Patrick Head
Encyclopedia
Patrick Head is co-founder and Engineering Director of the Williams
Formula One
team.
For 25 years from 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
. Frequently blunt and outspoken, Head has a formidable reputation for speaking his mind to both employees and the press, making him a highly popular figure in the sport.
sportscars in the 1950s, and was privately educated at Wellington College. After leaving school Head joined the Royal Navy
, but soon realised that a career in the military
was not how he wanted to spend his life and so left to attend University
, first in Birmingham
and later in Bournemouth
. Head graduated in 1970 with a Mechanical Engineering
degree
from UCL
and immediately joined the chassis
manufacturer Lola in Huntingdon
. Here he formed a friendly relationship with John Barnard
, whose Formula One designs for McLaren
, Benetton
and Ferrari
would later go on to compete against Williams.
Head was involved in a number of new projects all trying to become established as car builders or engineering companies and it was during this period that Head and Frank Williams met. Finally becoming disillusioned by his lack of success Head quit motor racing to work on building boats.
In 1976 thirty-four year old Frank Williams decided that the time was right to start his own team and promptly set about luring Head back into Formula One. After one abortive attempt, on February 8, 1977 Williams Grand Prix Engineering
was founded with Williams and Head taking seventy and thirty percent of the company respectively. In the team raced a customer March
chassis, but in , with backing from Saudi Airlines and having signed Australian driver Alan Jones
, the Patrick Head-designed FW06 made its first appearance. Despite having no money, and with Williams himself frequently forced to conduct business from a telephone box, Head still managed to design a respectable car.
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 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 at the British Grand Prix
. Four more victories followed in and Patrick Head was now an established Grand Prix
car designer.
, which replaced the car's conventional gearbox and allowed the engine to remain at optimum RPM during the entire lap. Sadly neither system made it into racing due to rule changes, which many attribute to pressure from other teams, who were worried about the time required to develop similar systems of their own.
In 1986 Patrick 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 stewartship, the team still secured the constructors titles in and both the constructors' and drivers title (with Nelson Piquet
) in .
, 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. While at Williams in 1994 Patrick Head was deemed to have caused the death of Ayrton Senna but because of legal implications in Italy he never served prison time. 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. However, Newey also had ambitions to succeed to technical director, but 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 though he was forced to take gardening leave for the 1997 season.
, got to the world title.
Finally in 2004 came the news that Patrick Head was to stand down as technical director in favour of thirty-three year old Sam Michael
. Head's move to Engineering Director was widely seen as demotion and final acceptance by Sir Frank Williams that he was no longer able to bring the team the level of success it had once enjoyed. However, Williams has continued to decline ever since then, having not won a race since Montoya won the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix.
at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix
.
The verdict of the court states; "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, Patrick Head was not arrested: 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.
Many of the top engineers in Formula One
, such as Adrian Newey
, Neil Oatley
, Ross Brawn
, Frank Dernie
, Eghbal Hamidy, Geoff Willis
and Enrique Scalabroni
have worked under Head's supervision early in their careers, and all have moved on to senior positions within other teams. Brawn particularly has had success as Head's opposite number at Benetton
, Ferrari
, Brawn GP
and Mercedes GP
. Adrian Newey
has also had success at McLaren
, and more recently Red Bull Racing
, and is debatably the most successful engineer in Formula One
history.
WilliamsF1
Williams Grand Prix Engineering Limited, trading as AT&T Williams, is a British Formula One motor racing team and constructor. It was founded and run by Sir Frank Williams and Patrick Head...
Formula One
Formula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
team.
For 25 years from 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
Sam Michael
Samuel David "Sam" Michael is technical director of WilliamsF1, a Formula One constructor. He was born in Western Australia and grew up in Canberra. After studying Mechanical Engineering at the University of New South Wales with a thesis on data acquisition systems for racing cars, he worked with...
. Frequently blunt and outspoken, Head has a formidable reputation for speaking his mind to both employees and the press, making him a highly popular figure in the sport.
