Pat Symonds

Patrick (Pat) Bruce Reith Symonds (born June 11 1953 in England) is currently the Executive Director of Engineering of the Renault Formula One team.

After Gresham's School, Holt, Symonds worked in the lower motor sport categories and joined the Toleman team in the early 1980s. As Toleman grew, was taken over to become Benetton, and was subsequently sold and renamed Renault F1, Symonds remained with the team and worked his way through the technical ranks.

Symonds engineered many of the team's drivers, including Alessandro Nannini and Teo Fabi, and he made a brief move to the abortive Reynard F1 project with then-chief designer Rory Byrne in 1991.

In the mid-1990s he was Michael Schumacher's race engineer while also assuming the role of Head of Research and Development. Symonds remained with the team when Schumacher departed to Ferrari in 1996. When Ross Brawn was also lured to the Italian team a year later Symonds became Technical Director.

When Mike Gascoyne joined Benetton in 2001 Symonds was promoted to Executive Director of Engineering, a post which he retained though the transition to Renault ownership in 2002.