People

Gavin Fisher

From Harrow in North London, Fisher studied mechanical engineering at Hatfield Polytechnique, an engineering school which was once famous for its aeronautical engineers, and graduated with a first class honors degree. He then spent three years working for a design consultancy business. In 1988 several members of the Williams drawing office departed - James Robinson leaving to become chief engineer at Arrows and Enrique Scalabroni moving to Ferrari. Patrick Head needed to bolster the staff at Didcot and so advertised for new talent, as usual recruiting from the engineering industry rather than from the sport. Fisher was hired. He had been with the team for only a few months when Adrian Newey joined Williams from Leyton House Racing and he worked with Newey until 1997 when Adrian left to join McLaren. Fisher, his pupil, was promoted to the role of chief designer, a role in which he remained until 2005.