David Richards (racing)
Encyclopedia
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(b. 3 June 1952, Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
) is the chairman of Prodrive
Prodrive
Prodrive is a British motorsport and automotive engineering group based in Banbury, Oxfordshire, England. It designs, constructs and races cars for companies and teams such as Subaru, Aston Martin and Ford...
and Aston Martin, and a former team principal of the BAR
British American Racing
British American Racing 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...
and Benetton
Benetton Formula
Benetton Formula Ltd., commonly referred to simply as Benetton, was a Formula One constructor that participated from to . The team was owned by the Benetton family who run a worldwide chain of clothing stores of the same name. In 2000 the team was purchased by Renault, but competed as Benetton for...
Formula One
Formula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
motor racing teams. He lives with his wife, Karen, in Warwickshire
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...
and has three children.
Education
Richards grew up in North Wales, attending Brynhyfryd School in Ruthin, Denbighshire. At the age of only 17 years and 3 months he became the then youngest person in Wales to hold a private pilot's licence and was awarded an RAF university scholarship. However, after completing his first year of A-Levels, he left school aged 17 to spend five years studying for his articles as a chartered accountant. It was during this period that he established his early career as a professional rally co-driver winning his first national rally championship with Tony Drummond in 1974.Early career
In 1976, he established his own motorsport consultancy and created a new rally series in the Middle East, before joining the British Leyland factory team, co-driving Tony Pond. In the same year, he married his wife Karen.The following year he took up the position of team manager for Fiat, before returning to competition with the Ford factory team in 1979. Here he formed a successful and long-standing partnership with the Finnish rally driver, Ari Vatanen
Ari Vatanen
Ari Pieti Uolevi Vatanen is a Finnish rally driver turned politician and Member of the European Parliament 1999–2009. Vatanen won the World Rally Championship drivers' title in 1981 and the Paris Dakar Rally four times....
. The two won both the British and Scandinavian Championships before going on to win the World Rally Championship in a Ford Escort RS1800 in 1981.
After winning the World Rally Championship he took the decision to retire from active competition and focussed his attention on organising rallies on behalf of Rothmans in the Middle East and setting up his own rally team. In 1984, Richards brought together Rothmans and Porsche and took his next major step in motorsport management, creating Prodrive to engineer and run the newly formed Rothmans Porsche Rally Team in the European and Middle East Rally Championships.
Prodrive early years
In 1984, the Porsche Rothmans Rally Team won the Middle East Rally Championship for three consecutive years and finished runners up in the European Championship in its first year of competition.Rapid expansion of his new Prodrive company led to a move to a new facility at Banbury, Oxfordshire in 1986 (the current headquarters of this business). The same year, Richards' team ran a privately entered MG Metro 6R4 in the British and Irish rally championships, alongside the Porsche programme. The following year saw Prodrive begin a six-year relationship with BMW in both rallying and touring car racing. His BMW team won three consecutive British Touring Car Championships (BTCC) in 1988, 1989, and 1990, while the BMW rally teams began to dominate tarmac rallying across Europe winning the Belgian and French series with the Group A BMW M3 rally car.
A pivotal meeting with Fuji Heavy Industries at the Safari Rally in 1989, led to the creation of the Subaru World Rally Team (SWRT).
Subaru World Rally Team
Under Richards' direction the team embarked on a programme, initially in the British, and subsequently the Asia-Pacific and World Rally Championships (WRC). It was Richards who, in 1990, saw the raw talent of young driver Colin McRaeColin McRae
Colin Steele McRae, MBE was a Scottish rally driver born in Lanark.The son of five-time British Rally Champion Jimmy McRae and brother of rally driver Alister McRae, Colin McRae was the 1991 and 1992 British Rally Champion and, in 1995, became the first British person and the youngest to win the...
, and later Richard Burns
Richard Burns
Richard Alexander Burns was an English rally driver. He was born in Reading, Berkshire. He was the 2001 World Rally Champion, having previously finished runner-up in the series in 1999 and 2000. He also helped Mitsubishi to the world manufacturers' title in 1998, and Peugeot in 2002...
and Petter Solberg
Petter Solberg
Petter "Hollywood" Solberg , from Spydeberg in Østfold, Norway, is a professional rally driver. He debuted in the World Rally Championship in 1998 and was signed by the Ford factory team in 1999...