Early career
Patrick Head was born into motor sport, his father Michael racing JaguarJaguar (car)
Jaguar Cars Ltd, known simply as Jaguar , is a British luxury car manufacturer, headquartered in Whitley, Coventry, England. It is part of the Jaguar Land Rover business, a subsidiary of the Indian company Tata Motors....
sportscars in the 1950s, and was privately educated at Wellington College. After leaving school Head joined the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
, but soon realised that a career in the military
Military
A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...
was not how he wanted to spend his life and so left to attend University
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
, first in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
and later in Bournemouth
Bournemouth
Bournemouth is a large coastal resort town in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. According to the 2001 Census the town has a population of 163,444, making it the largest settlement in Dorset. It is also the largest settlement between Southampton and Plymouth...
. Head graduated in 1970 with a Mechanical Engineering
Mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is a discipline of engineering that applies the principles of physics and materials science for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. It is the branch of engineering that involves the production and usage of heat and mechanical power for the...
degree
Academic degree
An academic degree is a position and title within a college or university that is usually awarded in recognition of the recipient having either satisfactorily completed a prescribed course of study or having conducted a scholarly endeavour deemed worthy of his or her admission to the degree...
from UCL
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
and immediately joined the chassis
Chassis
A chassis consists of an internal framework that supports a man-made object. It is analogous to an animal's skeleton. An example of a chassis is the underpart of a motor vehicle, consisting of the frame with the wheels and machinery.- Vehicles :In the case of vehicles, the term chassis means the...
manufacturer Lola in Huntingdon
Huntingdon
Huntingdon is a market town in Cambridgeshire, England. The town was chartered by King John in 1205. It is the traditional county town of Huntingdonshire, and is currently the seat of the Huntingdonshire district council. It is known as the birthplace in 1599 of Oliver Cromwell.-History:Huntingdon...
. Here he formed a friendly relationship with John Barnard
John Barnard
John Barnard is a race car designer and is currently working alongside Terence Woodgate designing high specification carbon fibre furniture....
, whose Formula One designs for McLaren
McLaren
McLaren Racing Limited, trading as Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, is a British Formula One team based in Woking, Surrey, United Kingdom. McLaren is best known as a Formula One constructor but has also competed and won in the Indianapolis 500 and Canadian-American Challenge Cup...
, Benetton
Benetton Formula
Benetton Formula Ltd., commonly referred to simply as Benetton, was a Formula One constructor that participated from to . The team was owned by the Benetton family who run a worldwide chain of clothing stores of the same name. In 2000 the team was purchased by Renault, but competed as Benetton for...
and Ferrari
Scuderia Ferrari
Scuderia Ferrari is the racing team division of the Ferrari automobile marque. The team currently only races in Formula One but has competed in numerous classes of motorsport since its formation in 1929, including sportscar racing....
would later go on to compete against Williams.
Head was involved in a number of new projects all trying to become established as car builders or engineering companies and it was during this period that Head and Frank Williams met. Finally becoming disillusioned by his lack of success Head quit motor racing to work on building boats.
In 1976 thirty-four year old Frank Williams decided that the time was right to start his own team and promptly set about luring Head back into Formula One. After one abortive attempt, on February 8, 1977 Williams Grand Prix Engineering
WilliamsF1
Williams Grand Prix Engineering Limited, trading as AT&T Williams, is a British Formula One motor racing team and constructor. It was founded and run by Sir Frank Williams and Patrick Head...
was founded with Williams and Head taking seventy and thirty percent of the company respectively. In the team raced a customer March
March Engineering
March Engineering was a Formula One constructor and manufacturer of customer racing cars from the United Kingdom. Although only moderately successful in Grand Prix competition, March racing cars enjoyed much better achievement in other categories of competition including Formula Two, Formula Three,...
chassis, but in , with backing from Saudi Airlines and having signed Australian driver Alan Jones
Alan Jones (Formula 1)
Alan Stanley Jones MBE is an Australian former Formula One driver. He was the first driver to win a Formula One World Championship with the Williams team, becoming the 1980 World Drivers' Champion....
, the Patrick Head-designed FW06 made its first appearance. Despite having no money, and with Williams himself frequently forced to conduct business from a telephone box, Head still managed to design a respectable car.
