Rob Smedley
At the 2010 Canadian Grand Prix
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| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nationality |
 British |
| Born |
28 November 1973 Middlesbrough, England |
| Sport | |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sport | Formula One |
| Team | Williams Martini Racing |
Rob Smedley (born 28 November 1973 in Normanby, Middlesbrough, England) is the Head of Vehicle Performance at the Williams Martini Racing Formula One team. Prior to joining Williams, he was the race engineer for Felipe Massa at Ferrari. After eight years, both moved to Williams; Smedley as Head of Vehicle Performance, and Massa as driver.
Smedley's radio transmissions to Massa have even achieved cult status, with many Ferrari fans putting his messages on their mobile phones as ringtones.
Smedley attended St Peter's School in South Bank before going to St Mary's Sixth Form College. He lived in Normanby until he was 18, before going to Loughborough University and beginning his rise through the ranks in motorsport. He initially studied a degree in mathematics and mechanical engineering, before going on to complete a master's degree.
With his main field of activity in chassis engineering, after leaving university, Smedley began working with Pilbeam Racing Designs on the MP80 Peugeot in 1997 where he worked as a suspension design engineer for the touring car team. He then went on to work in Formula 3000 and the Williams touring car team before making his first foray into Formula One with the Jordan Grand Prix team.
Initially at Jordan, Smedley worked as a data acquisition engineer, overviewing all of the telemetric data that was used by the team's race engineer to support the racing driver. During 2002 and 2003 he went on to be a track engineer for Jordan, before moving to the Ferrari test team at the end of the 2003 season. Smedley initially chose to work on the Ferrari test team because of the possibility to make more technical input, something which is more limited in the race team.
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