Interview with Rory Byrne

Rory Byrne ranks among the most successful engineers in Formula One - despite having qualified as industrial chemist in his native South Africa. A keen model glider pilot in his youth - he and brother Gavin bagged a world championship in the discipline as teenagers - his designs are renowned for their meticulous detail and aerodynamic efficiency.

Since 1986, Byrne's cars have won 99 Grands Prix, with Michael Schumacher taking 80 of his 84 Formula One wins and all seven world titles in cars penned by the quiet 62-year-old, who 'retired' from Formula One to a Thai beach in 1996. His peace was shattered by a telephone call from Ferrari Sporting Director Jean Todt.

Following the call-up to be reunited with the technical and operations team which gave Schumacher his first two titles (and captured for Benetton a constructors' championship), Byrne, a seriously keen amateur diver, gave up on plans to establish an aquatic school based at one of Thailand's most under-dived beaches. In early 1997, he returned to the sport as Chief Designer for the famous marque, and the rest is, as they say, history.

At the end of 2004, however, Byrne began handing over design responsibility to Aldo Costa, his assistant of many years. Earlier this week, at the launch Ferrari's 248 F1 car, Costa was visibly emotional as he took the limelight alongside his mentor.

"In the past ten years at Ferrari," Costa said, "Rory has truly been very close to me, and for me he has been - along with [technical director] Ross [Brawn] - a fundamental guidance. From the designing point of view, I need to thank Rory in particular, who has been a professional father to me. He has followed me, he's given me lots of independence, so I'm really thankful to this person who, for me, is the best designer of all times."

Byrne smiled bashfully, as the audience in the room clapped their hands in agreement. In the past decade, no other designer has had as much success as Byrne, yet somehow he always comes across as a humble soldier in the Ferrari army, who is set to go back to Thailand any minute now.

But while Costa is now the chief designer of the Ferrari team - and the 2005 car was already primarily the Italian's creation - Byrne has surprisingly decided to extend his stay at Ferrari, announcing at Mugello this week that he will act as Engineering Consultant to the company.

"The contract I have at the moment expires in February 2007, so I still have another 12 or so months," Byrne tells autosport.com later, in an exclusive interview. "Although I haven't actually signed anything, I have agreed terms to extend my contract for another two years."

But Byrne is quick to make it clear that, come February next year, he will not be working full-time and will establish his life in Thailand.

"In fact, I will be living in Phuket with my family after February next year, and commuting to Italy for specific projects as agreed with Ferrari," the South African says, although he explains why he won't be pursuing his diving interests: "When I got married in 1998 to Pornthip (Byrne's Thai-born wife) and the arrival of our son Sean in 2000, that really put paid to my professional diving interests.

"To get involved professionally in the diving business, your really need to be out in the forefront, in undeveloped areas, and with a family you just can't do that.

"We bought a plot right next to one of Phuket's nicest beaches, and we aim to build our house there. At the moment, we are living about three kilometres inland (when in Thailand), and I would like to live close to the sea. We are looking at building some holiday villas on the site, with a view to renting them out."

Byrne, in fact, already carries the title of Engineering Consultant - Costa has been baptised officially as Chief Designer at the launch event this week. But the difference, he says, is that for the next 12 months he will be a full-time engineering consultant, whereas afterwards he will become part-time.

What will this job entail, though? "There's a lot of rule changes coming up in the next few years, and that sort of stuff requires quite a lot of thought and study beforehand," Byrne explains.

"It's too early to say how the rules will affect Formula One. There's been a proposed set of changes issued by the FIA, and I'm not sure that those will form the basis of the 2008 regulations, but there might be some changes up until the middle of 2006. From what can I see, that's possible. So basically only from the middle of 2006 should we have something definitive."

Byrne is also adamant on stepping aside for Costa and allowing the Italian to take full credit for the 2006 car design. "Really," he says, "this year's car has been Aldo's project, totally. Totally.

"I mean, I've obviously kept in touch with what's been going on, and I've certainly been, you know, discussing aspects of it with him all the time. But, really, I have to say that our philosophies are pretty similar, and I can honestly say there's nothing on there that I have disagreed with.

"So, from that point of view it's been a very useful evolutionary process, the hand-over. The 2005 car was basically Aldo's car, with more overseeing from me, whereas this year he has done it on his own."

So, in his expert opinion, where does this year's car differ from F2005? "Obviously the big difference is the V8 engine and all the systems supporting it," Byrne says. "The cooling system, the transmission, etc, etc. I think that's been the big difference.

"The aerodynamic change to the regulations has been relatively minor, but as always there's been a huge amount of work put in by the aero department to improve efficiency, because one of the things with the sort of 20% reduction in power that you get with the V8 means you can't run the sort of levels of drag you could with the V10. So we've had to work on efficiency rather than straight forward downforce.

"I'm very pleased with the results there. The aerodynamic department has done a good job. In fact, there's been a good step forward in all areas, in all the areas you work in. Reducing the weights so you can run more ballast, improving mechanical efficiency so there is less friction, generally all round. They've all done a good job."

"It's an evolutionary process," he adds eventually, making sure to bring down expectations just a notch. "Every area has been improved.

"But, you know, there are very few quantum leaps left."

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- The Autosport.com Team

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