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 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 at the British Grand Prix
British Grand Prix
The British Grand Prix is a race in the calendar of the FIA Formula One World Championship. It is currently held at the Silverstone Circuit near the village of Silverstone in Northamptonshire...
. Four more victories followed in and Patrick Head was now an established Grand Prix
Grand Prix motor racing
Grand Prix motor racing has its roots in organised automobile racing that began in France as far back as 1894. It quickly evolved from a simple road race from one town to the next, to endurance tests for car and driver...
car designer.
The 1980s
Head's car was the class of the field, taking Alan Jones and the team to both titles, and securing Williams as a front runner. More success followed in the 1980s and Head began to move away from designing the cars himself, effectively creating a role of Technical Director, a person who oversaw the processes of design, construction, racing and testing, bringing together all the different disciplines. During the 1980s he is also credited with many revolutionary concepts including a six wheeled car, which tested in 1982, and continuously variable transmissionContinuously variable transmission
A continuously variable transmission is a transmission that can change steplessly through an infinite number of effective gear ratios between maximum and minimum values. This contrasts with other mechanical transmissions that offer a fixed number of gear ratios...
, which replaced the car's conventional gearbox and allowed the engine to remain at optimum RPM during the entire lap. Sadly neither system made it into racing due to rule changes, which many attribute to pressure from other teams, who were worried about the time required to develop similar systems of their own.
In 1986 Patrick 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 stewartship, the team still secured the constructors titles in and both the constructors' and drivers title (with Nelson Piquet
Nelson Piquet
Nelson Piquet Souto Maior , known as Nelson Piquet, is a Brazilian former racing driver. He was Formula One world champion in , and . He is one of eight drivers to win three or more world championships, the others being Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda, Ayrton Senna , Alain Prost , Juan...
) in .
1990s
Perhaps the most fruitful of all his associations with upcoming engineers began in 1990 when Williams hired Adrian NeweyAdrian Newey
Adrian Newey is a notable Formula One engineer and widely regarded one of the great engineers in the sport's history. He is the only designer to have won Constructors Championships with three different Formula One teams...
, recently sacked as technical director of Leyton House Racing
Leyton House Racing
Leyton House Racing was a Formula One constructor that raced in the 1990 and 1991 seasons.It was, in essence, a rebranding of the March team which returned to F1 in 1987. Leyton House, a Japanese real estate company, had been the team's marquee sponsor since that year, and went on to buy the team...
. 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
Scuderia Ferrari
Scuderia Ferrari is the racing team division of the Ferrari automobile marque. The team currently only races in Formula One but has competed in numerous classes of motorsport since its formation in 1929, including sportscar racing....
/Schumacher
Michael Schumacher
Michael Schumacher is a German Formula One racing driver for the Mercedes GP team. Famous for his eleven-year spell with Ferrari, Schumacher is a seven-time World Champion and is widely regarded as the greatest F1 driver of all time...
era a decade later. While at Williams in 1994 Patrick Head was deemed to have caused the death of Ayrton Senna but because of legal implications in Italy he never served prison time. 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. However, Newey also had ambitions to succeed to technical director, but 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 though he was forced to take gardening leave for the 1997 season.
2000s
Since the departure of Newey, Williams have often appeared a spent force, able to win occasionally, but unable to mount a consistent challenge. During the dominant Ferrari/Schumacher period from 2000-04, 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 MontoyaJuan Pablo Montoya
Juan Pablo Montoya Roldán is a Colombian race car driver known internationally for participating and winning in Formula One and CART race competitions. He has enjoyed great success. Currently, he competes in NASCAR, driving the #42 Target Chevrolet Impala for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing in the Sprint...
, got to the world title.
Finally in 2004 came the news that Patrick Head was to stand down as technical director in favour of thirty-three year old Sam Michael
Sam Michael
Samuel David "Sam" Michael is technical director of WilliamsF1, a Formula One constructor. He was born in Western Australia and grew up in Canberra. After studying Mechanical Engineering at the University of New South Wales with a thesis on data acquisition systems for racing cars, he worked with...
