Frank Coppuck is a British engineer and racing car designer, who helped design the Pacific PR01 and PR02

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

cars. A nephew of Formula One engineer

Gordon Coppuck Gordon Coppuck (born 8 December 1936 in Fleet, Hampshire) is a British racing car designer who was chief designer for McLaren and later worked for March and co-founded Spirit. Born in December 1936, he attended Queen Mary's School for Boys be ...

. After graduating from Kingston Polytechnic with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

in mechanical and aeronautical engineering he went to work for the

Royal Aircraft Establishment The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), bef ...

at Farnborough. In 1979 he moved to

British Aerospace British Aerospace plc (BAe) was a British aircraft manufacturer, aircraft, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer that was formed in 1977. Its head office was at Warwick House in the Farnborough Aerospace Centre in Farnborough, Hampshire. ...

at Weybridge, working on aircraft wing design and composites engineering. His motor racing career did not start until 1985 when he was hired to join the FORCE Lola team at Colnbrook. When that team closed down in 1986 he moved to

Tyrrell Racing The Tyrrell Racing Organisation was an auto racing team and Formula One constructor founded by Ken Tyrrell (1924–2001) which started racing in 1958 and started building its own cars in 1970. The team experienced its greatest success in the e ...

, as a composites and race engineer. After a brief spell with the

March March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 31 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the first day of March. The March equinox on the 20 or 2 ...

Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian carmaker known for its sports-oriented vehicles, strong auto racing heritage, and iconic design. Headquartered in Turin, Italy, it is a subsidiary of Stellantis Europe and one of 14 brands of mu ...

Indycar IndyCar, LLC (stylized as INDYCAR), is an auto racing sanctioning body for American open-wheel car racing headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. The organization sanctions two racing series: the premier IndyCar Series with the Indianapolis ...

program he moved to

Team Lotus Team Lotus was the motorsport sister company of English sports car manufacturer Lotus Cars. The team ran cars in many motorsport categories including Formula One, Formula Two, Formula Ford, Formula Junior, American Championship Car Racing, Ind ...

following the departure of chief designer Mike Coughlan. This coincided with the takeover of the team by Peter Collins and Peter Wright, and Coppuck was involved in the design of the team's aborted Lotus 103 car, and in revamping the Lotus 102 design. At the end of 1991 he moved to the United States where he worked in CART with Dick Simon Racing. Later that year he returned to Britain and became technical director of TOM'S GB, working with

John Barnard John Edward Barnard, (born 4 May 1946) is an English engineer and racing car designer. Barnard is credited with the introduction of two new designs into Formula One: the carbon fibre composite chassis first seen in with McLaren, and the sem ...

on the design of a secret Formula One car. When Toyota decided not to enter, Coppuck joined

Pacific Grand Prix The Pacific Grand Prix () was a round of the Formula One World Championship twice in the mid-1990s and non-championship events in the 1960s. The non-championship events were held at Laguna Seca in the United States from 1960 through 1963. The ...

as chief designer for the Pacific PR02. After Pacific closed its doors at the end of the 1995 season Coppuck moved to Benetton but stayed only a year before going back to TOM'S GB. He then moved on to

McLaren McLaren Racing Limited ( ) is a British auto racing, motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. The team is a subsidiary of the McLaren Group, which owns a majority of the team. McLaren is best known a ...

where he was in charge of the

McLaren GT The McLaren GT is a two seat grand tourer designed and manufactured by the British automobile manufacturer McLaren Automotive. It is the company's first dedicated grand tourer and is based on the same platform underpinning the 720S with the ad ...

program.

External links

Profile on GrandPrix.com
Year of birth missing (living people) Formula One designers British motorsport people Living people {{F1-bio-stub