Paul
Monaghan

Paul Monaghan began his F1 journey at McLaren, joining the Woking team in 1990, shortly after completing a Masters’ degree in Mechanical Engineering. Working on cars driven by the legendary Ayrton Senna and teammate Gerhard Berger had a big impact and Paul would spend the rest of the decade at the team. He eventually rose to the position of data engineer and worked alongside two people who would both reappear later in his career: driver David Coulthard and Adrian Newey.

In 2000, seeking a new challenge, Paul moved from McLaren to a Benetton team seeking to rebuild following a post-Michael Schumacher slump. Paul initially worked as a performance engineer but in mid-season took on the role of Race Engineer for Jenson Button. After Button moved on and the team was rechristened Renault, Monaghan began working with the team’s exciting new prospect Fernando Alonso. The partnership was quickly successful, with Alonso taking his first F1 victory at the 2003 Hungarian Grand Prix.