Aftermarket Leads: Williams F1 Co-Founder Patrick Head Quits Team

Aftermarket Leads

January 5, 2012 11:05 pm

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Williams F1 Co-Founder Patrick Head Quits Team

Just the Facts:

• Patrick Head is no longer part of the Williams Grand Prix team.
• Head co-founded the team with Frank Williams in 1977.
• Williams, Head and designer Adrian Newey rose to the pinnacle of the sport.

GROVE, England — Patrick Head, founding partner of the Formula 1 team Williams Grand Prix, has stepped down from his position as director of engineering and as a member of the company’s board of directors.

Head joined forces with aspiring F1 privateer Frank Williams in 1977. With designer Adrian Newey and a string of some of the greatest drivers in the sport, the team rose to the pinnacle, winning 113 grands prix, nine constructor’s championships and seven driver titles.

“Patrick and I have been in partnership for 34 years,” Williams said in a company press release. “During that time, he has been the leader of the technical team that has won the majority of our race wins and championships.”

Williams called the achievement “a remarkable legacy and one which will be treasured and definitely not forgotten.”

The team began a gradual descent from the upper echelon after 1997, when Jacques Villeneuve won the team’s most recent driving title and Williams claimed its ninth constructor crown.

That coincided with the departure of Newey, who, after sitting out one season, joined with McLaren. Newey has since moved on to Red Bull, which has now won the last two championship titles with Sebastian Vettel.

Williams has not won an F1 race since Juan Pablo Montoya took the Brazilian Grand Prix victory in the 2004 season finale. That was the only 1st-place finish for the team that year.

Since 2004, when Williams took 4th place in constructor points, its fortunes have slumped. Drivers Rubens Barrichello and Pastor Maldonado won only five points in 2011 and the team ranked 9th.

Between Alan Jones’ title in 1980 and Villeneuve’s triumph, Williams, Head and Newey won driver championships with Keke Rosberg (1982), Nelson Piquet (1987), Nigel Mansell (1992), Alain Prost (1993) and Damon Hill (1996). Constructor titles were also claimed in 1981 and 1986.

The team suffered a blow in 1994 when recently signed Ayrton Senna was killed in the third race of the season at Imola. Williams and Head faced manslaughter charges lodged by Italian authorities, but eventually the charges were dropped.

Inside Line says: Head will remain with the subsidiary Williams Hybrid Power Limited. The team had a long run at the top of the F1 hierarchy, but the glory days are long past.

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Williams F1 Co-Founder Patrick Head Quits Team