. Head's move to Engineering Director was widely seen as demotion and final acceptance by Sir Frank Williams that he was no longer able to bring the team the level of success it had once enjoyed. However, Williams has continued to decline ever since then, having not won a race since Montoya won the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix.
Legacy
Patrick Head is the man that the Italian Courts decided was ultimately responsible for the death of Ayrton SennaAyrton Senna
Ayrton Senna da Silva was a Brazilian racing driver. A three-time Formula One world champion, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time...
at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix
1994 San Marino Grand Prix
The 1994 San Marino Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on May 1, 1994 at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Imola, Italy. It was the third race of the 1994 Formula One season...
.
The verdict of the court states; "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, Patrick Head was not arrested: 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.
Many of the top engineers in Formula One
Formula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
, such as Adrian Newey
Adrian Newey
Adrian Newey is a notable Formula One engineer and widely regarded one of the great engineers in the sport's history. He is the only designer to have won Constructors Championships with three different Formula One teams...
, Neil Oatley
Neil Oatley
Neil Oatley is currently Design and Development Director for the McLaren Formula One team.Graduating from Loughborough University in 1976 with an Automotive Engineering degree, Oatley worked briefly outside motor racing before joining the Williams team in 1977...
, Ross Brawn
Ross Brawn
Ross James Brawn OBE is an English motorsport engineer and Formula One team principal. He has worked for a number of Formula One teams, serving as the technical director of the championship-winning Benetton and Ferrari teams. He took a sabbatical from the sport in 2007 but returned to F1 for the...
, Frank Dernie
Frank Dernie
Frank Dernie is a veteran British engineer with extensive Formula One motorsport experience.-Career:Dernie was brought up in Lancashire and educated at Kirkham Grammar School before he studied engineering at the Imperial College London university...
, Eghbal Hamidy, Geoff Willis
Geoff Willis
Geoffrey "Geoff" Willis is the Technology Director of Mercedes GP. He was also the Technical Director of Red Bull Racing team from 2007 to 2009 and Technical Director of Hispania Racing from 2010 to 2011....
and Enrique Scalabroni
Enrique Scalabroni
Enrique Hector Scalabroni is an Argentinian race car designer, technical director, and team racing boss...
have worked under Head's supervision early in their careers, and all have moved on to senior positions within other teams. Brawn particularly has had success as Head's opposite number at Benetton
Benetton Formula
Benetton Formula Ltd., commonly referred to simply as Benetton, was a Formula One constructor that participated from to . The team was owned by the Benetton family who run a worldwide chain of clothing stores of the same name. In 2000 the team was purchased by Renault, but competed as Benetton for...
, Ferrari
Scuderia Ferrari
Scuderia Ferrari is the racing team division of the Ferrari automobile marque. The team currently only races in Formula One but has competed in numerous classes of motorsport since its formation in 1929, including sportscar racing....
, Brawn GP
Brawn GP
Brawn GP Formula One Team, the trading name of Brawn GP Limited, was a Formula One motor racing team and constructor, created by a management buyout of Honda Racing F1 Team. It only competed in the 2009 Formula One World Championship, with drivers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello. The team...
and Mercedes GP
Mercedes GP
Mercedes GP Petronas Formula One Team, the trading name of Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Limited, is a British-based Formula One racing team and constructor, owned by Mercedes-Benz and racing under a German licence since the 2010 season....
. Adrian Newey
Adrian Newey
Adrian Newey is a notable Formula One engineer and widely regarded one of the great engineers in the sport's history. He is the only designer to have won Constructors Championships with three different Formula One teams...
has also had success at McLaren
McLaren
McLaren Racing Limited, trading as Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, is a British Formula One team based in Woking, Surrey, United Kingdom. McLaren is best known as a Formula One constructor but has also competed and won in the Indianapolis 500 and Canadian-American Challenge Cup...
, and more recently Red Bull Racing
Red Bull Racing
Red Bull Racing is a Formula One racing team based in Milton Keynes, England which currently holds an Austrian licence. It is, along with Scuderia Toro Rosso, one of two teams owned by beverage company Red Bull GmbH. The team have won two Constructors' Championship titles, in and , becoming the...
, and is debatably the most successful engineer in Formula One
Formula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
history.