Williams announces host of new F1 technical department hires, headlined by Harman

Williams has announced it has signed a swathe of senior Formula 1 technical staff from rival teams, including ex-Alpine technical director Matt Harman.

The five top hires are included in a group of 26 new engineers Williams has signed in a major recruitment spree the team has recently enacted, with a particular focus on bolstering its aerodynamics and design offices.

The new staff will report to Williams’s chief technical officer Pat Fry, who joined the team last November after leaving his previous post with the same title at Alpine earlier in 2023.

Harman resigned from Alpine at the beginning of the 2024 campaign, just as it was being revealed that the team’s A524 car was then among the slowest on the grid.

He will now become Williams’s design director and start working for his new squad after the 2024 summer break.

The other four top technical hires are former Ferrari head of performance analytics, Fabrice Moncade, ex-Haas principal aerodynamicist Juan Molina, Red Bull’s chief designer (composites and structures), Steve Winstanley, and Alpine’s former head of performance, Richard Frith.

Moncade will become Williams’s chief engineer, computing science, at the start of July, while Molina will be the team’s chief aerodynamicist from 15 July.

Winstanley has been hired as chief engineer, composites and structures, with a brief to “transform the structures department within the design office”, per a team statement announcing all the new hires.

Frith will become Williams’s head of performance systems but will not start working with the team until 2025.

Williams has also hired ex-Hewlett Packard Enterprise employee, Sorin Cheran, to be its new chief information and analytics officer (CIAO).

The Williams statement said Cheran is expected to “lead a transformation of how the team acquires, stores, indexes and uses data to build a best-in-class technology operation”.

Pat Fry, Williams Chief Technical Officer

Photo by: Williams

This follows the revelation from early 2024 that the team was using a gigantic Excel spreadsheet to plan its new car builds at the start of each year – a process that stunned team principal James Vowles and Fry.

Vowles said of his team’s new hires: “I am delighted to welcome these six incredible people to Williams.

“We are on a mission to fight our way back to the front and being able to attract experienced, championship-winning talent from other teams demonstrates huge belief in the journey we are on.

“Williams is investing in what it takes to win, and this is just the start as we prepare to welcome more new faces from across the grid in the months ahead.”

The major recruitment drive is the latest development in Williams owner Dorilton Capital’s bid to improve results at the squad that had badly waned following years of under investment before the Williams family sold the team in 2020.

“Williams has bold ambitions and huge momentum, and these exceptional recruits show this is a project people want to be part of,” said Fry.

“We are adding strength in depth to the enormous talent already at Grove as we build for the future.”