. He personally oversaw the development of their early careers, leading to two British titles for Subaru and McRae in 1991 and 1992, and a further title for Burns in 1993. Drivers such as Carlos Sainz
Carlos Sainz
Carlos Sainz Cenamor is a Spanish rally driver. He won the World Rally Championship drivers' title with Toyota in 1990 and 1992, and finished runner-up four times...
, Juha Kankkunen
Juha Kankkunen
Juha Matti Pellervo Kankkunen is a Finnish former rally driver. His factory team career in the World Rally Championship lasted from 1983 to 2002. He won 23 world rallies and four drivers' world championship titles, which were both once records in the series...
, Possum Bourne and Tommi Mäkinen
Tommi Mäkinen
"Turbo" Tommi Antero Mäkinen , tied with Juha Kankkunen and behind Sébastien Loeb , and fifth in wins .He is a four-time World Rally Champion, a series he first won, and then successfully defended, continuously throughout 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999, on all occasions driving the Ralliart Mitsubishi...
all competed for the team.
The team’s highlight came in 1995 when the Subaru World Rally Team and Colin McRae achieved the double of the Drivers’ and Manufacturers’ World Rally titles. Under Richards' direction, the team went on to win two further Manufacturers’ titles, in 1996 and 1997. Richard Burns and Petter Solberg won further Drivers' titles in 2001 and 2003, respectively.
At the end of 2008, Subaru decided to withdraw from the World Rally Championship.
Prodrive circuit racing
Alfa Romeo had won the British Touring Car Championship in 1994, with cars run by Alfa CorseAlfa Corse
Alfa Corse is the name of Alfa Romeo's factory racing team. Throughout the years, Alfa Corse has competed in various forms of motorsport, from Grand Prix motor racing to touring car racing....
. Prodrive took over the running of the cars for the 1995 season. However, the Alfa was not the dominant force it had been, and the highest-placed driver, reigning champion Gabriele Tarquini
Gabriele Tarquini
Gabriele Tarquini is a racing driver from Italy. He participated in 78 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on May 3, 1987. He scored 1 championship point, and holds the record for the most failed attempts to qualify...
, finished only 16th in the championship. Alfa Romeo withdrew at the end of the season. In 1997 and 1998 Prodrive ran the Honda Touring Car Team, before working with Ford in 1999 and 2000. After re-engineering the Ford Mondeo, the team won the BTCC title in 2000 with Alain Menu. It was the last year Super Touring Cars would compete in the BTCC.
In 2001, Richards took Prodrive into sports car racing as the team designed a new Ferrari 550 GTS Maranello to compete in the FIA GT championship. This was a privately-backed programme, independent from Ferrari. Between 2001 and 2004, ten cars were made and the highlight came in 2003, when the team won the GT1 class at Le Mans against the factory-backed Corvettes. In late 2003, Richards announced that Prodrive had signed an agreement with Aston Martin to take the British sports car manufacturer back into motor racing with the formation of a new team called Aston Martin Racing. The new Aston Martin DBR9 was unvield at Gaydon in late 2004 and first competed at the 12 Hours of Sebring in 2005, winning on its debut. The DBR9 won two Le Mans GT1 titles in 2007 and 2008, the latter with the car running in the Gulf Oil livery.
In 2009, the team launched its new LMP1 car, the DBR1/2, which featured a Lola chassis, mated to a modified production-based DBR9 engine. The team won the Le Mans Series in 2009 and finished fourth at Le Mans the same year as the fastest petrol powered car. In September 2010 at Silverstone, Richards unveiled an all-new Aston Martin LMP1 car to compete at Le Mans in 2011.
Prodrive continued to compete in the European Touring Car Championship in 2002 with Volvo and in 2003 launched the Ford Performance Racing team in the Australian V8 Supercar Series, a programme it continues to run today.
