Gérard Ducarouge

Ducarouge in 1991

**Gérard Ducarouge** (born 3 October 1941) is a French Formula One designer and engineer.

## Career

Ducarouge, like many other designers, had a background in aeronautical engineering. He graduated from college with a Baccalauréat Technique et Mathématique and later earned a Degre Superieur from the École Nationale Technique d'Aéronautique.

After finishing college, he joined Nord Aviation in 1964, where he worked on a variety of missile projects. However, he became restless and applied for a technician position at Matra Racing in December 1965. This was shortly after Matra-Sports was founded, and Ducarouge began working on their Formula 3 programme, as well as improving their Formula 2 cars, beginning in 1966. He worked his way up the organization's ranks to become head of operations, where he designed the Ford Cosworth *DFV*-powered Matra MS10 and Matra MS80 cars, the latter of which won the 1969 Formula One World Championship with Jackie Stewart. Ducarouge later designed the Matra MS670 car, which won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1972, 1973, and 1974. It also awarded Matra the World Championship for Makes in 1973 and 1974. Matra announced their withdrawal from racing at the end of 1974.

Ducarouge resigned shortly afterwards to join Guy Ligier's new Formula One team in Vichy, near Gerard's hometown of Paray-le-Monial. He began work on Ligier's entrant for the 1976 season, the JS5, which retained Matra's 3-litre V12 engine and SEITA Gitanes brand sponsorship. At the 1977 Swedish Grand Prix, the team won its first Grand Prix. Victories would follow throughout the 1979 season. In 1981, a revised Matra V12 was installed in the latest Liger chassis, and with Talbot's support, it appeared that the team would be contenders for the constructor's championship. However, Guy Ligier fired Ducarouge abruptly in the middle of the season.

He quickly accepted an offer to join the Alfa Romeo team, where he convinced them to build his first carbon fibre chassis. Despite this and other innovations introduced by Ducarouge, Alfa Romeo failed to meet increasingly high expectations. Ducarouge was blamed and dismissed following the 1983 French Grand Prix's first qualifying session, in which Andrea de Cesaris was disqualified for driving an underweight car.

He was not to be out of work for long, as Peter Warr of Team Lotus pursued Ducarouge. Lotus had suffered a severe decline in fortunes following their dominant 1978 campaign, which culminated in the death of their founder Colin Chapman in December 1982. Following extensive persuasion, Ducarouge joined the team after the 1983 Belgian Grand Prix. He immediately began work on the Type 94T, which was designed and built in five weeks and contributed to some success for the rest of the 1983 season. Team Lotus underwent a major restructuring under Ducarouge, which culminated in a significant revival of the team's fortunes from 1984 to 1987. In 1984, Ducarouge's next Lotus, the 95T, was widely regarded as the best handling chassis of the season, with Elio de Angelis finishing third in the Drivers' Championship despite failing to win a race and teammate Nigel Mansell finishing tenth. Despite having a consistent season and finishing in the points in the first ten races, de Angelis fell far behind the dominant McLaren-TAGs of 1984 World Champion Niki Lauda and his teammate Alain Prost. The still-born Lotus 96T Indy Car featured the innovative use of lightweight aluminium foil honeycomb in the chassis, replacing the previous nomex construction. The ability to gain strength without sacrificing weight became a defining feature of subsequent Lotus Formula 1 chassis.

Ayrton Senna joined Ducarouge at Lotus to begin the 1985 season. Senna won his first race in a Ducarouge Lotus 97T at the Portuguese Grand Prix, which took place in torrential Estoril. This win was to be the first of seven, culminating in a 1987 victory in Detroit. His Lotus 99T, which debuted in 1987, was the first Formula One car to feature computer-controlled active suspension. Also, after four seasons with the turbocharged Renault V6 engine, the 99T would switch to the powerful Honda V6 turbo. Senna, growing increasingly dissatisfied with Lotus' ability to construct a championship-winning car, would unkindly refer to the 99T by the end of the season as nothing more than a 98T (the team's 1986 car) with a Honda engine instead of a Renault. The 99T was also visually larger than its competitors from Williams, Ferrari, and McLaren.

Senna would depart for McLaren at the start of the 1988 season, leaving Ducarouge to develop and race the much-anticipated landmark Lotus 100T. Despite using the same turbocharged Honda V6 engines as McLaren, the 100T finished third, while McLaren won a record 14 of the season's 16 races, giving Ayrton Senna his first World Championship. The major flaws of the 100T (driven in 1988 by former World Champion Nelson Piquet and Japanese driver Satoru Nakajima) were allegedly attributed to incorrect aerodynamic data gathered during testing at Comtec, as well as the chassis being described as "jelly on springs" and not rigid enough to handle the abrupt power delivery of Honda's 650 bhp (485 kW; 659 PS) engine.

Ducarouge left Lotus to return to France and accept an offer from the Larrousse team. He co-developed the Lola chassis with Chris Murphy (who would later join Lotus for the 1992 season), but results were mixed, with Larrousse using the somewhat unreliable Lamborghini V12 engine. In 1991, he re-joined Liger.

## Formula One experience

 1976–1981
 1982–1983
 1983
 1991–present | Équipe Ligier/Ligier–Prost | Technical Director