It’s official, Williams Grand Prix Holdings PLC announced the appointment of Paddy Lowe as Chief Technical Officer for the Williams Group.
Paddy will join Williams today, 16 March, and will take overall management responsibility for the engineering operation at Grove. Paddy will also join the company’s Board of Directors and take a shareholding in the company which is a much deeper relationship than previous technical chief, Pat Symonds, held at the team.
Paddy moves to Williams from Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, where he held the position of Executive Director (Technical) since June 2013 and helped lead the Mercedes team to record dominance in the Formula One Drivers’ and Constructors’ World Championships.
Paddy started his Formula One career with Williams in 1987 as a control systems engineer, working with Sir Patrick Head and Adrian Newey. In his six years with the team he helped pioneer the active suspension system that took Nigel Mansell to the 1992 World Championship in the FW14B. Paddy then moved to McLaren in 1993 and spent two decades at the Woking based team in the positions of Head of Research and Development, Chief Engineer, Engineering Director and finally Technical Director, helping the team secure three Drivers’ Championships and one Constructors’ Championship during that time.
During his 29 years in the sport, Paddy has contributed to 158 race wins, 7 Drivers’ Championship titles and 5 Constructors’ Championship titles: an impressive CV making him one of the leading engineers in the Formula One paddock.
Commenting on his appointment Paddy Lowe said;
“I‘ve always had a deep respect for Williams – my first team in Formula One. It is a huge honour to return in this leadership position and to have the opportunity to become a shareholder. I am extremely motivated to play my part in bringing success back to the team. The vision for the future set out by the Williams Board is powerful and has compelled me to join an organisation committed to building on its unique legacy and to reaching the pinnacle of Formula One once again. I’m looking forward to this exciting new phase to my career working with Claire, Mike and Nick and with the rest of this great team – especially Frank himself, who is one of the most committed “racers” I know!”
Claire Williams, Deputy Team Principal, added;
“I am delighted that the team is welcoming Paddy back to Williams in the role of Chief Technical Officer. Having someone of Paddy’s calibre and engineering competence is not only a morale boost for everyone at Williams, but I know it will also significantly support our efforts to return this team back to the front of the grid. Our ambitions at Williams are unwavering, we want to win races and championships, but to do that you need the best talent in the business. In Paddy we believe we have just that as well as a leader who will drive change. This is a game changer for us and once again makes us extremely excited about this team’s future.”
Commenting on Paddy’s appointment to the Board of Directors, Chairman of the Board, Nick Rose added:
“Paddy will be a great addition to our Board bringing his deep technical expertise and overall business knowledge and management skills. Alongside Claire and Mike, he will be one of the three key executive directors running our business day-to-day.”
so Paddy, Claire, Mike and Nick are all very delighted and also very happy, I wish them all the best, a lot of delighting and a lot of happiness.
Any pictures of Paddy’s garden?
the totonator got one of those pictures after three years of winning, that is when he started taking note and worrying about the $ Paddy was making and decided that Paddy’s take should be trimmed back.
At least Paddy already had a nice garden to hang out in during his recent spell of leave.
Is Paddy just involved in the Williams F1 operations, or the whole Williams Corporation, including the advanced engineering group?
I just had a look on their website, it features him as a member of the racing team, but doesn’t include anything about the management of advanced engineering.
The site is worth a look, lots of information about Williams and how they leverage their IP from competing in F1 to provide world class innovation in engineering and technology, operational performance, testing and manufacturing services.
http://www.williamsf1.com/racing
jacko, Paddy Lowe is chief technical officer of the “Williams group”.
Thanks Salvu.
Paddy’s going to be a busy man, wonder if he’ll be turning up at Formula E races as well as F1? Or maybe instead of F1?
no doubt that he is going to be a busy man, much more than before, because up to now all the money at his disposal to spend not one single $ belonged to him, but now it is going to be different. as to formula E, I have no doubt that it will draw a lot of his attention, remember that his actual specialization was always electronics. on a different note, been amusing myself no end reading the latest super efforts at number 44 fan-boys moral boosting by the usual impartial sites/writers, the latest says that the engine making arm… Read more »
Fair point for Paddy, it’s a serious step up to be team owner rather than team employee. Investing your own money in an F1 team and technology company is definitely a way to make a small fortune (out of a large one).
An extra 70bhp out of the Mercedes p.u!
Maybe the magician did pull a rabbit out, the one that was stuck in the airbox! :-)
ah, so what I seen Botta’s doing before he started his fast lap while testing was correct, and the problem might have been a rabbit stuck in the air box. that for sure would have put them 70 hp down on FERRARI, so forza number 44 fanboys, there is still hope next week.