F1 Retro – April 2015

Some Formula One designers are like rock stars. They soak up all the praise and attention, as well as the wins and trophies. Chapman, Murray and Newey come to mind. Others, despite their incredible achievements, keep a low profile: Gordon Coppuck is such an engineering genius.

It has been 50 years since Emerson Fittipaldi, the only man in history to design cars that won both the F1 world championship and Indianapolis in the same year, and his first grand prix victory with the McLaren M23.

Much of Coppuck’s success came with McLaren, helped by its recent resurgence, and he reminisces about those happy years in an April 2015 interview with Motor Sport.

In the mid-1960s, Coppuck was a young illustrator at the National Gas Turbine Establishment when it was announced that his colleague Robin Herd was leaving to become McLaren’s chief designer. It didn’t take long for Herd to invite Coppuck to join him.

“Robin and Bruce McLaren designed the designs, I did the drawings and the mechanics built the cars,” Coppuck recalls. “It was an absolute thrill.”

The team, shaken by Bruce’s death in 1970, continued to struggle.

“I’ve learned so much from the people around me since I joined in ’65 – from Bruce to the day he died,” Coppuck says. “To win just eight years after working with Robin was incredible.”

To read the full story, visit:
motorsportmagazine.com/archive