RACING HERITAGE
STEEPED IN HISTORY
STEVE NICHOLS - CO FOUNDER AND TECHNICAL DIRECTOR NICHOLS CARS LTD
As a teenager, Steve had wanted to be a F1 designer. The path wasn't obvious as a young man growing up in Utah. This meant a degree in aeronautical engineering and a first job at Hercules designing rocket motors and familiarising himself with a new material, carbon fibre, years before its introduction in motorsport.
Steve then spent two spells at Mclaren. The first bringing his experience of carbon fibre to the McLaren MP4/1, working alongside John Barnard in a design department initially consisting of just three people! When John left to go to Ferrari he became Chief Designer and saw at first hand the triumphs and tensions of the Senna/Prost pairing, whilst also acting as Ayrton's race engineer.
Nichols was the Chief Designer of the McLaren MP4/4, the most successful car of all time which won 15 out of 16 races during the 1988 season in the hands of the legendary Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. Steve followed Prost to Ferrari, but returned to McLaren several years later at the request of CEO Martin Whitmarsh in a broad and hugely satisfying role covering all aspects of the F1 team.