Dominic Piers Smith is a concert pianist, piano teacher, chamber musician and concerto soloist based in OX7, Oxfordshire. For 25 years he has led a double life as both concert pianist and Formula One aerodynamicist.

To contact Dominic, please email pianist[at]dominicpierssmith.com

Dominic studied at Imperial College, London and RWTH, Aachen graduating with a first-class MEng degree in Aeronautics, and completing a research thesis with Ferrari involving a cutting-edge technology adopted by many of the Formula One teams in recent years. In 2000, Dominic’s first car design won the prestigious Indianapolis 500. A move to Formula One in 2001 saw him join the team which would eventually evolve into the Mercedes Grand Prix team. In 2013 Dominic became Principal Aerodynamicist at Mercedes, and oversaw the aerodynamic concept and in-season development throughout Mercedes' record-breaking cycle of eight consecutive constructors' world championships.

Dominic has a rare talent of being able to not only have a successful career in Formula One, where he is currently Aerodynamics Resource Manager for the Red Bull Formula One team, but also to have performed on some of the world’s greatest musical stages. After 125 Grand Prix wins, Dominic left Mercedes at the end of 2021 to focus more of his time on music and continue the passion that has always been his first love.

During his school years Dominic studied in the junior department of Trinity College of Music, London, choosing to focus his formal qualifications on STEM subjects and languages. Despite his studies at Imperial College and early career bringing about a temporary hiatus, Dominic always planned to return to music at some point, and alongside aerodynamics he continued to develop his musical career to a point where in recent years he has played piano concertos by Ravel, Rachmaninov, Schumann, Beethoven, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky with amateur and professional orchestras, including the London Philharmonic. He has given solo recitals as far afield as Shanghai, Fort Worth Texas, Tangiers, Budapest, Milan and Paris, and is fortunate enough to study with renowned tutors Christopher Elton and Hilary Coates. Against his instinct he was encouraged to enter both amateur and professional piano competitions around the world, emerging as a finalist each time and as winner of the 2007 Yamaha Pianists and 2012 Paris International Piano competition for Outstanding Amateurs.

Whilst his principal instrument is the piano, Dominic also studied harpsichord, violin, oboe and bassoon during his time at Trinity College, London, and is currently Principal Cello with the Oxford Studio Orchestra, having learnt the instrument from scratch in 2014. Dominic also started learning the accordion in 2022 and studies with Romano Viazzani