Geoffrey Willis : Date of Birth

Technical Director 23 December 1959

Although Geoffrey Willis has been involved with motorsport for 14 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 2002, but in late 2001 Geoffrey jumped at the opportunity to expand his horizons by joining the BAR Honda team.

He began work as Technical Director following the 2002 Australian GP. Alongside new Team Principal Nick Fry, and new team owners Honda, he is now part of the third generation of senior management looking to harness the undoubted potential of the Honda Racing F1 Team and shape them into genuine Championship contenders.

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