Former Williams engineer Rob Smedley will take up a consultancy role with Formula 1 following his recent departure from the Grove outfit.
Smedley, who is a well-known figure having worked closely with former Ferrari and Williams driver Felipe Massa, announced last year that he would be leaving the team, but was keen to remain involved in the sport.
It has now been confirmed that he will take up an "expert technical consultant" role with F1, helping to better communicate the technical side of the sport to the viewer, and will therefore likely work with the sport's digital platform, F1 TV.
"It’s about trying to get a coherent message [acorss] in terms of the technical side of Formula 1, " he explained to the official F1 website. "How the events unfolded, why people have made certain decisions, and putting that out across the various different platforms, and hopefully telling a better story of Formula 1. It’s about really bringing the inner beauty of Formula 1 to the viewer, to the fan."
Smedley said the decision to join F1, rather than seek employment with a team, came about after talking to F1's managing director of motorsports, Ross Brawn, who he worked with closely at Ferrari.
"In conversations with Ross, we were both of the opinion that there’s this really rich seam of technical content, of data, of the way that teams operate, that actually never gets told. And it’s part of the whole story that underpins Formula 1, which actually the paying public, the Formula 1 fan, never ever gets to see – or they get to see very little of it. So there’s an opportunity in front of us to put that together at some level.
"It’s well documented that I’d taken a decision to have a little bit of time away from the coalface in the teams," Smedley added. "But I still have a huge burning passion for Formula 1 and I hope that this is a way of me giving a little bit back to the sport, to explain what I’ve learnt over the last 20 years in Formula 1 as an engineer to the viewer; not only the technical side or the operational side, but the human side as well – of what it takes for all those women and men who work in Formula 1 and commit their lives to it."
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