Who is Purnell?

Tony Purnell was announced as the new head of Ford's Premier Performance Division today, replacing Niki Lauda. Who is he? I hear you ask... well read on to find out all about him.

Although preferring a low public profile, Anthony (Tony) Purnell (44) has an extensive level of experience at the very top level of international motor sports and has a passion for the sport flowing through his veins.

In both a private and professional capacity, he has attended various grands prix for the past 20 years, over a three-year span visited every Indy Car race and has complemented this with visits to Formula Three, Formula 3000 and World Rally championship encounters.

With a CV that spans over 20 years in both academic and practical aspects of race car design, Purnell is perhaps best known in the business world as the founder of Pi Research. Started in the basement of his house in Cambridge, UK, this innovative company created what was, at the time, revolutionary wind tunnel controls and instrumentation before developing a 'black box' for Formula One cars. This system was the first data logger and electronic instrumentation console and amongst its innovations was displaying results against distance rather than time.

From those small beginnings, Pi Research has grown into a global electronics business with an impressive track record in both the general automotive and motor sport business, and is now an integral part of Premier Performance Division of Ford Motor Company - alongside Cosworth Racing and Jaguar Racing.

Purnell showed an early interest in motor sport when he started racing karts while still at school. From here, he joined the engineering company GKN as an apprentice and the firm was quick to spot his potential and he enrolled at the University of Manchester [UMIST] on a GKN Scholarship to study Mechanical Engineering and Metallurgy.

The top student in all three years of his studies, Purnell left Manchester with a degree - plus a Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences. In between, he found the time to sustain his interest in all levels of motor sport by winning Club rallies as a co-driver.

Purnell also continued to enjoy academic success, receiving a JF Kennedy Scholarship to the world-renowned Harvard University of Boston, Massachusetts, USA, and the neighbouring Massachusetts Institute of Technology [MIT]. Following his American studies, Purnell gained a Master's Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Material Science and Aerodynamics. His thesis, titled 'Aerodynamic Aspects of F1 Car Design,' contained material, which for 1982 can be considered pretty visionary - including lap time simulation, a study of computational fluid dynamics and aerodynamic stability and the importance of electronics in the sport.

Purnell then crossed back over the Atlantic (something he would later repeat on over 200 further occasions during his career) to undertake a research scholarship at Cambridge University - where he continued his studies into race car air flow.

While at Cambridge, Purnell acted as a consultant to the Newman-Haas Racing team and built a set of wind tunnel instrumentation for Lola and the FORCE F1 team, working with Ross Brawn and Nigel Bennett. The Lola T8900 Indy Car was one project on which Purnell worked during his time at the company - a car that quickly became recognised as the best Indy car of 1989, due in no small part to its aerodynamic design.

Building on this impressive level experience, Purnell then created Pi Research. Over the following 12 years the company won four 'business of the year' awards - including one from the Financial Times and an SAE Award for Engineering Excellence, among many others. Pi also consolidated its general automotive portfolio, which now sees its software running in one out of four tracks in North America.

But Purnell has never forgotten his passion for 'grass roots' motor sport. During this time, he has supported young drivers Lewis Hamilton and Anthony Davidson during their kart racing campaigns; and purely through personal enthusiasm and interest rather than any hard-nosed, business-driven decision.

Purnell has also set up a Scholarship to enable talented under-privileged children to receive the best in education - the Harvey Trust - named after the late Harvey Postlewaite, with whom Purnell worked on the Tyrrell F1 team's technical steering committee and during the set-up of the Honda HRD F1 venture.

Purnell was also invited by TonyKart to be part of a team running Michael Schumacher at the finale of the European Karting Championships in 2001.

Achieving Ford Preferred Status in 1998 for software development, Pi Research was bought by Ford Motor Company one year later and now sits within the prestigious, engineering focussed group of companies that comprise the Premier Performance Division.