Mark Richard Williams (born 7 April 1959) is a British engineer. He was known as the engineer for race cars development at

McLaren McLaren Racing Limited ( ) is a British auto racing, motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. The team is a subsidiary of the McLaren Group, which owns a majority of the team. McLaren is best known a ...

from 1996 until 2015.

Career

Williams attended

Imperial College London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

, where he studied mechanical engineering and graduated in 1980 with a master's degree. His first job in Formula One was as a composite engineer for the

Ensign Racing Ensign was a Formula One constructor from Britain. They participated in 133 grands prix, entering a total of 155 cars. Ensign scored 19 championship points and no podium finishes. The best result was a 4th place at the 1981 Brazilian Grand Pri ...

. In 1982, he became a design engineer for engine components at the engineering technology firm Ricardo Consulting. In his spare time, he worked on freelancing race car design and engineering at Delta Cars, based near Hove. In 1983, he landed his first full-time job as a race car designer at

Lola Cars Lola Cars Limited is a British automobile manufacturer founded in 1958 by Eric Broadley in Bromley, England. The company is now owned by Till Bechtolsheimer, who purchased it in 2022. Lola Cars endured for more than fifty years to become one of ...

, working on projects ranging from Formula Ford to IndyCar. He also served as the chief operating officer for the Formula 3000 program from 1985. In 1987, he was responsible as a race engineer for Luis Perez-Sala in the Lola Motorsport F3000 car. Later, in 1994, he worked as a race technician for Forsythe Green Racing in

Championship Auto Racing Teams Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) was a Governing body, sanctioning body for American open-wheel car racing that operated from 1979 until dissolving after the 2003 CART season, 2003 season. CART was founded in 1979 by team owners formerly ...

. In January 1996, he worked with

Gordon Murray Ian Gordon Murray (born 18 June 1946), is a successful and influential South African-British former (Formula One) race-car designer, renowned firstly as lead designer for both the Brabham and McLaren Formula 1 racing teams, during 196 ...

on the BMW Super Touring Car program, which was run by

McLaren Automotive McLaren Automotive ( ; formerly known as McLaren Cars) is a British luxury Automotive industry, automotive Manufacturing, manufacturer based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, England. The main products of the company are sports cars, ...

. He eventually became the Head of Vehicle Engineering. At the end of 1997, he moved to the

McLaren F1 Team McLaren Racing Limited ( ) is a British auto racing, motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. The team is a subsidiary of the McLaren Group, which owns a majority of the team. McLaren is best known a ...

and was in charge of the technical team for many years. In 2001, he was appointed as Chief Engineer of Vehicle Development, overseeing research and development. A highlight of his track role was the car driven by

Mika Hakkinen Mika is a given name, a nickname, and a surname. Notable people and fictional characters with the name include: People known just as Mika * Mika (singer) (born 1983), Lebanese-born British singer-songwriter Michael Penniman, Jr. * Mika (footbal ...

, who served until his last F1 win at Indianapolis in 2001. In 2002, he worked as Chief Engineer under the technical guidance of

Adrian Newey Adrian Martin Newey (born 26 December 1958) is a British engineer, aerodynamicist, automotive designer and motorsport executive. Since 2025, Newey has served as technical director and co-owner of Aston Martin in Formula One; he previously serv ...

. In 2007, he became the Head of Vehicle Performance. Since 2011, he has successfully combined his F1 responsibilities to establish McLaren's growing GT3 sports car program. He retired from his F1 job in January 2015 and ran a consulting firm called MW Consulting, until dissolved in 2021.

References

{{Authority control 1959 births Living people McLaren people Formula One engineers British automotive engineers Alumni of Imperial College London