AT&T Williams F1

When Patrick Head first joined Frank Williams as Chief Designer at Williams Grand Prix Engineering in 1978, the idea of a long career in motor sport was most definitely not on his agenda, but after his first year at the team with Alan Jones at the wheel of the FW06, there was a profound shift in his attitude. As Patrick recalled, “I went through a period of thinking, “Well this could be a bit of fun and maybe I’ll go and do something else next year” to thinking, “Actually this is quite good and, if we put our heads down, we could maybe achieve something and win a Grand Prix.” Thirty years later and with numerous world titles to his credit, Patrick has one of the most distinguished careers in Formula One, yet it could all have been so different.

Patrick was born into the world of sports car racing, with his father Michael Head an enthusiastic and highly successful amateur racer. From the early days, Patrick helped out, working in the garage at the family home in Woking. At his father’s insistence, Patrick went to the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth on a scholarship, but he was not taken by the prospect of a life on the high seas, so he bought himself out of his contract for £195 – an act which unsurprisingly received a mixed reception at home. Having been the beneficiary of an inheritance from someone he described as, ‘A super old bloke known in the family as Cousin Alec, who was Irish, with huge jowls and a red nose’, Patrick was able to finance himself through an honours degree at London University. After briefly racing clubman sports cars, he was drawn towards the world of motor sport and secured a job at Lola Cars in Huntingdon, one of the most respected manufacturers of racing cars in Britain.

After two and a half years with Lola, Patrick left to set up an engine development facility, but this enterprise was short-lived when the premises was destroyed in a fire. He then had the opportunity to design an F2 car for Richard Scott before joining Peter Agg’s Trojan organisation to help former Brabham designer, Ron Tauranac. Soon after, he joined Frank Williams Racing in Reading, which subsequently changed its name to Walter Wolf Racing and then in early 1977, he moved on with Frank to set up Williams Grand Prix Engineering. It was to be a decision that he would not regret.

After a season running a single March car, Patrick designed the tidy FW06 that put the team on the map, and so his character and influence began to permeate the identity of the team in just as many ways as Frank’s. Over the years that followed, Patrick forged a reputation as a brilliant designer as a succession of competitive racing cars rolled out of the factory at Station Road in Didcot. His comprehensive and meticulous approach to engineering excellence was apparent right from the outset of his career. Alan Jones reflected that, after crashing heavily at Watkins Glen during practice that Patrick’s word, having worked through the night to ensure that everything had been rectified, was sufficient for Jones to return to the track with complete confidence the following day. Jones recalled 19 years later, “Patrick assured me that the problem had been dealt with and once Patrick had said that then bang! That was it. I had absolute blind faith in Patrick’s ability and still do.”

The incident was one small contribution to a developing reputation for the very best standards of engineering excellence and integrity which would become a hallmark of the team. The other quality Head imbued his team of engineers with was the passion for innovation and challenging conventional wisdoms. And so, over the decades that followed, pragmatism was carefully blended with a succession of concepts, ideas and technologies which, while validated elsewhere, had not been seen in Formula One until they appeared on a Williams race car.

Patrick Head, as much as Frank Williams, has been a driving force within the Williams organisation for close on three decades; the symbiotic nature of the relationship between the two company owners means it is nigh on impossible to credit either man with the 16 World Championships the team has won since Williams Grand Prix Engineering was founded in 1979. And there, perhaps, lies the secret – neither man might not have won a single trophy in their own right, but their ideal blend of qualities and skills has allowed their working relationship to endure and succeed.

In 2004, Patrick moved to the position of Director of Engineering, a more strategic role to allow Technical Director, Sam Michael, to drive the engineering operations forward and enable Patrick to use his extensive experience to help efficiently align an organisation that has become a highly complex design and prototype engineering organisation.

With a Brazilian wife and two young children, Patrick lives in London and although spare time is limited, his time at Dartmouth did at least give him an enduring love of the sea. Unsurprisingly - given the technical similarities - he is fascinated by the marine design process and has been involved in building his own boat. During the off-season in 2005 he completed a lifelong ambition to sail across the Atlantic as a participant in the Atlantic Rally from Gran Canaria to St Lucia. Despite having to turn back to Las Palmas after a blown out sail, thereby losing nearly three days, the crew managed to finish a respectable 62nd having recovered from 215th place!

2008 finds Patrick very much a central figure leading the strategic direction of Williams as a business alongside Frank, as much as taking responsibility for the overall technical environment, ensuring the people and engineering facilities are in place to enable the team to make its progression to the front of the grid in its thirtieth year.