Simtek (Simulation Technology) was an engineering consultancy firm and Formula One racing team. The Formula One (F1) engineering consultancy arm, Simtek Research, was founded in 1989 by Max Mosley and Nick Wirth. It originally was involved in many areas of Formula One, including wind tunnel construction and chassis building for third parties. Simtek Grand Prix, the racing team, was launched in 1993 and competed in the 1994 and 1995 seasons, achieving a best result of ninth place. With large debts and a lack of sponsorship money, Simtek went into voluntary liquidation in June 1995.

Simtek Research was founded in August 1989 by Nick Wirth, Max Mosley and Donald Hughes, aiming to provide a cost-effective design, research and development service to the highest possible standards. The company was initially based out of an office in Wirth's home with one employee, engineer Darren Davis. The company grew quickly and moved to its own facility, including a windtunnel, on the Acres Industrial Estate in Banbury, Oxfordshire. Simtek's clients included the FIA, F1 constructors Ligier and numerous Formula 3000 and Indycar teams.

In 1990 Simtek designed a Formula One car for BMW who were making plans to found a works team. The project was aborted, and BMW instead entered the German Touring Car Championship (Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft) in 1991, the BMW 3 Series cars being run by Simtek engineers. The BMW F1 car design was revived, updated and sold to Andrea Moda Formula to compete in the 1992 season. In 1992, after becoming president of the FIA, Mosley sold his share in Simtek to Wirth.

In 1993, Simtek were commissioned to design a car for the new Bravo F1 team, but the plans were scrapped after the sudden death of Bravo's project backer, Jean-François Mosnier.

1994

In August 1993, Nick Wirth took the decision to enter Formula One with his own team for the 1994 season. Triple world champion Jack Brabham became a shareholder in Simtek Grand Prix, and his son David Brabham was signed as a driver before the end of 1993. Andrea de Cesaris and Gil de Ferran, both carrying sponsorship money, were initially considered for the second seat but negotiations broke down.

Frenchman Jean-Marc Gounon was also considered, but already had commitments for the start of the season so eventually 33-year-old F1 rookie Roland Ratzenberger took the place. Charlie Moody, a former Leyton House manager, was appointed Simtek's team manager.

The company secured customer Ford HB V8 engines from Cosworth, and prior to the season starting, MTV Europe stepped in as title sponsors. Wirth's initial design for the 1994 race car included active suspension, a technology used by Williams to win both the drivers and constructors championships in 1992 and 1993. However, active suspension was banned prior to the start of the 1994 season, and so Simtek were forced to revert to a more conservative design, named the S941. This design was heavy, initially included a fully manual gearbox compared to the semi-automatics being used by the frontrunning teams and the Ford HB engine was less powerful than the engines being used by the front-runners.

The company employed 35 people, the fewest of any team competing in Formula One during 1994, and only 10% of the number employed by Scuderia Ferrari.

These deficits showed at the first race of the 1994 season.

After a challenging debut season the team finished with no world championship points but, convinced that Simtek could do better, Wirth decided to continue the Grand Prix programme.

s941

1994

The Simtek S941 is a Formula One car, designed by Nick Wirth and Paul Crooks for the Simtek team, and used during 1994 Formula One season. Although it was the first car to race under the Simtek name the company had previously designed an unbuilt car for BMW - the unbuilt design formed the basis of the Andrea Moda S921.

Simtek also produced a design for Jean Mosnier's abortive Bravo S931 project which was to have launched in 1993. There is a strong family resemblance between the 1992 Andrea Moda and the 1994 Simtek.

The car was named S941, S refers to the team's name, 94, the year that competed and 1 for Formula One.

The car was powered by a naturally aspirated Ford HBD 6 V8. It was underpowered, but only suffered three failures all season, all in David Brabham's car.

The S941 was driven by David Brabham for the whole season. Roland Ratzenberger was scheduled to drive the second car for the first five races, as he only had funding for the first part of the season, but his death at Imola the day before 3-time World Champion Ayrton Senna meant other drivers had to step in. Andrea Montermini was involved in a very serious accident at his very first race with the team in the Spanish Grand Prix practice session. This left the team in serious financial difficulties. For the remaining part of the year, three other drivers were in the second seat, including Jean-Marc Gounon, Domenico Schiattarella and Japanese pay driver Taki Inoue.

The team got the Simtek S941 home 12 times from 32 starts. They benefited from the slowness of the Simtek's back-of-the-grid rival Pacific PR01, which rarely qualified. The Simtek S941 did not score any points in its debut season.

1995

MTV Europe's sponsorship commitment was reduced for the 1995 season, but they remained title sponsors to the team. Rather than money, MTV paid Simtek with airtime on their television channel. This airtime was then sold by Simtek to its other sponsors for them to show commercials. Cosworth again supplied engines to the team, with the more up-to-date Ford ED. These were combined with former Benetton gearboxes and Wirth designed a new chassis, the S951.

David Brabham was made an offer by BMW to race in the British Touring Car Championship, and accepted. He was replaced by Jos Verstappen, who was seeking more experience after an incident-filled season at Benetton in 1994. The second seat was kept by Domenico Schiattarella for the first half of the season, while Hideki Noda paid a deposit to secure the place for the latter races.

Both cars retired from the opening round, but the second round in Argentina brought much promise.

At Monaco, neither driver completed a lap of the race due to another gearbox failure on Verstappen's car, and the marshals failing to recover Schiattarella's car after the first aborted race start.

The team did not appear at the Canadian Grand Prix, but were not fined by the sports commercial rights holders, FOM, for their absence. The CEO of FOM, Bernie Ecclestone agreed that the team entered the championship intending to compete in 16 races and as the championship was extended to 17, they were permitted to miss one race.

Negotiations with the potential backers and sponsors failed, and the companies that would pay for Hideki Noda to drive the Simtek were severely affected by the Kobe earthquake. Prior to the next race, Simtek Grand Prix went into voluntary liquidation and the receivers, Touche Ross, were called in. The collapse of the Formula One team also forced Simtek Research to declare itself bankrupt. 

In total, 48 jobs were lost and with the team unable to be sold as a going concern, Simtek's assets were auctioned off.

s951

1995

The Simtek S951 was a Formula One car designed by Nick Wirth and Paul Crooks and used by Simtek for the 1995 season.

It was a direct evolution of the 1994 season car, the S941. In order to secure a firm foothold in the sport following a traumatic season in which Roland Ratzenberger was killed at Imola whilst driving the S941, the team designed the S951 to be straightforward and uncomplicated.

The S951s were the last cars to be completed of all the 1995 F1 teams' chassis, arriving at the first round of the championship in Brazil with minimal testing.

The number 11 seat was taken by Domenico Schiattarella and the number 12 seat was taken by Jos Verstappen. The team's test driver was Hideki Noda. Noda was set to take the number 11 seat for the second half of the season, but the team folded after round five.

The engine was a Ford-Cosworth EDB 3.0l V8. The team's main sponsor was MTV.

The S951 was much more competitive than the S941 machine, with Verstappen and Schiattarella bringing the car to the finish on several occasions.

The team went bankrupt and did not compete in any more rounds. The chassis was sold off in an auction in July 1995, with Verstappen's chassis selling for £18.000, with Schiattarella's chassis selling for £16.000.