83. Ignacio Rueda

Ignacio Rueda is a Spanish Formula One engineer. He was the chief strategist at the Scuderia Ferrari Formula 1 team and was promoted to the role of Sporting Director ahead of the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

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Ignacio Rueda, known as Iñaki, was born in Madrid on 6 August 1978. He grew up in a family that was keen on rallying and that instilled in him a love of motorsport. He raced in motocross from 1991 to 1999 while from 1997 to 2003, he studied and worked at the University of Colorado, graduating with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, specialising in Dynamic Controls and Systems.

Keen to work in Formula 1, Ignacio Rueda completed a motorsport masters degree at Cranfield University, UK. Shortly after that, he worked for McLaren Electronics but he was keen to work at the race track and so in 2005, he joined Jordan Grand Prix, which then became Midland, as a Systems Engineer. In 2006, in this same role, he joined the Renault team.

In 2011, the team was renamed Lotus and Iñakiwas appointed Race Strategy Engineer, a role he kept until 2014. At the end of that season, he joined Scuderia Ferrari as Head of Race Strategy.

Scuderia Ferrari had a reshuffle of management personnel during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend.

As a result of these changes, team principal Mattia Binotto will leave his position on the pit wall and move into the garage during race weekends. This is due to the limited number of seats available on the pit wall, set by Formula 1 as seven for each team. Additionally, Binotto will no longer attend all races during the 2021 season.

As part of the reshuffle, Ferrari has promoted Ravin Jain onto its strategy team, taking a seat on the pit wall. In addition, Ignacio Rueda will move into the sporting director and head of strategy position, taking over from Laurent Mekies.

Iñaki’s main hobby is still motocross. However, his greatest passion is his work, being at the race track, especially on Sundays when it’s time to go racing.