Formula One
In 1997, when Flavio BriatoreFlavio Briatore
Flavio Briatore is an Italian businessman. During the 1980s, he was convicted for multiple counts of fraud, receiving two prison sentences, only one of which he served. As a fugitive from Italy, he set up restaurants and then a number of successful Benneton franchises in the Virgin Islands and the...
was fired as Director of the Benetton
Benetton Formula
Benetton Formula Ltd., commonly referred to simply as Benetton, was a Formula One constructor that participated from to . The team was owned by the Benetton family who run a worldwide chain of clothing stores of the same name. In 2000 the team was purchased by Renault, but competed as Benetton for...
team, Richards replaced him. However, his tenure only lasted one year, as he could not agree to a long term strategy with the team-owning Benetton family.
When the BAR team was restructuring after the departure of Craig Pollock
Craig Pollock
Craig Pollock , is a businessman who was the manager of the Formula One driver Jacques Villeneuve throughout his top-level career, and team principal of the British American Racing team from to...
in 2001, the owners BAT (British American Tobacco) brought in Prodrive to run the team with Richards as its Team Principal. Under his direction there was an improvement in performance, ultimately leading to the team taking second place in the 2004 Constructors' Championship. Richards also brought Jenson Button
Jenson Button
Jenson Alexander Lyons Button MBE is a British Formula One driver currently signed to McLaren. He was the 2009 World Drivers' Champion.Button began karting at the age of eight and achieved early success, before progressing to car racing in the British Formula Ford Championship and the British...
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
Nick Fry
Nicholas Richard "Nick" Fry, is the Chief Executive Officer of the Formula One constructor Mercedes. He is the former Chief Executive Officer of both Brawn GP and Honda...
assumed this role.
His Prodrive company entered a bid to enter a Formula One team from 2008 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
2008 Formula One season
The 2008 Formula One season was the 59th FIA Formula One World Championship season. It began on 16 March and ended on 2 November with eighteen Grand Prix races....
. However, on November 22, 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. In May 2009, Prodrive also placed an entry for the 2010 F1 World Championship, however, all three new entries were given to teams using Cosworth engines, while Prodrive already had an agreement to use Mercedes engines.
World Rally Championship
In 1999, Richards sold 49% of Prodrive to venture capitalist firm, APAX. In 2000 he acquired the television rights to the World Rally Championship with the acquisition of International Sportsworld CommunicatorsInternational Sportsworld Communicators
North One Sports, formally known as International Sportsworld Communicators, is a United Kingdom based company which owns the commercial rights to the World Rally Championship.-History:...
(ISC) from Bernie Ecclestone
Bernie Ecclestone
Bernard Charles "Bernie" Ecclestone is an English business magnate, as president and CEO of Formula One Management and Formula One Administration and through his part-ownership of Alpha Prema, the parent company of the Formula One Group of companies. As such, he is generally considered the primary...
. He has since sold these rights to North One TV.
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 MartinAston Martin
Aston Martin Lagonda Limited is a British manufacturer of luxury sports cars, based in Gaydon, Warwickshire. The company name is derived from the name of one of the company's founders, Lionel Martin, and from the Aston Hill speed hillclimb near Aston Clinton in Buckinghamshire...
from Ford. Richards subsequently became chairman of the car company.
Recent history
In the 2005 New Year Honours ListBritish honours system
The British honours system is a means of rewarding individuals' personal bravery, achievement, or service to the United Kingdom and the British Overseas Territories...
Richards was awarded a CBE for his services to motorsport.
David Richards is also a major figure in the complex politics of the World Rally Championship
World Rally Championship
The World Rally Championship is a rallying series organised by the FIA, culminating with a champion driver and manufacturer. The driver's world championship and manufacturer's world championship are separate championships, but based on the same point system. The series currently consists of 13...
and Formula One and is an advocate for measures to reduce the costs of car development as well as increasing safety.
On 16 September 2007 Richards and his wife, Karen, survived a helicopter
Helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
crash in Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
whilst returning from the 2007 Belgian Grand Prix
2007 Belgian Grand Prix
The 2007 Belgian Grand Prix was the fourteenth race of the 2007 Formula One season, returning to the F1 calendar after a year's absence. It was held on 16 September at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Spa, Belgium....
