Patrick Head

Sir Patrick Michael Head, FREng (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 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. Early career 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, whose Formula One designs for McLaren, Benetton and Ferrari would later go on to compete against Williams.