JAMES CROOK.
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.

01

About

Eastbourne → Cambridge → Oxfordshire → California

I grew up in Eastbourne, where I designed and built my own kit car in my parents' garage: the James Crook Locost. Formula Student and an engineering degree at Cambridge took me into Formula 1, where I spent about ten years in Oxfordshire working on race-winning aerodynamics with Lotus and then Williams.

In 2022 I moved to Tesla as Staff Aerodynamicist and led aerodynamic development of the Roadster. That included inventing and simulating the active wing geometry, the fan and skirt system, and the suction system for the reveal demo that drove the car up a wall and hung it upside down.

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 crouching beside the Tesla Roadster on display, pointing to its raised rear wing
With the Roadster, Petersen Automotive Museum
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Work

Tesla · Formula 1 · Navier AI

Tesla Roadster

Tesla · 2022–2026 · Staff Aerodynamicist
Road, high-downforce and low-drag modesVideo: Tesla

I led the aerodynamic development of the new Roadster, which was shown to the world on 15 October 2026. Active aerodynamics combined with powered fans led to an amazing demonstration of the vehicle's capabilities.

  • US 2026/0285418 A1 ↗Deployable active rear wing: stows flush in the deck lid, then deploys for downforce, with a low-drag mode for the straights.
  • US 12,377,920 B1 ↗Adaptive aerodynamics for downforce: dual-mode underbody that combines fans and movable skirts to control downforce across speeds.
Press coverage ↓

Formula 1

Lotus F1 Team · Williams F1 · Oxfordshire
George Russell in a Williams cockpit at the factory, trying the new curved wing mirrors
George Russell tries the new mirrors at the factory, January 2019

About ten years of Formula 1 aerodynamics: CFD, wind-tunnel testing and track correlation, first at Lotus in Enstone and then at Williams in Grove.

One favourite: the curved wing mirrors on the 2019 Williams FW42. They turned heads at pre-season testing in Barcelona, and the FIA wasn't happy with them, so they were swapped out before the first race in Melbourne.

Autosport: Williams modifying mirrors to ensure legality ↗
03

Tune to Wing

Formula SAE aerodynamics series
James presenting Tune to Wing to a packed tent of Formula SAE students at Michigan International Speedway
Tune to Wing, liveMichigan · 2026

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.

Episodes and rear wing download →▶ Watch Ep. 1: Reading Cp
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Upcoming

Talks and events
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Press

Roadster and its patents
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Contact

Get in touch

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

Email
james@jamescrookaero.com
LinkedIn
linkedin.com/in/james-crook-aero
YouTube
youtube.com/@JamesCrookAero
Based
Los Angeles, California