David Richards (motorsport executive)

Last updated

David Richards
CBE
David Richards.jpg
Richards in 2005
Nationality British
Occupation(s)Chairman of Prodrive
Chairman of Motorsport UK
former Chairman of Aston Martin
World Rally Championship record
Active years1974–1981
Teams Ford
Rallies25
Championships 1 (1981)
Rally wins 4
Podiums11
Stage wins198
First rally1974 RAC Rally
First win1980 Acropolis Rally
Last win1981 1000 Lakes Rally
Last rally1981 RAC Rally

David Pender Richards CBE is the chairman of Prodrive and chairman of Motorsport UK. He is former chairman of Aston Martin and a former team principal of the BAR and Benetton Formula One teams.

Contents

Rally driving

Richards won the 1981 World Rally Championship as a co-driver to Ari Vatanen. [1] [ better source needed ]

Prodrive circuit racing

In 1987 Prodrive entered into what was to become a long-standing partnership with BMW in the British Touring Car Championship. They took the Class B title three times, from 1988 to 1990, winning outright in 1988 with Frank Sytner. [2]

Formula One

Jacques Villeneuve driving for the then Prodrive-run BAR team at the US Grand Prix at Indianapolis in 2003 Villeneuve BAR USGP 2003.jpg
Jacques Villeneuve driving for the then Prodrive-run BAR team at the US Grand Prix at Indianapolis in 2003

Richards became chief executive of Benetton Formula in 1998, replacing Flavio Briatore. [3] He left after just a year in his post and was replaced by Rocco Benetton for 1999. [3]

When the British American Racing (BAR) team was restructuring after the departure of Craig Pollock in 2001, the owners, British American Tobacco (BAT), brought in Prodrive to run the team with Richards as its team principal. Under his direction there was an immediate improvement in performance, ultimately leading to the team taking second place in the 2004 F1 Constructors' Championship. Richards also brought Jenson Button to the team and made him lead driver, providing the majority of their championship points in 2004. This success led to BAT selling a 45% share of the team to Honda in late 2004. With Prodrive having completed its management contract with BAT, Richards stood down as team principal and Prodrive's then managing director Nick Fry assumed this role. [4]

His Prodrive company entered a bid to enter a Formula One team for the 2008 season and on 28 April 2006, Prodrive were officially granted entry when the FIA announced the list of entrants to the 2008 Formula One World Championship. [5] However, on 22 November 2007, he was forced to announce that Prodrive F1 would not be competing in the 2008 Formula One World Championship after a lack of clarity over the legality of 'customer cars' and the threat of possible legal action. [6]

Aston Martin

On 12 March 2007, Richards led a consortium of investors including Investment Dar and Adeem Investment, raising $925 million to finance the purchase of Aston Martin from Ford. Richards subsequently became chairman of the car company. He stepped down from this role at the end of 2013. [7]

Personal life

On 16 September 2007 Richards and his wife, Karen, survived a forced landing in their helicopter in Essex whilst returning from the 2007 Belgian Grand Prix, less than 24 hours after his former WRC driver, Colin McRae, perished in a similar accident along with his son and two others. [8] Based on Prodrive's statement after the incident, Richards was piloting Prodrive's Eurocopter EC 135. Both Richards and his wife Karen walked away unharmed. [9]

In the 2005 New Year Honours, Richards was appointed a CBE for his services to motorsport. [10] In 2017, he was inducted into the Motor Sport Hall of Fame and received the Spirit of Le Mans award from the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO).[ citation needed ] In 2019 he received the Autocar Outstanding Leader Award.[ citation needed ] Cranfield School of Management awarded Richards an Honorary Doctor of Science degree in 2008. [11]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ "Season 1981 rally". ewrc-results.com. Retrieved 8 May 2024.
  2. ↑ "Company History". Prodrive.com. Archived from the original on 27 September 2013. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
  3. 1 2 "Benetton boss steps down". BBC News. 30 October 1998. Archived from the original on 16 February 2023. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
  4. ↑ Cropley, S (10 November 2004). "Out, but not down". Autocar: 72–73.
  5. ↑ "2008 FIA Formula One World Championship Entry List". Archived from the original on 22 June 2007.
  6. ↑ "Prodrive no-go for 2008".
  7. ↑ Bradley, Charles (5 February 2016). "Sixty-car grid confirmed for 2016 Le Mans 24 Hours". Motorsport. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
  8. ↑ "Rally boss in helicopter escape". BBC News. 16 September 2007. Retrieved 2 January 2010.
  9. ↑ "AAIB investigation into helicopter crash".
  10. ↑ "Supplement 57509, 31 December 2004". The London Gazette . 30 December 2004. Archived from the original on 1 May 2020. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  11. ↑ "Cranfield University Hon Grad". Archived from the original on 7 August 2011. Retrieved 11 November 2008.

Related Research Articles

Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC is a British manufacturer of luxury sports cars and grand tourers. Its predecessor was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. Steered from 1947 by David Brown, it became associated with expensive grand touring cars in the 1950s and 1960s, and with the fictional character James Bond following his use of a DB5 model in the 1964 film Goldfinger. Their grand tourers and sports cars are regarded as a British cultural icon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British American Racing</span> Former British Formula One motor racing team

British American Racing (BAR) was a Formula One constructor that competed in the sport from 1999 to 2005. BAR began by acquiring Tyrrell, and used Supertec engines for their first year. Subsequently, they formed a partnership with Honda which lasted for the next six years.

