Patrick Head has been knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, the 69-year-old engineer is one of the most influential F1 engineers, having co-founded and led the engineering team at Williams for 27 years, between 1977 and 2004. Many of the top engineers such as Adrian Newey, Ross Brawn, Neil Oatley, Paddy Lowe, Frank Dernie, Sergio Rinland, Geoff Willis and Enrique Scalabroni learned their skills under Head’s guidance. One hopes that John Barnard will be similarly recognised at some point.
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joeblogsf1 
Joe: Outstanding news, indeed! What a legacy at Williams with Sir Frank and now Sir Patrick!!
Lawrence
Great recognition for the man and his unique brand of engineering and management!
Richly deserved – well done Patrick!
Wonderful news!
Still no knighthood then for John Surtees….. Well done Sir Partick though.
The reason for that is that Surtees was not only an F1 champion, but primarily a multiple motorcycle world champion. Motorbikes are far too working class and common to be recognised by the ‘honours’ list.
Not taking anything away from Patrick Head of course, who deserves as much award as can be given.
The whole system is a load of old cobblers isn’t it? Civil servants still receive honours for doing their job. On that basis I should be Sir Stephen – please genuflect accordingly!
Well deserved.Congratulations, Sir Patrick. 🙂
Good news but agree with reference to JB – another outstanding figure who also deserves to be recognised. Worth remembering too that it should have been “Sir” Ken Tyrrell at some point in his life; how he was overlooked I’ll never know…….RIP “Sir” Ken……
I suppose Sir Patrick comes about due in part to Williams export record on some of their subsidiary companies.
As for John Barnard, I never really forgave him (as a young Benetton fan) for the the B191… I was expecting innovation in a similar line to Ferrari’s 639 and the brilliance of his Mclaren years.
What we got was a plain looking car whose main innovation was a chassis with no internal bulkheads… that Martin Brundle claimed handled like a bath tub with a loose wheel.
I think he’d become bored by F1 by that time, I do remember him popping up in mid 1997 to make Damons Arrows safe…
not before time
and love him or hate him , what about sir ron!
It should be.
+1.
Great recognition for Sir Patrick, someone who has stood by Sir Frank through all the toils and struggles to make it the multiple championship winning team it became. I hope it returns to title winning calibre…
That is an honour that is well deserved for Patrick Head and for Motorsport. It would have been really nice too, if John Surtees had received a Knighthood as well, for his outstanding contribution to Motorsport in general, and to British motorsport in particular.
John Surtees ?.. Seems like its becoming standard practice to ingnore him.
IMHO – Too many sychophants ,civil servants and bankrollers get knighted ,for it to really mean anything these days.
My thoughts exactly – it seems an absolute travesty for Surtees to have been ignored yet again!
We have, Sir Mick Jagger and Sir Elton John but no Sir John Surtees, that makes no sense whatsoever to me.
Fantastic news! Well deserved. As you mention him, what’s Ross up to, he must be bored of fishing by now!
And John Surtees – long overdue!
Dear Joe, all
That certainly put a smile into an otherwise average Saturday evening. Thoroughly deserved.
Noting Dan Elfman’s comment- in Australia, we have the Order of Australia, and, it has its share of people who have done nothing more than their job description.
At least one can say that Sir Patrick Head’s knighthood is not a “Sir Humphrey Applebey” job, surely?
Cheers
MarkR
How wonderful! i was a supplier to Williams GP Eng way back in their Station Road, Didcot, days so this recognition of Sir Patrick being a pathfinder in technology and also a mentor to many up and coming designers over the years is long overdue IMHO.
As far as I can tell, the public nominate people for awards though supporters are also required. I think the minimum is 1 nomination and two supporters. These nominations go through expert committees before final ratification by the Prime Minister.
I believe about 10% of nominations are successful. So, is nobody nominating the old F1 greats or are their nominations not getting through approval? F1 fans can try and fix one of those scenarios. Apparently, the more nominations and supporters the greater the chance of success.
There’s some info here for those interested..
https://www.gov.uk/honours/overview
he is at le mans apparently. audi use williams flywheels. rumours of audi joining f1… could it be williams audi in 2017?
No
Yes What has John Surtees done or who has he upset to be left out??
No idea
It’s possible John Surtees may have refused the offer of such an honour, of course. He wouldn’t be the first, and as there’s no official list of recent refusals we won’t know unless he comments, which he appears not to have done.
Congrats to Sir Patrick – thoroughly well deserved.
I don’t believe that is the case.
I am absolutely delighted for Patrick and Monica – our old friend thoroughly deserves this.
As for Big John, the ongoing omission of this eight-time British World Champion has long ceased to be an oversight and now borders on the spiteful. Perhaps he should practice throwing himself backwards on to a Premier Inn bed – I’m told that’s a pretty precarious and deeply important activity.
And don’t get me started about Richard Noble and Andy Green…
I’m not sure about the nominations system, Azzurro_F. A few years ago I collected nomination signatures from Fernando, Kimi, Lewis, Jenson, Damon and several others and my elder son Tom, working at that time in MotoGP for Bridgestone, got the likes of Valentino, Jorge, Casey Stoner and Ben Spies. As I recall, between us we had 10 World Champions. Made **** all difference, which is why it’s spiteful. When a trade union leader earning £121,000 gets a knighthood and Big John continues to be ignored by the nation for which he won eight World Championships, my needle goes firmly into the red.
Best not to take any notice of the system at all David. After all, Lenny Henry got a knighthood – how insane is that! For me, the only honours worth a light now are those that reward genuine good works and certainly not ‘ here today gone tomorrow’ politicians or actors and the like.
I notice a lot of people get honours not only for their achievements, but for their charity work. Big John surely scores well here with the work of the Henry Surtees Foundation. Personally I think it took a special type of courage, not to mention “youthful energy” to start such a thing after such a tragedy when many people would have simply slunk away in grief.
He obviously doesn’t lick the right boots…
Here, here!
Well Done Indeed Patrick Head! It is hugely deserved – and the nation rightly recognises your unique contribution – well well done!.
I must however, like others, re-register my astonishment that John Surtees – Seven times Motorbike World Champion – Formula 1 motor racing World Champion; Ferrari driver and Formula 1 Team Owner has once again been overlooked. So far just MBE/OBE podiums.
This guy not only won Eight world championships – on two and four wheels – three consecutively, 1958, 1959, 1960. His own racing team – Surtees Racing Organisation – competed successfully in Formula 5000, Formula 2 and F1 – culminating in the lifting of the European F2 championship in 1972. Too much charitable work to mention and inductee International Motorsports Hall of Fame and FIM Grand Prix legend 2003………….. Jeepers! Lest we forget my friends! I have heard he may have rubbed one or two people the wrong way – but don’t we all. Hope I haven’t overdone it.
Finish on a real positive – Well done again Patrick – step up lad and lift the winners trophy!
That’s a fine list of engineers he’s helped develop. Could it be argued that he’s the largest contibutor to developing the UK F1 industry? He certainly seems to be the “grandfather” of F1 engineers.
Doesn’t this also mean that it’ll be ‘Lady’ Betise?
No. It’s Lady Monica
Thanks for the correction Joe. 😉