McLaren team manager to join Williams

McLaren team manager Dave Redding will move to Williams this year as part of management changes at both teams.

Having originally worked for McLaren for two years before helping set-up Stewart Grand Prix in the late 1990s, Redding [pictured in 2010] returned to Woking in 2000 and has worked for the team for the past 17 years. Following confirmation of the departure of McLaren Racing CEO Jost Capito on Tuesday, Williams announced on Wednesday that Redding will join the team to take over duties from sporting manager Steve Nielsen.

"From the start, our Sporting Manager, Steve Nielsen has always been clear about his desire to do less traveling following the end of the 2017 season and we fully understood and respected his request given he has been in traveling roles for over 30 years," deputy team principal Claire Williams said. "Steve has done 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 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."

McLaren has seen a number of changes in recent months, with the departures of Redding and Capito following the removal of Ron Dennis as chairman and chief executive of McLaren Group, as well as the arrival of Zak Brown as executive director.

Williams also saw a senior management member change in December as Pat Symonds left his role as chief technical officer, with former Mercedes executive director (technical) Paddy Lowe poised to join. Nielsen joined Williams in 2014 following previous spells as team manager for Toro Rosso, Caterham, Lotus, Renault, Arrows and Honda, having worked alongside Symonds at Enstone.