The MIA School of Race Engineering attracts world-leading race engineering tutors.
Check back for new tutor updates!
Tutors for November 2024 include:
Ciaron Pilbeam Technical Director ‑ Performance
Ciaron has a wealth of experience in race engineering, having worked as a Race Engineer in F1 for over 15 years. In that time he has worked for five different F1 teams, including the likes of BAR Honda, Red Bull Racing, Lotus F1 Team, McLaren Racing and now Alpine F1 Team. He has been the Head of Trackside Engineering, where he managed both driver’s trackside engineering teams and helps to make decisions on set-up, strategy and tyre management. Ciaron has recently been promoted to Technical Director (Performance) at BWT Alpine F1 Team.
James Knapton - Head of Performance Analysis
James Knapton has enjoyed a rich career in Formula 1. He has worked for 7 different F1 teams including Jordan Grand Prix, Midland F1 and Spyker F1 and has been Head of Vehicle Science at Force India, Sauber, Manor Racing and Red Bull Advanced Technologies where he worked on the Aston Martin Valkyrie project. James is now working as Head of Performance Analysis for Andretti Cadillac.
Guillaume Ducreux - Race Strategy Analyst
Guillaume joined Alpine F1 Team as a full-time Strategy Engineer, assisting car strategists in simulations before progressing to the role of car strategist. Guillaume now works at Oracle Red Bull Racing as a Race Strategy Analyst.
Mark Preston - Motorsports Director
With a degree in Mechanical Engineering, Mark joined Arrows Grand Prix and McLaren F1 before creating the Super Aguri F1 team with Honda, in just 100 days. Mark recently delivered five ABB FIA Formula E (World Championship) Teams and Drivers Championship and is the most successful Team Principal in Formula E. Mark’s new role at Lola Cars is to build the future of this iconic racing brand. They will focus on new “energy carriers” being developed for powertrains of the future with three pillars of battery electric, hydrogen and synthetic fuels.
Simon Dickinson - Track Support Engineer
As part of Goodyear's Track Support Team Simon has worked in multiple championships with many varieties of car, ranging from historic Minis to contemporary Le Mans Prototypes. He has provided support to Goodyear's customers, advising on tyre management, strategy, and setup to optimise tyre durability and performance.
Faheem Ud-din - Analysis Engineer
Faheem has been at Xtrac for just over two years, joining in 2022 after leaving his previous graduate role in the Nuclear Industry. Faheem is involved in a multitude of projects. As an Analysis Engineer at Xtrac, he is involved with all types of products across the business. Track-day only cars, high performance automotive (HPA) and motorsport are all sectors where he is involved in, typically by designing gears and performing structural analysis.
Geri Nicosia - Design Engineer
Geri joined Xtrac in 2019 as a placement student before returning full-time in 2021. Since then, he has worked on a large variety of our motorsport products, however primarily focus on our Sportscar (WEC) and Touring Car (BTCC) installations. Geri has also been involved in the design and development of our latest electric shift actuator which has now successfully completed its first full season within the IndyCar series. Alongside this he has also carried out a track support role within the BTCC since 2022, attending all official TOCA Race and Testing events.
Race Engineer
Craig Porley - Race Engineer
Craig’s motorsport experience stretches to nearly 20 years. Starting off as a composite technician back in 2004, Craig moved to Xtrac as an R&D Engineer and then Red Bull Racing as a Test Engineer where he ran programs on chassis, suspension and aerodynamic components. Alongside his full time work, Craig has also been a Senior Data Engineer, winning the 2011 FIA GT1 drivers championship, and a Race Engineer for several BTCC teams where he won the independent drivers and team title in 2019. Now, he race engineers for Laser Tools Racing with WSR in BTCC and has set up his own engineering consultancy.
Deputy Technical Director
Dominic Harlow - Deputy Technical Director
Dominic is part of the engineering team at the FIA who are developing F1 regulations. He has also worked for BMW in DTM, Williams F1 and Force India as well as other leading Race Engineering roles.
Race Engineer
Geoff Dymott - Race Engineer
Geoff has worked for Williams Racing for over 20 years in a variety of roles including Vehicle Dynamics, Race / Test Data Engineer and Senior Performance Engineer. Starting his own consultancy in 2019, Geoff has also been a Race Engineer in British F4, Porsche Carrera Cup GB for Richardson Racing and more recently Century Motorsport in British GT.
Race Driver
Callum Cripps - Race Driver
Callum has been involved in motorsport since he was ten years old, racing in numerous karting championships before he moved to car racing in 2015. Since then, he has been behind the wheel of a variety of racecars including a Ginetta GT5, Clio Cup, Formula Renault, GT and even NASCAR. In 2019 he finished 5th in the EuroNASCAR championship with 50% podium finishes throughout the season. He is also an official simulator driver for Radicals Online.
Graduate Aero Performance Engineer
Michael Leonard - Graduate Aero Performance Engineer
Michael joined Andretti Racing as an Aero Performance Engineer in 2023 after graduating from Loughborough University with MEng Automotive Engineering. During this time he worked for Racing Point and Aston Martin Formula 1 Team for a total of 18months - spending time in Aerodynamics, R&D and Vehicle Performance.
Junior Wind Tunnel Engineer and Trackside Engineer
Rohin Bakrania - Junior Wind Tunnel Engineer and Trackside Engineer
Rohin Bakrania started his motorsport career at Oxford Brookes University, completing a Masters in Motorsport Engineering. In 2022 Rohin attended the MIA School of Race Engineering to further enhance his motorsport knowledge and network. He now works for Red Bull Racing as a Junior Wind Tunnel Engineer and during the weekends he works as trackside support in the Porsche Carrera Cup Championship.
Motorsport Customer Support Engineer
Tom Harris - Motorsport Customer Support Engineer
Following a degree in Automotive Engineering from Oxford Brookes, Tom joined Cummins Diesel Engines as a Service Engineer followed by a period working for Royal Enfield in chassis design. Looking to satisfy his need to work in connection with the Motorsport industry, he joined AP Racing as a Race Account Engineer, a role that is a mix of Project Management, Finance, Engineering and Customer Support. Tom’s role now centres around getting our Race customers what they need, when they need it, as well as supporting customers with the continuous development of their braking and clutch assemblies through trackside support at both tests and race weekends.
Tyre Science Engineer
Antonis Palaskas - Tyre Science Engineer
Antonis Palaskas holds a diploma in Mechanical Engineering from Greece and a masters in Motorsport Engineering from Oxford Brookes university. Currently, he works as Tyre Science engineer in the Vehicle Dynamics department of Williams Racing F1. In my previous job he was a Tyre Engineer for Jaguar TCS Racing in the Formula E championship.
Race Engineer
Rob Sharp - Race Engineer
Rob has worked as a Data and Race Engineer in a number of championships including WEC, Carrera Cup, BTCC and British GT. He joined Multimatic in 2021 as a Vehicle Dynamics Engineer where he operated the Kinematic and Compliance Rig as well as the 4 Post Rig and Driver in the Loop Simulator. In 2023 left Multimatic and is now a race engineer in GTWC and WEC.
Many more still to be announced!
As a graduate of the MIA School of Race Engineering
On successful completion of the course, you will be awarded an industry-recognised certificate of completion from the MIA School of Race Engineering.
Delivered by
Kindly Supported by
Media Partners
