Nick Wirth: Leading the CFD revolution

You probably have heard about CFD more over the past two months than in the last decades put together. Virgin's technical director Nick Wirth is the man responisble for that. AUTOSPORT talks to the man who is leading the (CFD) revolution in F1

Meet Nick Wirth and you can't help looking up at him. Standing close on two metres (in his socks), the 43-year old (he moves up another gear exactly a fortnight after this season's 14 March opener) is the youngest-ever Fellow of the Royal Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He cuts an imposing figure.

As is common knowledge, back in the early nineties he was a partner in Simtek Research with former FIA president Max Mosley, before founding the Simtek Formula 1 team. Thereafter, spells as technical director of Benetton and designer of an email-literate, football-playing robotic dog (Robo Dog) led him to form yet another research company, this time named after himself.

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