Patrick Head
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Patrick Head | |
---|---|
Born | Farnborough, Hampshire, England | 5 June 1946
Nationality | British |
Occupation(s) | Formula One team co-founder Engineer |
Years active | 1970– |
Known for | Co-founder Williams Grand Prix Engineering |
Notable work | Williams World Drivers' and Constructors' championship-winning cars |
Sir Patrick Michael Head, FREng (born 5 June 1946) is a British motorsport executive who is the co-founder and former Engineering Director of the Williams Formula One team. For 27 years starting from the 1977 season, Head was technical director at Williams Grand Prix Engineering, and responsible for many innovations within Formula One. Head oversaw the design and construction of Williams cars until May 2004 when his role was handed over to Sam Michael.
Early career
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Patrick Head was born into motor sport, his father Michael racing
Head graduated in 1970 with a
In 1976, thirty-four-year-old Frank Williams decided that the time was right to re-form his own team and promptly set about luring Head back into Formula One. After one abortive attempt, on 8 February 1977
The following season Williams scored 11 world championship points finishing 9th in the constructors championship and from here momentum began to build. As early as the fourth round of the 1979 season Jones made the team's first visit to the podium. The same year saw a Head-designed car take the first of over one-hundred race wins when Swiss driver Clay Regazzoni won the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Four more victories followed in 1979 and Head was now an established Grand Prix car designer.
1980s
Head's
In 1986, Head, with other Williams management, was forced to assume control of the team when Frank Williams was seriously injured in a road accident. Despite this diversion, and under Head's temporary stewardship, the team still secured the constructors titles in 1986 and both the constructors' and drivers title (with Nelson Piquet) in 1987.
1990s
In 1990, Williams hired Adrian Newey, recently sacked as technical director of Leyton House Racing. The two engineers rapidly formed the outstanding design partnership of the 1990s with Head/Newey cars achieving a level of dominance never seen before, and not repeated until the Ferrari/Schumacher era a decade later. In a seven-year period between 1991 and 1997, Williams had fifty-nine race wins, won five constructors titles, and four different drivers won world championships. Newey also had ambitions to succeed to technical director; this was blocked as Head was a founder and shareholder of the team. With Williams securing both the drivers and constructors titles in 1996, McLaren managed to lure Newey away, although he was forced to take gardening leave for the 1997 season.
2000s
Since the departure of Newey, Williams often appeared a spent force, able to win occasionally, but unable to mount a consistent challenge. During the dominant Ferrari/Schumacher period from 2000–2004, Williams managed to finish runner-up in the constructors championship in 2002 and 2003, and 2003 was the closest that one of their drivers, Juan Pablo Montoya, got to the world title.
In 2004, Head moved to the position of Director of Engineering, as Sam Michael became Technical Director. After Head's move, Williams's decline continued and following Montoya's win at the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix, they entered a lengthy period without a Grand Prix victory ended by Pastor Maldonado winning the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix.
2010s
In 2012, Head resigned from his position in the Williams team.[2] He continued his involvement in Williams Hybrid Power Limited until it was sold to GKN in April 2014.[3] In 2015, he received a knighthood for his services to motorsport.[4] In March 2019, Head returned to Williams Racing for the first time in eight years. He returned in a consultancy role.[5]
Ayrton Senna accident
In April 2007, the Italian newspaper
On 13 April 2007, the Italian Court of Appeal stated the following in the verdict numbered 15050: "It has been determined that the accident was caused by a steering column failure. This failure was caused by badly designed and badly executed modifications. The responsibility of this falls on Patrick Head, culpable of omitted control." Even being found responsible for Senna's accident, Head was not arrested because in Italy the statute of limitation for manslaughter is 7 years and 6 months, and the final verdict was pronounced 13 years after the accident.[7]
Honours
In 2002, Head was elected as a
References
- ^ Taylor, Simon (March 2012). "Lunch with... Patrick Head". Motor Sport Magazine. Archived from the original on 27 March 2019. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
- ^ Joseph, Noah (4 January 2012). "Williams announces resignation of Patrick Head". autoblog.com. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
- ^ Clancy, Rebecca (1 April 2014). "Williams sells hybrid power unit to GKN". telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
- ^ "F1 team Williams designer Patrick Head gets knighthood". skysports.com. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
- ^ Cooper, Adam. "Sir Patrick Head returns to Williams F1 team in consultancy role". Autosport.com. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
- ^ gazzetta.it
- ISBN 0-905138-38-4
- ^ "No. 61256". The London Gazette (Supplement). 13 June 2015. p. B2.