OCTOBER 23, 1995

David Brown to quit Williams for McLaren.

DAVID BROWN, one of F1's best known race engineers, is to leave Williams at the end of the year, after 14 years with the team.

The 36-year-old joined Williams after an apprenticeship with British Leyland at Cowley, England. Initially he worked in the Williams drawing office at Didcot, but in 1987 he became Nigel Mansell's race engineer. When Mansell quit the team in 1989, Brown worked with Thierry Boutsen until Mansell returned in 1991 and Brown engineered him to the 1992 WorldÊChampionship. The following year he ran Alain Prost to a second title.

He was Ayrton Senna's engineer early in 1994, but was switched to Damon Hill after Senna's death. Brown's move to McLaren may be on the advice of Alain Prost, who is helping out the team at the moment. Brown is likely to replace Pat Fry, who is tipped to join Ferrari to be Michael Schumacher's race engineer next year.

One rumor doing the rounds at Aida was that Williams will sign up American engineer Tony Cicale to run Jacques Villeneuve next year. Cicale worked this year with Villeneuve in the Team Green Indycar operation.