Team Principals
Managing Director - David Richards
David Richards, Lucky Strike BAR Honda’s Team Principal Designate, began his formative motorsport career as a professional rally co-driver, following completion of articles as an accountant.
After competing in a number of factory teams in the late 70s, his last stop, with the Ford Motor Company, saw him win the World Rally Championship title in 1981, alongside Ari Vatanen. He retired at the end of the 1981 season and hasn’t been in a rally car since.
Following his retirement from active competition, Richards devoted his energy towards establishing Prodrive.
Under his direction, Prodrive has grown from a small motorsport engineering business employing only a handful of people to an organisation in excess of 1000 people, recognised globally for its achievements in motorsport and with a growing reputation for developing advanced technology for road vehicles.
Today, its MotorSport division is based in Banbury, Oxfordshire and its Automotive Technology business at Warwick on a 240 acre site which is used as a testing ground and showcase track for vehicle manufacturers. Further operations in both America and Australia, ensure a group turnover well in excess of £100 million per annum.
With successful relationships managing race and rally programmes with manufacturers including Porsche, BMW and MG, in 1990 Prodrive formed its longest standing partnership with Subaru to run its World Rally Championship programme, which still stands today.
In addition to his role as Chairman of Prodrive, Richards became the Team Principal of Benetton’s Formula One team for the 1998 season.
In November 1999, Richards sold 49% of Prodrive to Venture Capitalists Apax and in April 2000, bought International Sportworld Communicators (ISC) from Bernie Ecclestone. In doing so he acquired the television and commercial rights to the FIA World Rally Championship.
As well as retaining his focus on transforming the fortunes of the World Rally Championship, Richards is now charged with taking Lucky Strike BAR Honda out of Grand Prix racing’s midfield and into a team capable of winning the Formula One World Championship title.
David Richards is married with three children.
Technical Director - Geoffrey Willis
Although Geoffrey Willis has been involved with motorsport for 12 years, it was an involvement with waterborne speed craft that launched his career into Formula One.
After gaining an Engineering degree at Cambridge University in the early '80s, Willis joined British Maritime Technology in Teddington, Middlesex, where he plied his trade in submarine aerodynamics and hydrodynamics. BMT is a company well known in Formula One circles through its collaboration with McLaren, who have developed and used one of its wind tunnels for aerodynamic testing for many years. While working for BMT he also gained his PHD in Engineering Science at Exeter University.
After leaving BMT, Willis joined a company dealing in Computational Fluid Dynamics and computer graphics in Oxfordshire, and at the same time gravitated towards the UK's motorsport industry hub. After a short while he took up an opportunity to work as hydrodynamicist for the Blue Arrow America's Cup Yacht team, who were incidentally based in his hometown port of Southampton. However, his first direct contact with the world of Formula One came in 1990, when he acted as a consultant to the Leyton House Grand Prix team to work on CFD; his first contact with the team's then chief designer, Adrian Newey.
At the time, the application of CFD in Formula One was very new and Willis stayed with Leyton House for eight months developing its use. When Newey moved to Williams later that year, he immediately offered Geoffrey a position alongside him, working initially on CFD development again. Gradually though, Willis became more involved in the overall design process of the car, and it came as no surprise when he was promoted to Chief Aerodynamicist in 1996, following Newey's departure to McLaren.
Willis was involved in the design of the team's cars from 1997 to the current model contesting the 2002 Formula One World Championship, but late last year Geoffrey jumped at the opportunity to expand his horizons by joining the Lucky Strike BAR Honda team.
He began work as Technical Director following the 2002 Australian GP and alongside new Team Principal David Richards, forms part of the second generation of senior management looking to harness the undoubted potential of the Lucky Strike BAR Honda team and shape them into genuine Championship contenders.
Group Managing Director - Nick Fry
Nick Fry joined BAR at the start of 2002 under the management agreement with Prodrive. He has been Managing Director of the Prodrive group of companies since 2001.
Fry began his career with the Ford Motor Company in 1977 as a graduate trainee after gaining a degree in Economics from the University of Wales. Over the next 11 years he held a variety of positions within Ford and when Ford acquired more than 50% of Aston Martin Lagonda Limited in 1992, Fry was the natural choice for the role of Director of Operations of this prestige marque.
By 1997, Fry's cross-functional background led him to become Brand Manager for Large Cars at Ford Europe where he spent two years working on the company's European marketing strategy, with responsibility for developing the Mondeo brand including development of the popular 'ST' sporty models. Nick's final two years at Ford were spent as Product Planning and Business Director for Ford Europe, based in Cologne, Germany, where he helped to develop the Ford Europe re-structuring plan and the product-led recovery which tripled the number of new Ford products each year versus historical levels.
In January 2001, Nick Fry was persuaded by David Richards to join Prodrive in the role of Managing Director, Prodrive Automotive Technology, where he has been responsible for leading Prodrive's expansion into outsourced engineering services. Within four months of his appointment, Prodrive Automotive Technology had a full order book for 2001 and major steps had been taken to grow the company in the UK and beyond with the acquisition of the Tickford Group. This expansion saw Nick become Group Managing Director overseeing both the company's engineering and racing operations.
In January 2002, Nick joined David Richards' management team at BAR where he is now Managing Director.
Group Marketing Director - Hugh Chambers
From the beginning, Hugh seemed destined to end up in motor racing - his father Marcus had been a leading figure in the industry as Competitions Director of BMC and MG. Hugh was educated at Magdalen College School, and went on to read for a BSc in Geography at Plymouth University. After graduating in 1978, Hugh decided that the lure of motor-racing would have to wait a while, and was instead drawn to the world of marketing and advertising.
Joining the then fledgling ad agency, Saatchi & Saatchi, as an account executive, Hugh was to spend most of the next 16 years in advertising. After five years experiencing the exciting rise of Saatchi's, he decided to make the move to one of the world's more established elite agencies, Young & Rubicam.
In 1989, taking a break from the world of advertising, Hugh led a start up business in the menswear retail sector, created with venture capital backing. The concept was highly regarded and awarded the GQ new retailer of the year award in 1990. Once past the initial phase, Hugh handed over the reins to a management team and headed back to Y&R.
A change of career was to come in 1994 following an exchange of ideas with the Chairman of a small motorsport company called Prodrive. Joining the Board as Marketing Director, and enlisted as a shareholder a year later, Hugh became part of the management team that would take Prodrive from just 80 employees to its current 1000 staff, and turnover of $160M.
Today, as Group Sales and Marketing Director, Hugh is responsible for all aspects of Prodrive's marketing activities, which encompass corporate and brand marcomms, as well as delivering marketing services to the operating divisions of the company, including those in the USA and Australia.
In January 2002, in addition to existing responsibilities, Hugh became part of the new Prodrive-led BAR management group. As Group Sales and Marketing Director, his principle responsibility is for sponsor client services and new business development. Leading a department of 17 people, the future commercial success of the team rests with their ability to attract and retain sponsors.
The Drivers
