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Geoffrey Willis (born 23 December 1959) is a British engineer and the Chief Technical Director of INEOS Britannia. Previously, Willis held senior technical positions with a range of Formula One teams including Mercedes, Red Bull Racing and British American Racing.
Whilst working in Oxfordshire at the NPL, Willis was approached to join the design team of the Peter de Savary's British America's Cup challenger Blue Arrow and he spent the next three years designing and developing hull and keel designs for the team in preparation for the competition in San Diego.
Willis joined BAR in late 2001, recruited by outgoing team principal Craig Pollock. David Richards joined the team for the 2002 campaign at a time when Honda reaffirmed their commitment to engine supply. The team struggled during 2002 as the changes took shape, with Olivier Panis leaving ahead of 2003 to be replaced by British driver Jenson Button. The 2004 season was the most successful for the team, under Willis technical stewardship, the team finished 2nd in the constructors championship behind Ferrari. At the end of the season, Honda took a 45% acquisition of the team, and whilst Richards would move on, Willis remained as Technical Director for the final season as BAR in 2005.
Willis oversaw the new Honda RA106 built to the new Formula One specifications for the 2006 season. However, by late June, his role within the team became unclear when Honda appointed Shuhei Nakamoto as Senior Technical Director. Willis had been told to stop going to races in order to focus on aerodynamics, which appeared to conflict with the appointment of Mariano Alperin to head the aerodynamics group using Honda's new full-size wind tunnel. Willis would leave the team shortly afterwards.
On 17 July 2007, Willis was hired by Red Bull Racing as the team's Technical Director, once again under Newey. His tenure coincided with the teams Renault customer engine era, along with the transition from David Coulthard to Sebastian Vettel. He left Red Bull in July 2009 after his role was made redundant.
In early 2010, Willis joined the new entry Hispania Racing F1 Team. However, the season began poorly with both cars starting from the pitlane in the opening round, and Chandhok retiring on the opening lap leading to speculation Willis would leave the team by April. He was connected with joining Force India, however remained at the team. Having vocalised his concerns about the car design, Willis was a critic of the lack of in-season testing available to the new teams. Hispania would have a poor debut season with no points scored and finishing in 11th place in the constructors championship. Having been lauded by new owner José Ramón Carabante ahead of the 2011 season, Willis became increasingly vocal about the lack of finance and resources of the Spanish team, and demanded improvements. However by September 2011, Willis had left the team, to be replaced in 2012 by Toni Cuquerella, formerly of Seat's World Touring Car Championship team. "Tech chief Willis leaves HRT" 18 October 2010, ITV.com
Willis signed a contract to join Mercedes as Technology director in October 2011 alongside Aldo Costa. Willis played a key part in the technical team that delivered drivers world championship titles for Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg and eight consecutive constructors championship titles for Mercedes.
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