Formula One News: Williams F1 Revamp Technical Team For Second Phase

The Williams Formula 1 team has recently added two more senior engineers thus revamping its technical lineup. The Grove based outfit has announced that they have added Jason Somerville and Mark Gillan in their technical department. The two senior engineers will be joining the squad from later in the season after the departure of current technical engineers, Sam Michaels and Jon Tomlinson.

Jason Somerville will be joining the team as the head of aerodynamics department where as Mark Gillan will take up the responsibility of chief operations officer in the Williams Formula 1 team. The Williams technical lineup will now be in a completely new look, as prior to hiring these two senior engineers Williams had also hired former McLaren designer Mike Coughlan who will now head the new technical lineup of the team.

Now Williams’ technical department will have two phases. In the first phase Sam Michaels and Jon Tomlinson will work as Technical Director and Aero Chief respectively. The two will be departing later this year and from then onward the second phase will start with Mike Coughlan, Jason Somerville and Mark Gillan.

The Grove based outfit had a terrible start to the season as the team were not able to score any point in the first five races of the season. However, their form improved in the later races but till now they are currently lying on 9^th place in the Constructor’s Championship with just 4 points. With the appointment, Williams is hoping that they might be able to extract more from their car and will able to score points in the second phase.

Somerville has experience of working in Formula 1 and also with the Williams team. In 1997 Somerville worked as an aerodynamicist for racing teams. He designed the cars which won the Sebring 12hrs and Le Mans 24hrs in 1999. Later on he joined the Williams Team. Somerville also worked with Toyota till 2009 as a deputy head of aerodynamics and more recently with the Renault F1 team as a aerodynamics project leader.

Gillan is also an experienced engineer, having worked with McLaren, Jaguar and Toyota Formula 1 teams. He will join the Williams team from 1 October. Recently he has been working as a professor at the University of Surrey. Gillan is also working as a aerodynamics consultant with an unknown team currently.

Williams Team chief Frank Williams believes that the new technical guys in the team will improve the performance of their team.

Williams F1 is looking forward to welcoming Jason and Mark to the team. They bring with them talent, experience and good team skills. We now feel that, together with Mike Coughlan, Jason and Mark can form the right technical leadership to take the team forward as we work our way back to the front of the grid.