6 replies to this topic

[kodandaram]

The chap got famous as a good aerodynamicist at the erstwhile Stewart - team . Then when Gary Anderson came into Stewart from Jordan , Hamidy and Gary didn't get along and soon Hamidy left .

He then went to Arrows where using their 60% windtunnel he built some really slippery cars . His 2000 Arrows car was mega in a straight line . I remember David Coulthard struggling to get past Pedro De La Rosa at the USGP 2000 . In fact Jos Verstappen was running fourth at indy 2000 before he made a mistake and spun off . The Arrows which was running supertec engines ( they were not really the best supertecs - the best ones of course went to Benetton managed by Flavio ) was able to keep Z hard charging Zonta at bay for much of the race at Monza in 2000 . Zonta had works Honda engine - arguably the third best engine that year . Indeed there were times when the Arrows car was consistently quick in a straight line and topped speed traps at most circuits . Hamidy moved on again to JOrdan in 2001 and again he built an aggressive looking car . The car was again quick in a a straight line but overall JOrdan were disappointed . I think he left Jordan even before the season began because Eddie JOrdan had re-hired Gary Anderson ....

I think this was a case of a great engineer driven out of f1 - just like Sergio Rinland ...

[WACKO]

I remember Hamidy made a mess of the 2002 Jordan and was released shortly afterwards. It was not a very happy situation for Jordan back then who saw his team collapse from solid subtop to backmarker status. He fired Frentzen, sponsors left and Honda would leave a short while later. Hamidy's organization of design was not particularly healthy, so I think he was very much overrated when he left Arrows. It was actually people like Mike Coughlan who drove the design of the 2000 Arrows.

[DerChef]

Famous for slow and not very bonnie cars if I remember correctly

He was part of the Jordan revolving door with technical staff from 2000 on.


Eddie must have been the "David Brent" of F1 bosses to work for

[vroom-vroom]

Hamidy? Slippy cars on straights - and corners too, unfortunatelly

[Chubby_Deuce]

"Fast on the straight" is another way of saying "lacks downforce".

[Svenko Wankerov]

The problem with Hamidy's cars was that F1 only races on 1/3 of an oval.

[FredF1]

I can't remember where I read it but...

There were rumours at the time Hamidy left Jordan that he'd deliberately designed illegal components to force EJ into sacking him, possibly something to do with the front wing endlates. I think it was Gary Anderson who said something like "The second the scrutineers would have spotted them, we'd have been thrown out of the meeting."

In mitigation, EJ had a habit of talking up the position/facilities/budget at Jordan only for new recruits to get a rude awakening on arrival at the Jordan factory - hence so many new hires leaving again so soon.