Patrick Head Partnership
Co-founder and former Engineering Director of Williams Racing, technical mastermind behind decades of F1 success.
Sir Patrick Michael Head (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.
Quick Facts
- Tenure start
- 1978
Lore & Background
Patrick Head was born into motor sport, his father Michael racing Jaguar sportscars in the 1950s, and was privately educated at Wellington College. After leaving school, Head joined the Royal Navy but soon left to attend university, first in Birmingham and later, after failing his first year exams, at UCL. Head graduated in 1970 with a Mechanical Engineering degree, and immediately joined Lola in Huntingdon. He formed a friendly relationship with John Barnard. Head and Frank Williams met during this period. Head quit motor racing to work on building boats, but was lured back by Williams to join his team during 1975. On 8 February 1977 Williams Grand Prix Engineering was founded with Williams and Head taking seventy and thirty per cent of the company respectively. In 1977 the team raced a customer March chassis, but in 1978, with backing from Saudi Airlines and having signed Alan Jones, the Head-designed FW06 made its first appearance. The following season Williams scored 11 world championship points finishing 9th in the constructors' championship. 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 Clay Regazzoni won the British Grand Prix. Four more victories followed in 1979. Head's 1980 car was the class of the field, taking Alan Jones and the team to both titles. Head began to move away from designing the cars himself, creating a role of Technical Director. Frank Dernie took over as chief designer. During the 1980s Head is credited with revolutionary concepts including a six-wheeled car, which tested in 1982, and continuously variable transmission. Neither system made it into racing due to rule changes. 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. Under Head's temporary stewardship, the team secured the constructors' title in 1986 and both the constructors' and drivers' title (with Nelson Piquet) in 1987. In 1988, Head made an appearance in the Celebrity Car in the inaugural Honda CR-X Challenge. In 1990, Williams hired Adrian Newey. The two engineers formed the outstanding design partnership of the 1990s with Head/Newey cars achieving a level of dominance never seen before.
Reader's Guide
Patrick Head was the technical director at Williams Grand Prix Engineering from the 1977 season until May 2004, when Sam Michael took over. He co-founded the team with Frank Williams in 1977. Head designed the FW06, FW07, and the 1980 championship-winning car. In the 1990s, Adrian Newey was hired and became chief designer; the FW14B and FW15C were designed by Newey, not merely influenced by him. Head moved to Director of Engineering in 2004 and resigned from the team in 2012. He returned in a consultancy role in March 2019.
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