Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has signed Stefano Sordo as its new technical director.

Sordo comes to RLL after a six-year stint with the McLaren Racing Formula 1 team. Prior to that he ran an aerodynamic consulting business and served as race engineer to the likes of David Coulthard and Scott Speed at Red Bull Racing. Sordo fills the position vacated by Indy 500-winning engineer Tom German, who left for Toyota Racing Development during the most recent offseason.

“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,” said team co-owner Mike Lanigan. “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.”

Sordo arrives at a time where RLL has made significant gains to overcome a disappointing season and has more ground to gain in its quest to fight for wins.

“I’m very excited to be joining Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s team in the IndyCar series,” Sordo said. “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.”