Mark Ellis is a British

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

engineer. He was most recently the performance director at the

Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport Mercedes-Benz, a brand of the Mercedes-Benz Group, has been involved in Formula One as both team owner and engine manufacturer for various periods since 1954. The Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team, which is based in Brackley, England, and possesses ...

team.

Career

Ellis studied mechanical engineering at the University of Southampton before joining Ricardo Consulting Engineers as an engine development engineer. Ellis' motorsport career began in 1988, achieving success with numerous teams in various categories, in positions ranging from leading the development of Super Touring cars to WRC 4WD transmissions. He gained prominence by participating in the Williams team's program for the

British Touring Car Championship The Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship is a touring car racing series held each year in the United Kingdom, currently organised and administered by TOCA TOCA, formally trading as BARC (TOCA) Ltd, is an organiser of motorsport events in ...

(BTCC), when he worked with Williams Renault Dealer Racing on the 1995 touring car project, the Renault Laguna, who dominated the 1997 season with

Alain Menu Alain Menu (born 9 August 1963) is a Swiss racing driver who is currently working for Team BMR as a driving coach. He was one of the most successful touring car drivers of the 1990s, winning the prestigious British Touring Car Championship twice ...

at the wheel and, in 2000, he and Menu were together again at Prodrive, champions of the World Rally Championship, where Ellis designed the Ford Mondeo that Menu drove to the last BTCC championship before the series went through a radical regulation change. He ended up switching to Formula 1 in 2000, with

British American Racing British American Racing (BAR) was a Formula One constructor that competed in the sport from 1999 to 2005. BAR began by acquiring Tyrrell, and used Supertec engines for their first year. Subsequently, they formed a partnership with Honda which l ...

(BAR) as head of mechanical design. Ellis was already a close collaborator with the team's technical director, Malcolm Oastler, since the beginning of BAR, he joined BAR, that year, from Prodrive to occupy the position of chief mechanical designer. After a short stint at British American Racing in 2001, just before the San Marino Grand Prix, he moved to

Jaguar Racing Jaguar Racing is the name given to Jaguar Land Rover's racing interests. It currently competes in Formula E under the name Jaguar TCS Racing as a result of the partnership with Tata Consultancy Services. It was previously a Formula One construc ...

as its chief race engineer. On June 1, 2002, it was announced that BAR's new chief of staff, David Richards, decided to bring Ellis back to his team and that the Brit would take up the position of head of vehicle performance at BAR. Ellis remained at Brackley as the team transitioned into

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a product ...

. Ellis then took on a new challenge at Red Bull Racing as the chief vehicle performance engineer, a position he held until the end of the 2013 season, winning the constructors and drivers titles from 2010 to 2013 with the Austrian outfit. In December 2013,

Mercedes Mercedes may refer to: People * Mercedes (name), a Spanish feminine name, including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or last name Automobile-related * Mercedes (marque), the pre-1926 brand name of German automobile m ...

announced the hiring of Mark Ellis where he would assume the position of performance director, returning to Brackley in June 2014. With Mercedes, Ellis added five more consecutive constructors and drivers titles (2014–2018) to the his already impressive resume. In July 2018, it was announced that Mark Ellis would step down from Mercedes, and take a sabbatical while

Loïc Serra Loïc Serra is a French Formula One engineer. He is currently the performance director at the Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport Formula One team. Career Serra studied at Arts et Métiers ParisTech in Aix-en-Provence and Paris, specialising in M ...

would replace him as performance director.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ellis, Mark 1964 births Living people Formula One designers Aerodynamicists British motorsport designers 21st-century British engineers