George Ryton

George Ryton (born August 15 1948 in Singaporecite web |url=http://www.oldracingcars.com/drivers/watn/?lastname=Ryton&firstname=George |title=The World Championship drivers — Where are they now? |accessdate=2007-09-21 |last=Jenkins |first=Richard |date=2006-09-02 |publisher=oldracingcars.com] ) is a British engineer best known for his involvement in Formula One.

Career

Ryton entered the world of F1 when he was hired to work in the Haas Lola team's drawing office for F1|1985. When the team was disbanded, he moved to Reynard to help design the company's first Formula 3000 chassis. Soon afterwards, he moved to the design centre of John Barnard, who was Ferrari's Technical Director at the time.

At the end of F1|1988, Ryton was offered the position of Technical Director of the new EuroBrun team, which was never competitive and withdrew from F1 before the end of the F1|1990 season. Ryton then moved to become Chief Designer at Tyrrell under Harvey Postlethwaite from F1|1991 to F1|1993, when he was dropped after the team lost its sponsorship deals.

Ryton returned to work for Barnard, who had briefly moved to work for Benetton but was now back at Ferrari. On this occasion, Ryton's job was slightly different, as he was put in charge of the team's drawing office at its Maranello base. He remained in this position until F1|1996, when he accepted the position of Technical Director at the small Forti team.

After designing the FG03 chassis, Ryton was left without a job when the team folded mid-season. However, he was soon appointed Head of Research and Development at the Ligier team, which was bought by former F1 champion Alain Prost soon afterwards and took his name. In F1|1998, the Prost AP01's unreliable and heavy gearbox saw him fall from favour and he moved to Minardi.

Ryton stayed at Minardi until the season-ending Japanese Grand Prix in F1|2003, firstly as Chief Designer but latterly as a design consultant.

Having left F1, Ryton now works as an independent consultant in Cornwall.

References

*