Ralph Bellamy (born 4 February 1938) is an Australian retired motor racing car designer and engineer. He worked for various teams such as

Brabham Motor Racing Developments Ltd., commonly known as Brabham ( ), was a British race car, racing car manufacturer and Formula One racing team. It was founded in 1960 by the Australian driver Jack Brabham and the British-Australian designer Ron Ta ...

Ensign Ensign most often refers to: * Ensign (flag), a flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality * Ensign (rank), a navy (and former army) officer rank Ensign or The Ensign may also refer to: Places * Ensign, Alberta, Alberta, Canada * Ensign, Ka ...

, Fittipaldi,

Lola Lola may refer to: Places * Lolá, a or subdistrict of Panama * Lola Township, Cherokee County, Kansas, United States * Lola Prefecture, Guinea * Lola, Guinea, a town in Lola Prefecture * Lola Island, in the Solomon Islands People * Lol ...

and

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 ...

. Known in international circles as "Captain Kangaroo", Bellamy first came to Europe in the 1960s to try to achieve a successful career in motor racing. Once in Europe, Bellamy first came to be noticed for his work with

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 ...

on the McLaren M14 in 1970. Bellamy then became chief designer of the 1971 McLaren M19A and following this the McLaren M21. He then moved from McLaren to Brabham where

Bernie Ecclestone Bernard Charles Ecclestone (born 28 October 1930) is a British business magnate, motorsport executive and former racing driver. Widely known in journalism as the "F1 Supremo", Ecclestone founded the Formula One Group in 1987, controlling the c ...

was in charge and he redesigned the

Brabham BT34 The Brabham BT34 was a Formula One racing car designed by Ron Tauranac, and used by Brabham during part of the 1971 and 1972 Formula One seasons. Development In 1971, Jack Brabham sold his share of the team to co-owner and designer Ron Taurana ...

into the BT37. Bellamy then lost his position to

Gordon Murray Ian Gordon Murray (born 18 June 1946), is a successful and influential South African-British former (Formula One) race-car designer, renowned firstly as lead designer for both the Brabham and McLaren Formula 1 racing teams, during 196 ...

and moved to Lotus where he was one of the team designing the

Lotus 78 The Lotus 78 was a Formula One racing car used in the and seasons. It was designed by Peter Wright, Colin Chapman, Martin Ogilvie and Tony Rudd, and was the first ground effect car in Formula One. Concept In early 1976, spurred on by a ...

. Next he joined Fittipaldi Automotive in 1979 before moving to Ensign for the 1980 season. From 1983, Bellamy spent time in Indycar design and Formula 2 design. In 1986 he was working at Lola, designing

Formula 3000 Formula 3000 (F3000) was a type of open wheel, single seater formula racing, occupying the tier immediately below Formula One and above Formula Three. It was so named because the cars were powered by 3.0 L engines. Formula 3000 championship ...

chassis and the Lola F1 design, the

Lola LC87 The Lola LC87 is a Formula One car that the Larrousse team used to compete in 1987, the team's first season in Formula One. Development Larrousse & Calmels was formed in 1987 by former racer and motorsport manager Gérard Larrousse and the Fre ...

, that was used by the new French

Larrousse Larrousse Formula One was a motorsports racing team founded in 1987 by Didier Calmels and former racer Gérard Larrousse, originally under the name Larrousse & Calmels. It was based in Antony, Hauts-de-Seine, Antony, in the southern suburbs of Pa ...

team in . Bellamy retired in 1993 moving back to Australia. However he was still involved in motorsport designing

V8 Supercars The Supercars Championship, also known as the Repco Supercars Championship under sponsorship and historically as V8 Supercars, is a touring car racing category in Australia and New Zealand, running as an International Series under Fédération I ...

for Tony Longhurst Racing.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bellamy, Ralph 1938 births Formula One designers Australian motorsport people Designers from Sydney Living people McLaren people