BROWNSBURG, Ind. (September 8, 2022) – Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) announced today a move that will strengthen their engineering group and position the team for success in the coming years. Stefano Sordo, who has over 20 years of engineering experience with top Formula One teams, will join the organization as technical director of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES program beginning October 1.
Sordo spent the past six seasons with McLaren Racing F1 as head and director of vehicle performance and, prior to that, was with Red Bull Racing F1, among other teams. He will oversee a multi-tiered engineering structure at the team’s new headquarters in Zionsville, Indiana that will have an emphasis on a variety of areas and lay the foundation for the team to achieve their goals. The move is another indication of the commitment that the team has placed in their future in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES.
QUOTEBOARD:
STEFANO SORDO: “I’m very excited to be joining Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s team in the INDYCAR series. It is a very challenging and very competitive series where I think every competitor can have a chance at winning every time they participate in a race providing you get all the ingredients right. The excitement of this new role for me is to challenge myself and see if with the experience and methodology developed through many years spent in F1 I can help the team moving forward in becoming a consistent front running team. This is the clear challenge and target that I set for myself and I look forward to getting started. I would like to thank Bobby and Mike for this opportunity and their trust in my abilities and I hope I can repay them with successes at the track.”
BOBBY RAHAL: “I’m so pleased that Stefano will be joining the team as technical director. He is well-respected in the industry and his track record speaks for itself having worked with organizations like McLaren and Red Bull in Formula One, among others. I’m confident that Stefano will bring to us a perspective that will raise our game against our competition and work well with our existing engineering staff.”
MIKE LANIGAN: “Stefano has shown he is capable of leading large groups of engineers at the top level of motorsport and we couldn’t be more pleased to have him join our team. His depth of experience, combined with his knowledge of the various areas to maximize the performance of a race car will be a tremendous asset to us going forward.”
ABOUT STEFANO SORDO
Sordo earned a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Polytechnic University in Milan, Italy. He started his professional racing career as a design and performance engineer at Tatuus F3 in 1996. In late 1996, he moved to DC Cook Motorsport’s F3 and F3000 team as a race engineer for the 1997-98 seasons. He joined McLaren as a race engineer with their F3000 program for 1999-2000 before he got his start in Formula One with Arrows as a race and test engineer for the 2001 and 2002 seasons. He then joined Jaguar Racing F1 for the 2003 and 2004 seasons as race engineer. At the end of 2004, Jaguar Racing F1 became Red Bull Racing F1 and he stayed on until 2016 working first as race engineer and then moving into the aerodynamic department from 2007 for the subsequent 10 years in the position of head of aerodynamic performance. While Sordo was there, the team won four consecutive Drivers and Constructors championship titles with Sebastian Vettel between 2010-2013. He then joined McLaren F1 in October 2016 and has been head and then director of the vehicle performance department until joining RLL as technical director.
ABOUT RAHAL LETTERMAN LANIGAN RACING
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, based in Brownsburg, Ind., is co-owned by three-time IndyCar Champion and 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Rahal, former CBS Late Show host David Letterman and Mi-Jack co-owner Mike Lanigan. In 2022, the team begins its 31st year of competition and will attempt to add to its 29 Indy car wins – including the 2004 Indy 500 from pole with Buddy Rice and the 2020 Indy 500 with Takuma Sato — their 33 poles, 108 podium finishes and 1992 series championship. The team also competed in the American Le Mans Series from 2009-2013 as BMW Team RLL where they won both the Manufacturer and Team Championships in the GT category in 2010 and swept all three GT titles in 2011 – Manufacturer, Team and Driver. In 2012, the team finished second in the Team Championship and third in the Manufacturer Championship and in 2013, the team finished second in the Driver, Team and Manufacturer Championship. From 2014-2021, BMW Team RLL competed in the GTLM class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with a two-car program and brought their total to 22 wins – including the 2019 and 2020 Rolex 24 at Daytona endurance races, 28 poles and 94 podium finishes as well as a second-place finish in the Manufacturer, Team and Driver championships in 2015 and 2017. The team was also the 2020 Michelin Endurance Champions. For 2022, BMW M Team RLL will compete in the GTD Pro class while simultaneously ramping up for a two-car program in the much-anticipated LMDh class of IMSA for 2023.