Mark grew up in a village called Pelsall, which is about 15
miles north of Birmingham. His first motorsport interest was
motocross and as a youngster he competed for two years before
eventually discovering Formula 1. His first grand prix was
Silverstone in 1981, which John Watson won. He immediately got the
F1 bug and then spent a few years going to three or four European
races per season and quickly became a firm fan. Mark left school to
undertake a technical apprenticeship with GKN Automotive who
sponsored him to undertake a Mechanical Engineering degree course
at the Polytechnic of Wolverhampton and he left there with a first
class honours degree in 1984.
Knowing he wanted to work in motor racing, Mark had to be
patient and find an inroad. His first job in the industry was in
1988 at Comtec, the composites wing of March Engineering, and he
spent six months there working on project engineering. From there
Mark joined Reynard Racing Cars in 1989 and started working with
Gary Anderson, firstly on the 1990 F3000 car. That was his first
experience of working in a drawing office and he was given a blank
sheet of paper to work on the gearbox, which was somewhat daunting.
The end result of that was the first ever transverse gearbox in
F3000 and then in 1990 Gary was asked by Eddie Jordan if he would
take on Eddie's F1 project. So three people, Gary Anderson, Andrew
Green and Mark, designed the first Jordan car which finished fifth
in the constructors' championship in its first year.
Mark then stayed with Eddie Jordan for 11 years, seeing the
technical team grow from three to around 80. For the first six or
seven years he was responsible for the gearboxes, hydraulic systems
and some composite work, and was then appointed Head of Mechanical
Design, and then Joint Chief Designer. He overlapped with Mike
Gascoyne for the last couple of years he was there, firstly when
Mike was Chief Designer and then working with him when he was made
Technical Director.
Mike then went to Renault and Mark joined him there in 2000 as
Chief Designer. He thoroughly enjoyed that role as they joined at a
time when Renault had just bought the Benetton team which was going
through a lean spell and three years later the team had progressed
enough to win the Hungarian GP in 2003.
From Renault, Mark went to Red Bull Racing in 2005, firstly as
Deputy Technical Director and then Technical Director. The team was
going through a transitional phase having been bought from Jaguar
but he enjoyed his time helping to build the team before moving
across to Force India as Design Director in 2007. Two years later
Mark was promoted to Technical Director before making the move to
Caterham F1 Team in 2011.