Smedley joins F1 as expert technical consultant

Former Williams and Ferrari engineer Rob Smedley will work with Formula One Management as an expert technical consultant through the 2019 season.

Smedley announced at the end of last year that he would be leaving Williams after five seasons in the role of head of vehicle performance, having previously spent a decade at Ferrari, most notably as Felipe Massa's race engineer.

Smedley confirmed at the time he would be looking to remain in F1, with it being confirmed this week that he will be linking up with the sport's in-house team for 2019.

Smedley "will use his 20 years’ worth of experience in the sport to add an expert voice to Formula 1’s coverage across all of its platforms," according to F1's official website following successful talks with Ross Brawn, the sport's technical managing director.

"It’s about trying to get a coherent message in terms of the technical side of Formula 1: how the events unfolded, why people have made certain decisions, and putting that out across the various different platforms, and hopefully telling a better story of Formula 1," Smedley said.

"It’s about really bringing the inner beauty of Formula 1 to the viewer, to the fan.

“In conversations with Ross, we were both of the opinion that there’s this really rich seam of technical content, of data, of the way that teams operate, that actually never gets told. And it’s part of the whole story that underpins Formula 1, which actually the paying public, the Formula 1 fan, never ever gets to see – or they get to see very little of it.

"So there’s an opportunity in front of us to put that together at some level."