Simon Roberts | |
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| Born | (1962-09-27)27 September 1962 (age 63) |
| Citizenship | British |
Simon Roberts (born 27 September 1962) is an engineer who has held management positions withFormula One teamsMcLaren,Force India andWilliams.[1]
Roberts studiedmechanical engineering at theUniversity of Manchester, before being employed atPerkins Engines diesel and gas company inPeterborough. He then became head of production engineering for the company before transferring toRover Car, where he was director of the powertrain division and supervised the company's acquisition byBMW in 1994, after which Roberts oversaw the transmission and suspension operations of the company in the UK until 2000, when he decided to move toAlstom as chief operating officer whose role is to supervise the development of thePendolino pendulum train project. This went into operation in 2001 and Roberts became the company's industrial director before deciding to transfer toMcLaren in September 2003 as general manager, being responsible for coordinating the manufacturing and assembly process for the test and race team. He then became director of operations for the team in 2004.[2][3][4]
In 2009, he was hired by theForce India team as its chief operating officer for the 2009 season.[5] But on 15 October 2009, Force India announced thatOtmar Szafnauer would move to the position of chief operating officer for the team while Roberts returned to his job at McLaren in the 2010 season.[6][7] In 2017, he was appointed director of operations at McLaren during a managerial reshuffle, with him now being responsible for track and factory operations.[8]
In June 2020, Roberts became the managing director ofWilliams.[9] However, afterClaire Williams left the Williams team, he was appointed as their interim Team Principal.[10] On 17 December it announced that Roberts was to be made the permanent Team Principal of Williams Racing.[11] On 9 June 2021 it was announced that Simon Roberts would be leaving the team, and his replacement would be CEOJost Capito.[12][13]
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