeing the car run for the very first time and realising that it was quick straightaway. After the experience of the winter and the resultant restructuring, along with the tight timeline to fit and package a new engine layout, it was a huge relief that we had kept our heads and done a good job.