Patrick Head will leave F1 for hybrid racing
It's a turning page at Williams: Patrick Head, its co-founder and co-shareholder of the Grove team, has decided to step back as he will relinquish his duties as director of engineering of the F1 team with immediate effect to focus on developing commercial applications for Williams Hybrid Power.
He announced his decision to our colleagues at Autosport: «Obviously, it’s not about retirement, but I will no longer be part of Williams’ F1 program next year. I will now work for Williams Hybrid Power, which may seem a bit vague and boring. However, it’s quite high tech and interesting. Still, even if it seems even more boring because most activities in motorsports are interesting, for the company, it’s the buses and inter-city railways that represent where the commercial aspect should be.
The engineer, present since the beginning of the adventure in 1977, did not hope to leave on such a bad note after his team experienced its worst season in history. However, he claims that his current decision is not related to this general lack of competitiveness of the structure: «I certainly did not have the ambition to end my involvement in F1 with the season I just had. But when I look at what I can specifically do to help Mike Coughlan, Mark Gillan, and Jason Somerville, I came to the conclusion that it wasn’t enough for me to continue justifying myself by doing the same thing. It’s not interesting for me, it’s not good for the company. So I decided to focus on something else.»
With the participation of RacingBusiness.fr
