Information

Supporting two well known local charities: The Butterwick and Cleveland Mountain Rescue, a rare chance to hear and question local engineer Rob Smedley about his career in Formula 1.

Rob has worked for Jordan F1, engineering Giancarlo Fisichella.

In 2004 he moved to Maranello, Italy, to work for Ferrari where he was race engineer to Felipe Massa alongside Michael Schumacher, during their world conquering period.

From Ferrari Rob moved to Williams F1 where they had number of successful seasons with the new turbo charged hybrid cars, along with Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas.

Rob left Williams at the end of last year and has joined ex colleagues; Ross Brawn and Pat Symonds to oversee the technical aspect of developments to Formula 1 with the idea of improving the spectator experience.

Rob is from Middlesbrough and qualified at Loughborough University. He also has an honorary doctorate from both Teesside and Loughborough Universities.