Eghbal Hamidy used to work in the old Williams quarter-scale wind tunnel in the 1980s, hard by the giant cooling towers of Didcot power station. He and Chris Saunders (who is now at Lola) would work away with beautifully built scale models, analysing data and reporting directly to Patrick Head.

Then, when Adrian Newey joined Williams, midway through ’90, it was Eghbal and Adrian who worked the tunnel at Williams – the new 50% tunnel – thus forming the most explosive aerodynamic combination of all time, if we had but known it then.

With Patrick still in charge as director of engineering, Williams at that time had it all – and it showed. In ’92, with active-ride now reliable, Nigel Mansell broke virtually every book in the book. The car was as good aerodynamically as it was mechanically; and the Renault engine was a third, equal component. It was, looking back, the ultimate Formula One car. No surprise that some of its lap records still stand today.

Adrian moved on, attracted by the money and long term security of McLaren-Mercedes. And ten, looking for more responsibility, so did Eghbal. He joined Stewart in mid-96 as chief aerodynamicist. Things moved slowly at first. The ’98 car was a derivative of its predecessor, plus a few more problems. For ’99 Hamidy put together a totally new aerodynamic precept. Days turned into weeks as ‘packaging’ became the catchword and his relationship with Cosworth grew. Engine parameters were redefined as the shape was conceptualised and honed in the Swift 50% wind tunnel in California.

The result was the ’99 Stewart, a car that finished in the points first time out, led its second race, took a pole, three podiums and then a one-three in Germany. It wasn’t particularly reliable, which was in turn a function of its rapid development, but it was a quick and beautifully packaged car – ultra competitive in the wet, the semi-wet and the dry.

Logically, Eghbal should have stayed on at Stewart and then at Jaguar, continuing the upward graph. It all changed, however, when Gary Anderson arrived at Stewart from Jordan, via Arrows, as Stewart’s new director of engineering. It wasn’t an ego thing; Eghbal doesn’t have an ego in the F1 sense of the word. It was a logical thing.

Johnny Herbert on the way to Stewart's first win in the Hamidy designed SF-3.

He had been trying to persuade Stewart for months that they should build their own 50% wind tunnel in England. California was too remote. Stewart agreed – then changed their mind at the last minute. There were other problems too. Anderson is of the ‘I take complete responsibility’ school Eghbal, a pragmatist, believed that the aerodynamics department should be run as Newey runs it at McLaren – as the Guiding force of the design as a whole. Frustrated, Hamidy resigned from Stewart in December ’98, one month after Anderson’s arrival. He never saw the new car race.

Over the next few months, Hamidy stayed at home, waiting for the phone to ring. Plenty of teams showed an interest in him – Ferrari in particular. Eghbal flew to Italy to meet Ross Brawn, Rory Byrne and their aerodynamicist, the Greek Nicholas Tombazis. Hamidy was impressed, particularly with the 50% wind tunnel, but Ferrari appeared to be a team with too much middle layer. “Who are all these people and what are they doing?” he would ask himself on the flights home. Years spent with Patrick Head had taught him that the only way to run an F1 team was through a straight line from the top. Ferrari, it seemed, always had back-up personnel for insurance, preventing them from doing anything drastically wrong. Doing something right, under those circumstances, would be almost impossible.

Arrows, another team who approached him, were by contrast well structured and well equipped. The 60% Dearon tunnel they ran in Bedfors had possibly the best airline he’d ever seen. And their facilities, overall, were outstanding – far superior to Stewart’s. If they could do what they did at Stewart, then it was almost impossible to understand why Arrows weren’t much further up the grid. There was a challenge working at Arrows, an opportunity to put things right.

The deal was swung by Ferrari. Arrows’ director of engineering, Mike Coughlan, increased his offer. In response, Ferrari balked. The problem wasn’t the money: the problem was giving Eghbal more power, more control than Ferrari’s incumbent – and, thus, creating political aggravation. Ron Denis easily solved that problem at McLaren, when he hired Adrian Newey to work alongside Henri Durand, but things work differently at Ferrari. Ferrari are bureaucratic; McLaren, and others, are linear.

The 2000 Arrows A21 was built and designed in double-quick time. Testing was confined to a minimum; the drivers started the year blind. Yet, right from the start, in Melbourne, Pedro de la Rosa was able to show the car’s pace. In Brazil, in a nice touch of irony, Jos Verstappen’s ever-growing presence caused Jaguar’s new superstar, Eddie Irvine, to leave the road.

Eghbal's Career Stats
Born	1st August 1960
	Shiraz, Iran
	Degree in aeronautical engineering at Imperial College, London
1988	Senior aerodynamicist at Williams GP
1996	Head of aerodynamics, Stewart GP
1999	Chief designer, Arrows F1

And so it went on, the A21 proving quick on slow circuits and fast. The Arrows flew in a straight line at Montreal and Hockenheim, even with the choice Supertecs beginning to go Benetton’s way, and Hamidy’s name began to gain currency at both ends of the pitlane. The new faces at Jaguar were particularly flattering: ”Great job, Ehgbal.” “Sorry you left us, Eghbal.” Of an offer to rejoin, though, there was no sign. It hadn’t worked with Gary Anderson – and there was no reason to think that the friction would fade in time.

Eddie Jordan, though, was a different story. Two of Eddie’s key players – Gary Anderson, director of engineering, and John Davis, head of research and development – had been lured away by Tom Walkinshaw over the last 12 months (Anderson’s spell at Arrows was short-lived; he subsequently left to join Stewart/Jaguar). Then, just before the French Grand Prix, Mike Gascoyne announced he would be working out the term of his Jordan contract through to the middle of 2001, after which he would join Benetton. Eddie thus rightfully felt no shame at beginning talks with Eghbal. Mike would leave and Eghbal would join, give or take a month or two. The timing would be perfect.

For Hamidy it was a difficult decision. Arrows had provided him with a new start after the disappointment of Stewart. When all they needed was stability, though, Arrows were switching from Supertec to the new Peugeot-based AMT engine. Eghbal felt pretty good about that: his old Williams colleague and friend Enrique Scalabroni was ehind the new project, which meant that there was a very good chance it would succeed. From Jordan, meanwhile, there was a wholly different perspective: they now had the full factory support of Honda, a company who are only beginning to scratch the surface of what they can achieve third time around in F1.

So Eghbal signed and Eddie Jordan pulled off what may be remembered as the coup of the 2000 swap season. If Adrian Newey announced tomorrow that he was sick of McLaren and would work for the highest bidder, it’s a good bet that Ferrari would start at something around \$10 million and move upwards. Yet when the chance came for Ferrari to sign Eghbal Hamidy – indeed when the chance came for Jaguar to re-sign him – both of them hesitated.

And Eddie Jordan, opportunist that he is, swooped in for the kill.