Pat Fry (born 17 March 1964) is a British motorsports engineer. Primarily working inFormula One, he has previously held positions with the Benetton, McLaren, Ferrari, Manor Racing, and Renault/Alpine teams. As of 2023, Fry is the chief technical officer forWilliams Racing.
Fry was born inShepperton,Surrey, England. After attempting several engineering courses, he became an apprentice atThorn EMI in 1981. While at Thorn EMI, he completed a day-release course in electronics at theCity of London Polytechnic. He moved onto Thorn's missile programmes, before deciding to leave the company in 1987 to pursue a career in motorsport.
Fry had an interest in building suspension systems formotorbikes in his spare time, and joined theBenetton Formula's research and development department inWitney, Oxfordshire, who at the time were working onactive suspension systems.[1] He moved to the test team and then to the team's Godalming research and development department. He returned to the test team in1991, before being madeMartin Brundle'srace engineer in1992.
In1993, former Benetton colleagueGiorgio Ascanelli persuaded Fry to join him atMcLaren. His initial position was to work on active suspension systems, and run the McLaren test team; active suspension systems were banned by the sports governing body before the start of the 1994 season and so Fry moved to an engineering position in the race team.[2] After a season asMika Häkkinen's race engineer in1995, he returned to the McLaren test team in1996 despite rumours linking him with a move toFerrari.[3] He renewed his contract with McLaren in1997 to becomeDavid Coulthard's race engineer, a role he held for four years. He moved to a tactical coordinating role in2001, overseeing both the team's race cars.[4][5] In 2002, he was promoted to the role of chief engineer of race development, and was responsible for theMP4-20 (Autosport's 2005 Racing Car of the Year),MP4-22 (Autosport's 2007 Racing Car of the Year), andMP4-24 chassis. On 14 May 2010, Fry departed from McLaren.[6]
On 22 June 2010, it was announced that Fry was to join the Ferrari team as assistant technical director from 1 July.[7] On 4 January 2011, Ferrari announced that Fry had replacedChris Dyer as head of race track engineering while retaining his assistant technical director position underAldo Costa.[8] The change was made following a tactical error in the final race of the2010 season, the2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which costFernando Alonso a chance at the title.[9] On 24 May 2011, Costa was moved to an undefined position within the team and Fry was given the job as director of chassis, with the position of technical director being removed outright. Restructuring of Ferrari management made Fry's position one of three—the others being production director (filled by Corrado Lanzone) and electronics director (filled byLuca Marmorini)--to report directly to team bossStefano Domenicali, who assumed the duties (if not the title) of technical director. On 23 July 2013, Ferrari announced that Lotus technical directorJames Allison would take over as chassis technical director as of 1 September; Fry remained with Ferrari as director of engineering (a newly created position) and continue to report directly to Domenicali alongside Allison and chief designerNikolas Tombazis.[10] Ferrari said Fry would leave the team in a restructuring announced 16 December 2014.[11][12]
On 4 September 2018, McLaren announced Fry would join the team as engineering director in a temporary capacity while awaiting the arrival of full-time technical directorJames Key from gardening leave atToro Rosso. Fry led the team in the process of developing the 2019 car, theMcLaren MCL34.[14] In July 2019, it was reported Fry had gone on gardening leave at the culmination of his temporary assignment.[15]
On 2 November 2019, theRenault F1 Team announced that Fry would join the team for the 2020 season.[16] Renault F1 Team was rebranded asAlpine F1 Team for the2021 season. Before the2022 season, Alpine named Fry as their chief technical officer. He oversaw all technical activities, set performance targets, and identified future technologies for the car.[17]
At the2023 Belgian Grand Prix, it was announced that Fry would be leaving Alpine to join Williams as their chief technical officer, starting in 2024.[18]
