AT&T Williams F1

Meet Jon Tomlinson, our Chief Aerodynamicist, and therefore the man in charge of our cars' aero package. A relative newcomer to the team, Jon's appointment was part of Williams' technical reinforcement which took place in 2006.


PERSONAL
Age: 35
Star sign: Capricorn
Start date at Williams F1? November 2006

Previous jobs in F1: Deputy Head of Aerodynamics at RenaultF1.

Why Williams F1? I wanted to run a team's aerodynamic department and that's what Williams offered me. I wouldn't have taken the job with any team and it's great to work here. Racing is what it's all about at Williams.

The best thing about working at Williams F1? The contact with Frank and Patrick. That’s a complete change to anything I’ve been involved with in the past. Frank knows the name of everyone in the aerodynamics department and he’s very interested in what’s going on. It’s a great source of motivation to us all.

Hobbies? When I’m not in the office, I like to spend as much time as possible with my family. I have a stepdaughter, who’s almost 12, and a son who's currently 18 months old. I don’t see them much during the week, so my hobbies usually revolve around them.

Football or rugby? I like rugby and have followed Northampton Saints for a few years. My stepdaughter plays rugby for the under 12s, so my Sunday mornings every other week are spent watching her.

PROFESSIONAL
Describe your working year: We finished the launch specification of the current car, the FW30, in November '07 and we immediately began working on an aerodynamic upgrade for Melbourne. The cut-off time for that was mid-February, since when we've been working on upgrades that will be introduced throughout the year.

How will you prepare for the aerodynamic rule changes in 2009? We started work on that car earlier than normal. We did our first windtunnel test for '09 at the beginning of January, in which we looked to see what happens to the flow condition with the new wings and we did a few parametric-based studies. Since March, we've had one tunnel working full time on next year's car.

How often do you use Williams' two wind tunnels? We run '24-7' in one tunnel and while that sounds tough, it’s not too bad. We don’t have aerodynamicists working throughout the night; we have a rigid run list that is operated at night by technicians. There’s a seven-hour period during the night that isn’t covered by an aerodynamicist.

What are the main aspects of your job? There are two sides to my job: man management and the technical management of the programmes. I split myself 60:40 between those areas. Although I’m not sat in the windtunnel all the time, I always look at the data that comes through because I can then make technical decisions about what direction we go with the car.

The FIA wants to limit windtunnel usage. Is that right? I don’t think the FIA has any right to interfere with what we do as a company because it’s up to us how we go about our business. They have every right to restrict regulations and the design of the car and how we test and run it at the track. But they shouldn’t interfere with our day-to-day running.

(Jon Tomlinson - far left, talking to Ed Wood and Adam Parr).