On Tuesday evening McLaren Honda Formula 1 Team confirmed that long-standing team manager Dave Redding had left the Woking-based team to join rivals Williams Martini Racing for the 2017 season, and now Williams have announced that he will be working alongside current sporting manager Steve Nielson to ensure a smooth transition, before Nielson takes a more factory-based role from next season, a move he has long been eager to make.
“From the start, our sporting manager, Steve Nielsen has always been clear about his desire to do less travelling following the end of the 2017 season and we fully understood and respected his request given he has been in travelling roles for over 30 years,” said Claire Williams, deputy team principal.
Nielson has played a pivotal role at the Grove-outfit, with Williams praising him for “a fantastic job since joining the team in 2014, from restructuring the race team to the brilliant work in driving the turnaround of our pit stop performance.”
We don’t have to be reminded about their pit stop dominance of last year; they consistently achieved the fastest tyre changes for Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas. It is improvements like these that Williams will be eager to preserve through this season and seasons to come.
“We can confirm that Dave Redding will join Williams as team manager later this year to work alongside Steve to ensure a seamless handover ahead of taking full responsibility for the race team in 2018.”
