Williams appoints Paddy Lowe as Chief Technical Officer

17 March 2017

Williams has appointed Mercedes’ former Executive Technical Director, Paddy Lowe, to become its new Chief Technical Officer and a shareholder at the Williams Group.

Lowe joins Williams with immediate effect and will take overall management responsibility for the engineering operation and will also join the company’s Board of Directors and take a shareholding in the company.

Lowe moves to Williams from current Formula One Constructors’ Champions 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.

Having started his Formula One career with Williams in 1987 as a control systems engineer, working with Sir Patrick Head and Adrian Newey, Lowe re-joins the team. 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.

Lowe 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, seven Drivers’ Championship titles and five Constructors’ Championship titles.

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.”

Claire Williams, Deputy Team Principal, added: “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. 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.”