Sam Michael

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Sam Michael is technical director of WilliamsF1, a Formula One constructor. He was born on April 29, 1971 in Western Australia and grew up in Canberra. After studying Mechanical Engineering at the University of New South Wales with a thesis on data acquisition systems for racing cars, he worked with the Formula Holden team. The team owner, Gregg Siddle, employed him on a part-time basis so that Michael could continue his studies.

He broke into Formula One at the age of 22 after Siddle mentioned him to Lotus boss, Peter Collins.

Team Lotus went bust (bankrupt) in 1994 and Gary Anderson, the chief designer at Jordan Grand Prix, took Michael on. He established the team's research and development department. He spent two years working in the Jordan factory on data acquisition. He also installed a seven-post rig for simulating suspension movement and designing an active differential.

In 1997, Michael joined the Jordan test team. In 1998 he was promoted to race engineer for Ralf Schumacher. When the German departed to go to Williams, Michael inherited Heinz-Harald Frentzen in 1999. The Michael/Frentzen partnership was particularly successful, resulting in a finely-judged win at the French Grand Prix at Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, and then again at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

In 2001, Sir Frank Williams brought Michael to Williams as Senior Operations Engineer. He took over the responsibility of managing the engineers at races and tests.

In May 2004, Michael was promoted to Technical Director of Williams, when Patrick Head moved sideways to head the team's research and development division.