Editing Patrick Head (section)

==Early career==
{{BLP sources section|date=January 2023}}
Patrick Head was born into motor sport, his father Michael racing [[Jaguar (car)|Jaguar]] sportscars in the 1950s, and was privately educated at [[Wellington College (Berkshire)|Wellington College]]. After leaving school, Head joined the [[Royal Navy]] but soon realised that a career in the [[military]] was not how he wanted to spend his life and so left to attend [[university]], first in [[Birmingham University|Birmingham]] and later, after failing his first year exams, at [[University College London|UCL]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/march-2012/50/part-one-goldrush|title=Lunch with... Patrick Head|last=Taylor|first=Simon|date=March 2012|publisher=Motor Sport Magazine|access-date=19 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190327092810/https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/march-2012/50/part-one-goldrush|archive-date=27 March 2019|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Head graduated in 1970 with a [[Mechanical Engineering]] [[academic degree|degree]] and immediately joined the [[chassis]] manufacturer [[Lola Cars|Lola]] in [[Huntingdon]]. Here he formed a friendly relationship with [[John Barnard]], whose Formula One designs for [[McLaren]], [[Benetton Formula|Benetton]] and [[Scuderia Ferrari|Ferrari]] would later go on to compete against Williams. Head was involved in a number of new projects all trying to become established as car builders or engineering companies and it was during this period that Head and [[Frank Williams (Formula One)|Frank Williams]] met. Finally becoming disillusioned by his lack of success Head quit motor racing to work on building boats, but was lured back by Williams to join [[Frank Williams Racing Cars|his team]], which Head did during 1975.

In 1976, thirty-four-year-old Frank Williams decided that the time was right to re-form his own team and promptly set about luring Head back into Formula One. After one abortive attempt, on 8 February 1977 [[WilliamsF1|Williams Grand Prix Engineering]] was founded with Williams and Head taking seventy and thirty per cent of the company respectively. In {{F1|1977}} the team raced a customer [[March Engineering|March]] chassis, but in {{F1|1978}}, with backing from [[Saudi Airlines]] and having signed Australian driver [[Alan Jones (racing driver)|Alan Jones]], the Head-designed FW06 made its first appearance. Despite having no money, and with Williams himself frequently forced to conduct business from a [[telephone box]], Head still managed to design a respectable car.

The following season Williams scored 11 world championship points finishing 9th in the [[List of Formula One World Constructors' Champions|constructors championship]] and from here momentum began to build. As early as the fourth round of the {{F1|1979}} season Jones made the team's first visit to the podium. The same year saw a Head-designed car take the first of over one-hundred race wins when Swiss driver [[Clay Regazzoni]] won the [[1979 British Grand Prix|British Grand Prix]] at [[Silverstone Circuit|Silverstone]]. Four more victories followed in 1979 and Head was now an established [[Grand Prix motor racing|Grand Prix]] car designer.