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Tutors for November 2024 include:

Technical Director (Performance)

Ciaron Pilbeam Technical Director ‑ Performance

Ciaron has a wealth of experience in race engineering, having worked as a Race Engineer in F1 for over 15 years. In that time he has worked for five different F1 teams, including the likes of BAR Honda, Red Bull Racing, Lotus F1 Team, McLaren Racing and now Alpine F1 Team. He has been the Head of Trackside Engineering, where he managed both driver’s trackside engineering teams and helps to make decisions on set-up, strategy and tyre management. Ciaron has recently been promoted to Technical Director (Performance) at BWT Alpine F1 Team.

James Knapton

Chief Engineer - Performance

James Knapton - Head of Performance Analysis

James Knapton has enjoyed a rich career in Formula 1. He has worked for 7 different F1 teams including Jordan Grand Prix, Midland F1 and Spyker F1 and has been Head of Vehicle Science at Force India, Sauber, Manor Racing and Red Bull Advanced Technologies where he worked on the Aston Martin Valkyrie project. James is now working as Head of Performance Analysis for Andretti Cadillac.

Guillaume Ducreux

Race Strategy Analyst

Guillaume Ducreux - Race Strategy Analyst

Guillaume joined Alpine F1 Team as a full-time Strategy Engineer, assisting car strategists in simulations before progressing to the role of car strategist. Guillaume now works at Oracle Red Bull Racing as a Race Strategy Analyst.

Mark Preston

Motorsports Director

Mark Preston - Motorsports Director

With a degree in Mechanical Engineering, Mark joined Arrows Grand Prix and McLaren F1 before creating the Super Aguri F1 team with Honda, in just 100 days. Mark recently delivered five ABB FIA Formula E (World Championship) Teams and Drivers Championship and is the most successful Team Principal in Formula E. Mark’s new role at Lola Cars is to build the future of this iconic racing brand. They will focus on new “energy carriers” being developed for powertrains of the future with three pillars of battery electric, hydrogen and synthetic fuels.

Craig Porley

Race Engineer

Craig Porley - Race Engineer

Craig’s motorsport experience stretches to nearly 20 years. Starting off as a composite technician back in 2004, Craig moved to Xtrac as an R&D Engineer and then Red Bull Racing as a Test Engineer where he ran programs on chassis, suspension and aerodynamic components. Alongside his full time work, Craig has also been a Senior Data Engineer, winning the 2011 FIA GT1 drivers championship, and a Race Engineer for several BTCC teams where he won the independent drivers and team title in 2019. Now, he race engineers for Laser Tools Racing with WSR in BTCC and has set up his own engineering consultancy.

Geoff Dymott

Race Engineer

Geoff Dymott - Race Engineer

Geoff has worked for Williams Racing for over 20 years in a variety of roles including Vehicle Dynamics, Race / Test Data Engineer and Senior Performance Engineer. Starting his own consultancy in 2019, Geoff has also been a Race Engineer in British F4, Porsche Carrera Cup GB for Richardson Racing and more recently Century Motorsport in British GT.

Callum Cripps

Race Driver

Callum Cripps - Race Driver

Callum has been involved in motorsport since he was ten years old, racing in numerous karting championships before he moved to car racing in 2015. Since then, he has been behind the wheel of a variety of racecars including a Ginetta GT5, Clio Cup, Formula Renault, GT and even NASCAR. In 2019 he finished 5th in the EuroNASCAR championship with 50% podium finishes throughout the season. He is also an official simulator driver for Radicals Online.

Michael Leonard

Graduate Aero Performance Engineer

Michael Leonard - Graduate Aero Performance Engineer

Michael joined Andretti Racing as an Aero Performance Engineer in 2023 after graduating from Loughborough University with MEng Automotive Engineering. During this time he worked for Racing Point and Aston Martin Formula 1 Team for a total of 18months - spending time in Aerodynamics, R&D and Vehicle Performance.