Born |
Stuttgart, Württemberg, Germany |
18 August 1934
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Formula One World Championship career | |
Nationality | Swiss |
Active years | 1961 |
Teams | non-works Lotus |
Entries | 3 (2 starts) |
Championships | 0 |
Wins | 0 |
Podiums | 0 |
Career points | 0 |
Pole positions | 0 |
Fastest laps | 0 |
First entry | 1961 Monaco Grand Prix |
Last entry | 1961 German Grand Prix |
Michael May (born 18 August 1934 in Stuttgart, Germany) is a former racing driver from Switzerland. He participated in three Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 14 May 1961. He scored no championship points.
After a crash during practice for the 1961 German Grand Prix, May concentrated on engineering, helping to develop a fuel injection system for Porsche and Ferrari.
May is generally credited with introducing the first manipulated elevated wing onto a racing car - a Porsche 550 - to produce downforce (or down thrust) for enhanced braking and cornering speeds to reduce lap times.
He also worked in designing high-compression engines, improving fuel economy among other things. The most notable example was his reworked 'Fireball' head for the 'high-efficiency' high-compression Jaguar V-12 HE engine.
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