F1 News: Former McLaren and Ferrari guru ‘wants to build’ another team into winner

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Former McLaren and Ferrari F1 guru ‘wants to build’ another team into winner

Pat Fry is no stranger to success and wants to help Williams taste it

Cal Gaunt

Tuesday 16 January 2024 10:57

Williams' newly appointed chief technical officer Pat Fry is determined to recreate his past success in F1, having contributed to 66 race victories and one world championship triumph at McLaren between 1993 and 2010.

Fry made the move from Alpine to Williams, enticed by James Vowles, who has already initiated positive changes during his one season as the head of Williams.

Before Vowles took charge, Williams consistently finished at the bottom of the constructors' championship between 2018 and 2022.

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However, with drivers Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant in the lineup for 2023 and beyond, the team have made significant strides, securing a seventh-place finish last term.

Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant will again drive for Williams in 2024

Pat Fry was part of the McLaren team that saw Lewis Hamilton claim his first world title in 2008

Fry hungry for Williams wins

Now, with Fry on board, the future looks even more promising for the Oxfordshire-based team, as he aims to leverage his expertise to bring home victories, which would mark a return to glory not seen since Juan Pablo Montoya's victory in the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix.

“I went back there [to Alpine] with the idea of going back to the team where I started many years ago and to try and rebuild that and try and bring them forward again,” Fry told the official F1 website.

“The first three years were great, everyone at Enstone should be proud of what we managed to achieve. We were a distant fifth; year on year we designed and developed a better car and we were a solid fourth at the end.

“I want to do more, I want to end up building another winning team. Winning is everything. We weren’t really committed enough [at Alpine] to take it beyond fourth place.

"We might have said we could do it, but we never had the buy-in from the management to push it the extra bit, so in March I decided I had taken it as far as I can and I’ll look for something else. James [Vowles] had been pestering me for a while and this is a fantastic opportunity.”

Welcome, Pat! 👋

Our new Chief Technical Officer, Pat Fry, has joined us in Brazil following his first week with the team! 🤝 pic.twitter.com/w3qrn0rXB9
— Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) November 4, 2023