JAMES CROOK.
Aerodynamicist · Los Angeles, California

James Crook

I led the aerodynamic development of the new Tesla Roadster, after a decade in Formula 1 with Lotus and Williams.

The Locost James built, in green and yellow, on the Sussex downs
Locost
Formula Student car number 82 on a cone course
Formula Student
Lotus F1
Williams Formula 1 car in Martini livery in the factory
Williams F1
The Tesla Roadster's rear wing, deployed
Tesla Roadster
The new Tesla Roadster seen from behind on a dry lake bed, rear wing raised
Tesla Roadster · revealed October 2026Image: Tesla

About

Eastbourne → Cambridge → Oxfordshire → California

I grew up in Eastbourne and started the way a lot of engineers do, building a Locost sports car. Formula Student and an engineering degree at Cambridge took me into Formula 1, where I spent about ten years in Oxfordshire working on aerodynamics with Lotus and then Williams.

In 2022 I moved to Tesla as Staff Aerodynamicist and led aerodynamic development of the next-generation Roadster, including its deployable active rear wing, on which I'm a named inventor.

Now I work with Navier AI on fast, AI-driven aerodynamic simulation, and help early-stage hardware teams with their aero: aircraft, boats, bikes, cars and more.

James Crook sitting on the front wheel of a Williams Formula 1 car
With a Williams F1 car
700kgRear-wing downforce at speed
<3sStowed to fully deployed
<0.25sWing angle change
~10yrsIn Formula 1

Selected work

Road cars, race cars, simulation
AIRFLOW SLAT 3–15 MM AHEAD MAIN ELEMENT STOWED · FLUSH IN DECK LID FOUR-BAR LINKAGE
Schematic of the deployable two-element rear wing, after US 2026/0285418 A1
Tesla · 2022–2026 · Staff Aerodynamicist

Tesla Roadster

I led aerodynamic development of the next-generation Roadster, revealed in October 2026. Its rear wing hides flush in the deck lid for road driving, then a four-bar linkage lifts it up and back into clean air as a slat-and-main-element wing. A controller sets the angle from speed, braking and steering, and a low-drag position flattens it out on the straights.

  • Peak downforce from the wing700 kg
  • Deploy time< 3 s
  • Angle change< 0.25 s
  • Drag removed in low-drag position250 counts
Patent US 2026/0285418 A1 (PDF) ↗Press coverage ↓
Rear of the new Tesla Roadster: diffuser, rear light bar and the wing
Roadster, rearImage: Tesla
A car held upside down beneath a ceiling panel
Upside down. A normal day at Tesla.
James Crook sitting in the cockpit of a Williams Formula 1 car
Lotus F1 Team · Williams F1 · Oxfordshire

Formula 1

About ten years of race-car aerodynamics: CFD, wind-tunnel testing and track correlation, first at Lotus in Enstone and then at Williams in Grove.

MESH → MODEL → ANSWER IN MINUTES
Navier AI · Startups

AI-driven simulation, and early-stage hardware

At Navier AI, making aerodynamic simulation fast enough to sit inside the design loop. Outside it, hands-on aero for startups building aircraft, boats, bikes, reactors and cars.

navier.ai ↗

Tune to Wing

Formula SAE aerodynamics series

Tune to Wing is my video series on race-car aerodynamics for Formula SAE teams: designing a wing from first principles, reading a pressure plot, and breaking down a CFD result the way an F1 aero department would.

This year I took it live at FSAE Electric at Michigan International Speedway, where I was also a design judge, and gave the talk to a room full of student teams.

James Crook with a student at FSAE Electric, Michigan International Speedway
FSAE Electric · Michigan · 2026
Tune to Wing, volume 1: Read your Cp
Vol. 01 · Read your Cp
Tune to Wing: CFD breakdown, read CFD like an F1 engineer
CFD breakdown · CFD by Navier AI

Upcoming

Talks and events

Press

Roadster and its rear-wing patent

Building something that moves through air or water? I'd like to hear about it.

Email
jamesmacrook@gmail.com
LinkedIn
linkedin.com/in/james-crook-aero
Based
Los Angeles, California