F1 Engineer Headed to Stewart-Haas?
Be advised the headline is pure speculation, it’s what was called during my time in the U.S. Navy a SWAG, a Surface Warfare Wild-Assed Guess.
Regardless of his destination Autosport is reporting Steve Hallam, F1 McLaren’s head of race operations, is to leave the team at the end of this year to move to NASCAR.
Hallam is one of the most respected race engineers in Formula One, having worked with world champions, Nigel Mansell, Ayrton Senna and Mika Hakkinen.
“Since joining us in 1990, Steve has become a senior member of our track operations team, doing a fantastic job,” explained McLaren F1 CEO Martin Whitmarsh.
“He informed us of his decision to leave some time ago but, since he is totally professional, it goes without saying that we are entirely comfortable with his continuing his work with us until the end of the season.”
Hallam’s destination is unreported other than to indicate a position within Sprint Cup is waiting.
The Jay Frye to Stewart-Haas rumor has been shot full of holes with Red Bull resigning Frye to a new contract that does leave a hole Stewart-Haas must fill. But the above quote seems to rule that out if Mclaren knew of Hallam’s decision “sometime ago.”
With the Frye rumor in a flaming heap, times a wastin’, I’ll start another one.
With Red Bull’s F1 connection clearly evident it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility Hallam is headed for Red Bull’s Sprint Cup operation either as director of one of the two current teams or… a third with Scott Speed as the driver.
If that’s the case, remember, you read it here first.
If it’s not expect a visit from one of the Men in Black holding one of those memory eraser thingys.
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“Steve has become a senior member of our track operations team.”
I’ve never heard of a team losing a race due to the “track operations senior member” making a bad call, have you?
What equivalent position is this guy going to hold in a NASCAR operation? Your guess as going to a Red Bull team is probably correct, but like the recently exploded myth of open wheel racers doing well in the fender league, this won’t work out exceedingly well either.
I think you may of read it wrong, my contact are saying that is job is with NASCAR not with any team.
Tom Start - That may very well be true, my “contacts,” in addition to several news items haven’t given any indication to where he’s going other than the generic “NASCAR.”
And based on that, and clearly outlined in the first sentence of the post, I was speculating.