Geoff Willis leaves Red Bull!

[VIVA GT]

According to this article: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/76804 Geoff Willis has left Red Bull Racing as "his job had become redundant"!.
Now I'm usually good at conspiratory theories, but I can't work this one out. Has anyone got any ideas?

[Sodemo]

*Waits for Manor, Campos, or USF1 to announce him as technical director*

[Super Hans]

Willis's main strength is said to be in maximising reliability. Perhaps they've decided the RBR is reliable enough.

[BootsOntheSide]

Adrian Newey's probably responsible for 90% of Red Bull's progress since he joined. Maybe he's involved on far more than aerodynamics?

[Yannick]

Originally Posted by Sodemo

*Waits for Manor, Campos, or USF1 to announce him as technical director*

And I had thought the technical directors of the new teams were Nick Wirth (Manor), Günther Steiner (USF1) and somebody from the Dallara factory staff (Campos).

[OZ_HCR32]

Yeh, as a fan of RBR i would rather of him stayed. As he was one of the guys recruited about the same time as AN to try and turn around the fortunes of the team...something the NEW team has succeeded with this season.

Imagine he will be snapped up in a heartbeat.

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by VIVA GT

According to this article: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/76804 Geoff Willis has left Red Bull Racing as "his job had become redundant"!.
Now I'm usually good at conspiratory theories, but I can't work this one out. Has anyone got any ideas?

So the job of 'technical director' at RBR is redundant. Obviously that set of updates for Silverstone was so good, they don't need to do any more work on the car and Geoff's no longer necessary. Moral of the story is don't do too good a job in F1 or you could make yourself redundant

He's obviously off somewhere else and when he told them, they showed him the door. Possibly back to Brawn.

[Flat12-Aircool]

Well if I remember rightly he helped to preside over Honda's abysmal post BAR period. So lets not talk the guy up too much.

[strider]

Originally Posted by davyboy

He's obviously off somewhere else and when he told them, they showed him the door. Possibly back to Brawn.

Hasn't Joerg Zander just left Brawn? I wondered why...

[maximus]

Originally Posted by Flat12-Aircool

Well if I remember rightly he helped to preside over Honda's abysmal post BAR period. So lets not talk the guy up too much.

No, I think they sacked him in 2006, just before the car came good. Then it all went wrong the following year!

[Mr V]

Originally Posted by Flat12-Aircool

Well if I remember rightly he helped to preside over Honda's abysmal post BAR period. So lets not talk the guy up too much.

He was there in 2004 when Jenson lost out only to Michael and Rubens in the Ferrari.

[Flat12-Aircool]

I'm not denying there were a few good periods when he was at BAR, but they're more than matched by a lot of abysmal years as well. My point is let's not talk the guy up into being something he's not.

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by Flat12-Aircool

I'm not denying there were a few good periods when he was at BAR, but they're more than matched by a lot of abysmal years as well. My point is let's not talk the guy up into being something he's not.

Its very difficult to know what was the ultimate root cause of the dark years of Honda/BAR but its very clear that when the Japanese management placed Shuhei Nakamoto as technical director over the top of Geoff Willis things were never the same again. Geoff Willis has a proven track record of being a formidable aerodynamicist, and given the authority and opportunity, is an excellent technical director too. He had a lot of friends at BAR/Honda who knew what really precipitated his departure, and now that those factors are no longer with Brawn, I would not be surprised to see him back.