, less than 24 hours after his former WRC
World Rally Championship
The World Rally Championship is a rallying series organised by the FIA, culminating with a champion driver and manufacturer. The driver's world championship and manufacturer's world championship are separate championships, but based on the same point system. The series currently consists of 13...
driver, Colin McRae
Colin McRae
Colin Steele McRae, MBE was a Scottish rally driver born in Lanark.The son of five-time British Rally Champion Jimmy McRae and brother of rally driver Alister McRae, Colin McRae was the 1991 and 1992 British Rally Champion and, in 1995, became the first British person and the youngest to win the...
, perished in a similar accident along with his son and two others. Based on Prodrive's statement after the crash, Richards was piloting Prodrive's Eurocopter EC 135
Eurocopter EC 135
The Eurocopter EC135 is a twin-engine civil helicopter produced by Eurocopter, widely used amongst police and ambulance services and for executive transport. It is capable of flight under instrument flight rules .-Development:...
. Both Richards and his wife Karen walked away unharmed.
In September 2008, Richards returned to rally co-driving duties when he took part in the Colin McRae
Colin McRae
Colin Steele McRae, MBE was a Scottish rally driver born in Lanark.The son of five-time British Rally Champion Jimmy McRae and brother of rally driver Alister McRae, Colin McRae was the 1991 and 1992 British Rally Champion and, in 1995, became the first British person and the youngest to win the...
Forest Stages Rally, a round of the Scottish Rally Championship
Scottish Rally Championship
The Scottish Rally Championship is a rallying series run throughout Scotland over the course of a year, that comprises seven gravel rallies and one tarmac event . Points are awarded to the top placed drivers and the driver scoring the highest number of points over the season is declared Champion...
centred in Perth
Perth, Scotland
Perth is a town and former city and royal burgh in central Scotland. Located on the banks of the River Tay, it is the administrative centre of Perth and Kinross council area and the historic county town of Perthshire...
in Scotland. He was co-driver once again to Ari Vatanen
Ari Vatanen
Ari Pieti Uolevi Vatanen is a Finnish rally driver turned politician and Member of the European Parliament 1999–2009. Vatanen won the World Rally Championship drivers' title in 1981 and the Paris Dakar Rally four times....
and they competed in the same Rothmans
Rothmans International plc
Rothmans International plc was a British tobacco manufacturer. Its brands included Rothmans and Dunhill. Its international headquarters were in Hill Street, London and its international operations were run from Denham Place, Denham Village in Buckinghamshire...
sponsored Ford Escort RS1800 that they used in 1981. He was one of a number of ex-world champions to take part in the event in memory of McRae, who died in 2007.
In July 2010 it was announced the Richards' Prodrive business would take MINI into the World Rally Championship in 2011, using the new MINI Countryman as its base. Richards was pivotal in the negotiations with the BMW board in Germany to secure the new multi-year contract. The MINI WRC Team will compete in six events in 2011.
Honorary qualifications
University of Warwick: Honorary Degree of Master of ArtsCranfield School of Management: Honorary Doctor of Science DSc
Doctor of Science
Doctor of Science , usually abbreviated Sc.D., D.Sc., S.D. or Dr.Sc., is an academic research degree awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. In some countries Doctor of Science is the name used for the standard doctorate in the sciences, elsewhere the Sc.D...
degree.
Coventry University: Honorary Doctor of Technology
University of Wales - Bangor: Honorary Fellowship
University of Wales Institute, Cardiff: Honorary Fellowship
Myerscough College: Honorary Fellowship
Other interests
Non-executive board member of BGCMember of Advisory Board, Warwick Business School
Member of Advisory Board, Cranfield School of Management
Director of the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust
Chairman of the Tom Pryce Memorial Trust
Trustee of the British Racing Drivers Club Benevolent Fund
Vice President of the Llangollen International Eisteddfod
Patron of Greenpower
Vice President of BEN
Benefactor of the Starlight Foundation
Benefactor of the Shipston Nursing Home
Benefactor of the Skidz charity
Benefactor of Oxford Children’s Hospital
Benefactor of Coventry University Entrepreneurs' Fund
Mentor for the British Dyslexia Association