Paddy Lowe

One of the most successful engineers and technical directors in Formula 1 history

Biography:

Paddy Lowe is widely regarded as one of the foremost engineering and team leaders in the sport’s recent history.
During his award winning career he has worked with many of the sport’s leading stars including Niki Lauda, Ayrton Senna, Mika Hakkinen and Fernando Alonso.

As Technical Director of Mercedes he oversaw 53 Grand Prix victories for seven times World Champion Lewis Hamilton, also working with 2016 World Champion Nico Rosberg.

Beyond Formula One Paddy has founded the UK’s first synthetic fuel company, Zero
Petroleum. In 2021 his work with the Royal Air Force on Project Martin led to the world’s
first flight powered entirely by synthetic fuel. This was produced by extracting hydrogen
from water and carbon from atmospheric carbon dioxide. After graduating from Cambridge University in 1984 Paddy worked as a control systems engineer before joining Williams Grand Prix Engineering where he helped deliver a series of technically innovative and championship winning cars. This included pioneering the development of Active Suspension and Traction Control systems - technologies which were ground breaking and helped Williams become a dominant force at the time.

In 1993 he moved to McLaren, becoming Technical Director by 2005. Over a twenty year
period he achieved multiple championship successes, confirming him as one of the sport’s
most innovative engineers. This includes the development of systems including brake
steer, integrated data analysis and simulator programmes, and seamless gear shifts.
Later, as Executive Director and Board Member for the Mercedes F1 team he oversaw the
team’s quality transformation between 2013 and 2015. By combining industry leading
quality and reliability with best in class performance, Paddy was one of the key architects
of Mercedes subsequent dominance.

Achievements:

• As a proven technical innovator and leader in the field of high performance engineering, Paddy is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. His achievements in Formula 1 have led to him twice winning the Technical Director of theYear Award and the Sir Jackie Stewart Trophy, while has designs have won the RacingCar of the Year Award on 10 occasions.