<i>Fédération Internationale de lAutomobile</i> International motorsport governing body

The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile is an international organisation with two primary functions surrounding use of the automobile. Its mobility division advocates the interests of motoring organisations, the automotive industry and motor car users in the fields of road safety and traffic circulation. The sport division is a governing body for many international motorsport championships and disciplines, including Formula One.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benetton Formula</span> Former motor racing team

Benetton Formula Limited., commonly referred to simply as Benetton, was a Formula One constructor that participated from 1986 to 2001. The team was owned by the Benetton family who run a worldwide chain of clothing stores. In 2000, the team was purchased by Renault, but competed as Benetton for the 2000 and 2001 seasons. In 2002, the team became Renault. The Benetton Formula team was chaired by Alessandro Benetton from 1988 to 1998.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2002 Formula One World Championship</span> 56th season of FIA Formula One motor racing

The 2002 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 56th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 2002 Formula One World Championship for Drivers and the 2002 Formula One World Championship for Constructors, which were contested concurrently over a seventeen-race series that commenced on 3 March and ended on 13 October.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tomáš Enge</span> Czech racing driver (born 1976)

Tomáš Enge is a Czech former professional racing driver who has competed in many classes of motorsport, including three races in Formula One.

Prodrive is an English motorsport and advanced engineering group based in Banbury, Oxfordshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nick Fry</span> British businessman (born 1956)

Nicholas Richard Fry is the former Chief Executive Officer of the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, having previously served in similar roles at previous incarnations of the company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pat Symonds</span> British motorsport engineer (born 1953)

Patrick Bruce Reith Symonds is a British motor racing engineer, who is currently the executive engineering consultant for the Andretti Cadillac F1 program. He was the Chief Technical Officer at Williams Grand Prix Engineering from 2013 until 2016, having previously worked at the Benetton, Renault and Virgin Formula One teams. Until May 2024 he was the Chief Technical Officer of Formula One. In September 2009, Symonds was forced to resign from the ING Renault F1 team due to his involvement in race fixing at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. After the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) conducted its own investigation, Symonds and Renault's Managing Director Flavio Briatore were banned indefinitely from any events sanctioned by the FIA, although this ban was later overturned by a French Tribunal de Grande Instance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christian Horner</span> British motorsport executive (born 1973)

Christian Edward Johnston Horner is a British motorsport executive and former racing driver. Since 2005, Horner has served as team principal and CEO of Red Bull Racing in Formula One, winning six World Constructors' Championship titles between 2010 and 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rickard Rydell</span> Swedish racing driver (born 1967)

John Rickard Rydell is a retired Swedish racing driver. He won the 1998 British Touring Car Championship, the 2011 Scandinavian Touring Car Championship, and has also been a frontrunner in the European/World Touring Car Championship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2008 Formula One World Championship</span> 59th season of the FIA Formula One World Championship

The 2008 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 62nd season of Formula One motor racing, recognised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) – the governing body of motorsport – as the highest class of competition for open-wheel racing cars. The championship was contested over eighteen races commencing in Australia on 16 March and ending in Brazil on 2 November. The 2008 season saw the debut of the Singapore Grand Prix, which was held at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, in Marina Bay, Singapore and was the first Formula One race held at night. The European Grand Prix moved to a new venue at the Valencia Street Circuit, in Valencia, Spain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Direxiv</span>

Direxiv Co. Ltd. was a motorsports company that competed in Super GT and Formula Nippon. The company had links to the GP2 Series, then the feeder series for Formula One, and had submitted an entry to run a Formula One team in 2008.

Prodrive F1 Team was the name of a proposed Formula One team to be run by Prodrive. The team was selected by the FIA in 2006 to be the 12th entry into the 2008 Formula One world championship. In November 2007, a legal challenge to the team's proposed use of customer cars led to Prodrive pulling out of the 2008 season.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Kox</span> Dutch racing driver (born 1964)

Petrus Dionysius Lambertus Theodorus Kox is a racing driver from the Netherlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aston Martin Racing</span> Motorsports team

Aston Martin Racing is a British auto racing team established in 2004 as a partnership between automobile manufacturer Aston Martin and engineering group Prodrive. The partnership was initially created for the purpose of returning Aston Martin to sports car racing with the DBR9, a heavily modified variant of the Aston Martin DB9. Since the DBR9's racing debut in 2005, Aston Martin Racing has expanded to build a variety of cars available to customers, as well as development of Aston Martin's V12 engine for Le Mans Prototype use. Aston Martin Racing's program has earned several successes over the years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toto Wolff</span> Austrian investor and motorsport executive (born 1972)

Torger Christian "Toto" Wolff is an Austrian billionaire investor, motorsport executive and former racing driver. Since 2013, Wolff has served as team principal, CEO and co-owner of Mercedes in Formula One, winning eight consecutive World Constructors' Championship titles from 2014 to 2021; he also served as director and CEO of Mercedes-EQ in Formula E, winning two Formula E World Teams' Championship titles.

The Prodrive WRC Team, formerly known as the Mini WRC Team was the name given to the World Rally Championship (WRC) team run by Prodrive. Prodrive developed the car, the Mini John Cooper Works WRC, in cooperation with MINI.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aston Martin in Formula One</span> Formula One activities of Aston Martin

Aston Martin is a British car manufacturer that has participated in Formula One in various forms and is currently represented by a team named as Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team. The company first participated in Formula One during the 1959 season, where they debuted the DBR4 chassis using their own engine, but it failed to score any points. They continued to perform poorly through the 1960 season, once again failing to score any points. As a result, Aston Martin decided to leave Formula One after 1960.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.