Patrick Head Technical Partnership

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 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, after failing his first year exams, at UCL. Head graduated in 1970 with a Mechanical Engineering degree, and immediately joined the chassis manufacturer Lola in Huntingdon. Here he formed a friendly relationship with John Barnard. 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, but was lured back by Williams to join his team, which Head did during 1975. 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 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 Australian driver Alan Jones, the 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 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. Head's 1980 car was the class of the field, taking Alan Jones and the team to both titles, and securing Williams as a front runner.

Reader's Guide

Patrick Head is a central figure in Williams Racing history. He co-founded the team with Frank Williams in 1977, serving as technical director for 27 years. His engineering innovations and leadership were key to the team's success, including multiple constructors' and drivers' championships. After stepping back from day-to-day design in 2004, he remained with the team until 2012, later returning as a consultant in 2019. He was knighted in 2015.

Did You Know?

• He was found responsible for the steering column failure in Ayrton Senna's fatal 1994 accident, but faced no legal action due to Italy's statute of limitations.
• Head received a knighthood in the 2015 Queen's Birthday Honours for services to motorsport.