Chris Dyer (born 12 February 1968) is the former head of Vehicle Performance Group at Renault Sport Formula 1 Team and the former

race engineer A race engineer is a motorsport team member who analyses data to achieve the best performance from the vehicle and driver. The race engineer communicates with the team's data analyst, mechanics, and driver, both between and during races. Off th ...

Michael Schumacher Michael Schumacher (; ; born 3 January 1969) is a German former racing driver who competed in Formula One for Jordan, Benetton, Ferrari, and Mercedes. Schumacher has a joint-record seven World Drivers' Championship titles (tied with Lewis ...

and

Kimi Räikkönen Kimi-Matias Räikkönen (; born 17 October 1979), nicknamed "The Iceman", is a Finnish racing driver who competed in Formula One between 2001 and 2021 for Sauber, McLaren, Ferrari, Lotus, and Alfa Romeo. Räikkönen won the 2007 Formula One W ...

at the Ferrari Formula One team.

Early career

Born in

Bendigo Bendigo ( ) is a city in Victoria, Australia, located in the Bendigo Valley near the geographical centre of the state and approximately north-west of Melbourne, the state capital. As of 2019, Bendigo had an urban population of 100,991, mak ...

, Victoria, Dyer worked with the top

V8 Supercar The Supercars Championship is a touring car racing category in Australia, running as an International Series under Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) regulations, governing the sport. Supercars events take place in all Australian ...

outfit, the

Tom Walkinshaw Thomas Dobbie Thomson Walkinshaw (14 August 1946 – 12 December 2010) was a British racing car driver from Scotland and the founder of the racing team Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR). He was also involved in professional rugby union, as owner of ...

owned

Holden Racing Team Walkinshaw Andretti United is an Australian motor racing team based in the Melbourne suburb of Clayton, Victoria, Clayton. The team currently fields two Holden Commodore (ZB), Holden ZB Commodores in the Supercars Championship for Nick Percat a ...

in the mid nineties alongside drivers such as

Peter Brock Peter Geoffrey Brock (26 February 1945 – 8 September 2006), known as "Peter Perfect", "The King of the Mountain", or simply "Brocky", was an Australian motor racing driver. Brock was most often associated with Holden for almost 40 years, a ...

and

Craig Lowndes Craig Andrew Lowndes (born 21 June 1974) is an Australian racing driver in the Repco Supercars Championship competing in the Holden ZB Commodore for Triple Eight Race Engineering. He is also a TV commentator. Lowndes is a three-time V8 Su ...

. In 1997, he switched to Walkinshaw's Formula One team Arrows, working as

Damon Hill Damon Graham Devereux Hill, (born 17 September 1960) is a British former professional racing driver from England and the 1996 Formula One World Champion. He is the son of Graham Hill, and, along with Nico Rosberg, one of two sons of a Formul ...

's chief data engineer. In 1998, he stepped up to race engineering, working with drivers such as

Jos Verstappen Johannes Franciscus Verstappen (; born 4 March 1972) is a former (Formula One) racing driver. Verstappen was the German Formula Three champion and Masters of Formula Three winner in 1993. In Formula 1, Verstappen raced for seven different te ...

Ferrari

For the 2001 season, Dyer moved to

Scuderia Ferrari Scuderia Ferrari S.p.A. () is the racing division of luxury Italian auto manufacturer Ferrari and the racing team that competes in Formula One racing. The team is also known by the nickname "The Prancing Horse", in reference to their logo. ...

, working as

's vehicle engineer, alongside Luca Baldisserri. By the end of 2002, Dyer engineered Schumacher at the tests, and after the championships had been won, at the last three races at Monza, Indianapolis and Suzuka. Dyer then race engineered

to his 2003 and 2004 world titles, appearing with the German on the podium after his triumph at the

2003 Canadian Grand Prix The 2003 Canadian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 15 June 2003 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Michael Schumacher took the win, despite nursing an ailing car home towards the end of the race, with the Williamses of Ralf Schumach ...

. Dyer was quoted saying that 'One of Michael's strengths is that, apart from driving quickly, he has an understanding of the car and how all the systems work'. Dyer then took over as

's race engineer when the Finn moved to Ferrari in 2007. Despite suggestions that the pair didn't always get the most from the package, Räikkönen took the title in 2007 at the final race by a single point over

Lewis Hamilton Sir Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton (born 7 January 1985) is a British racing driver currently competing in Formula One for Mercedes. In Formula One, Hamilton has won a joint-record seven World Drivers' Championship titles (tied with Mic ...

and

Fernando Alonso Fernando Alonso Díaz (; born 29 July 1981) is a Spanish racing driver currently competing for Alpine in Formula One. He won the series' World Drivers' Championship in and with Renault, and has also driven for McLaren, Ferrari, and M ...

. However, after the disappointing results in the 2008 season, Ferrari announced that Dyer would be replaced by Andrea Stella for the 2009 season, with Dyer promoted to chief track engineer. On 4 January 2011 Ferrari announced that Dyer was replaced as head of race track engineering by former

McLaren McLaren Racing Limited is a British motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. McLaren is best known as a Formula One constructor, the second oldest active team, and the second most successful Formul ...

engineer Pat Fry. This decision was taken after Dyer made the call to bring

into the pits to cover off the Australian Mark Webber's pit stop in the final 2010 race, at Abu Dhabi. This decision was blamed for costing Alonso the drivers title, in favour of

Sebastian Vettel Sebastian Vettel (; born 3 July 1987) is a German racing driver who competed in Formula One from 2007 to 2022 for BMW Sauber, Toro Rosso, Red Bull, Ferrari, and Aston Martin. Vettel is one of the most successful drivers in Formula One histor ...

who went on to become champion. In October 2012 it was announced that Dyer was to join BMW's DTM programme as chief engineer.http://www.auto123.com/en/racing-news/dtm-former-ferrari-engineer-chris-dyer-to-join-bmw?artid=148704

Renault

On 4 February 2016 it was announced by

Renault Sport Renault Sport () or Renaultsport, was the motorsport, performance and special vehicles division for Renault-badged cars. Renault Sport was officially established in 1976 as a merger between the Alpine and Gordini competition departments. It w ...

that Dyer would be returning to F1 as their head of vehicle performance group.

Career

*1997: Arrows Data Engineer *1998-2000: Arrows Race Engineer *2001-2002:

Vehicle Engineer *2003-2006:

Race Engineer,

*2007-2008:

Race Engineer,

*2009-2011:

Chief Track Engineer *2011-2012:

team member *2012–2015: BMW

Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters The Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM, German Touring Car Masters) is a grand touring car series sanctioned by ITR e.V. who have been affiliated to the DMSB- FIA since 1984. The series is based in Germany, with rounds elsewhere in Europe. The s ...

Chief Engineer *2016–2020: Renault Sport F1 Team Head of Vehicle Performance Group

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dyer, Chris Living people Ferrari people Formula One engineers 1968 births Australian engineers Australian motorsport people Data engineers