Farewell to Peter Wright, the pioneer of ground effect in Formula 1. Peter Wright, pioneering aerodynamicist and designer of the Lotus 79, has died at 79.

The brilliant British engineer, who for many years was responsible for the FIA Safety Commission, has died at the age of 79. Peter was the aerodynamicist who studied ground effect, experimenting with the concept in a wind tunnel on the BRM P142. That F1 car never raced, but the ideas were later adopted by Lotus, winning the 1978 world championship with Mario Andretti.

Formula 1 loses another major figure: Peter Wright, the British aerodynamic engineer and ground effect pioneer, passed away at 79, having had the full support of technical director Tony Rudd.

The first car to actually use ground effect was the Chaparral 2J, Jim Hall’s Group 7 car that raced in Can-Am in 1970, which sucked air through Venturi tunnels with two rear fans, anticipating the concept that Gordon Murray later applied in 1979 with the Brabham BT46B-Alfa Romeo, the F1 car with which Niki Lauda won the Swedish GP before the solution was banned.

Few know, however, that Wright, a great expert in aerodynamics, had already envisioned an F1 car with downforce in 1969. Peter was at BRM and had studied the P142, intended to be a revolutionary car, far ahead of its time. The P142, in truth, remained a ghost car that never appeared on track, as only rare images exist of a model studied in a wind tunnel, and a chassis was never built.

The correct concepts were later realized by Peter and Tony Rudd at Lotus. The two exceptional engineers had left BRM before the end of 1969, so the anachronistic F1 car, with its large body rather than the usual cigar shapes, was parked and forgotten.

Tony Rudd went to Lotus, having been recognized by Colin Chapman for his talent, to work on the car, while Peter Wright went to March to handle the aerodynamics of Robin Herd’s 701, a car that already showed rudimentary wing-like side pods. Rudd was only called to the Lotus racing team in 1976, and Peter joined him there. It was inevitable that they would revisit the concepts that had remained dormant for so many years.

The first “wing car” was the Lotus 78, which debuted in 1977 and began the 1978 season with a total of seven victories. It was nicknamed the wing car because its side pods contained true wing profiles, exploiting the Venturi effect.

Wright also introduced the first rudimentary skirts to create a lateral seal and increase downforce, but the first true ground effect car was the Lotus 79, which added sliding rigid skirts to the Venturi tunnels, ensuring a perfect lateral seal. The increased vertical load allowed the 79 to use wings with lower drag. From the Belgian GP, Mario Andretti switched to the more advanced Lotus and won the drivers’ championship, delivering the constructors’ title to Chapman and Ronnie Peterson.

Together with Adrian Newey, Wright can be considered one of the greatest interpreters of ground effect. He was also among the pioneers of active suspension later used in F1: in 1983, at Lotus Engineering, he began studying how vehicle dynamics could be electronically controlled.

From 1994, he left the F1 circus to take on a key role in the FIA technical department, where he served for many years as head of the Safety Commission.