views
London: Williams announced two more key technical appointments on Tuesday with Jason Somerville returning to the team as head of aerodynamics and ex-McLaren man Mark Gillan arriving as chief operations engineer.
Former champions Williams, without a Formula One win since 2004 and struggling in the standings this season with just four points from eight races, have embarked on a major technical overhaul.
Mike Coughlan, who left McLaren after being embroiled in a 2007 spying controversy, has already started work as chief engineer while current technical director Sam Michael is leaving at the end of the season.
Williams said Somerville would start on Aug. 15 with Gillan on board from Oct. 1.
Somerville first joined Williams in 1997 working on the Le Mans sportscar programme before moving over to Formula One operations in 1999 as joint-head of the aerodynamics department.
He subsequently moved to Toyota in 2003 and then, when the Japanese team quit the sport at the end of 2009, to Renault F1.
Gillan also worked for Toyota, after stints at McLaren and Jaguar, and most recently was professor of vehicle engineering at the University of Surrey while also acting as an F1 consultant.
"We now feel that, together with Mike Coughlan, Jason and Mark can form the right technical leadership to take the team forward as we work our way back to the front of the grid," said team principal and founder Frank Williams.
Comments
0 comment