100. Pat Fry

Patrick Fry (born 17 March 1964) is a British motorsports engineer. Fry was born in Shepperton, Surrey, England. After attempting several engineering courses, he apprenticed at Thorn EMI in 1981. During his time at Thorn EMI, he went to the City of London Polytechnic during the day to take a course in electronics. He moved on to Thorn’s missile programmes before leaving the company in 1987 to pursue a career in motorsport.

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Pat joined Alpine F1 Team in February 2020 as Chassis Technical Director before moving the Chief Technical Officer in February 2022, overseeing all technical activities in Enstone and continuing to push forward the development of the A523 this season.

Born in Surrey, United Kingdom, Pat Fry has extensive experience in Formula 1, having worked for McLaren, Ferrari, Manor and Benetton since entering a career in the sport in 1987. He first began working on active suspension systems at Benetton in the team’s Research and Development Department in Witney. After briefly working on the Test Team, Pat’s first racing trackside role was working as Race Engineer to Martin Brundle in 1992.

In 1993, he moved to McLaren, where he would contribute to 6 victories, one Constructors’ Championship and three Drivers’ Championships. Pat held several roles at the Woking-based team, beginning on the Test Team before stints as Race Engineer to Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard. He later took on overseeing both teams’ race cars, and he was then promoted to Chief Engineer of Race Development, where he played a seminal role in the success of the McLaren race team.

A move to Ferrari followed in July 2010, bringing his 17 years at McLaren to a close. He started as Assistant Technical Director and was later Head of Race Track Engineering. Pat continued in leadership positions at Maranello, including Director of Chassis and Director of Engineering.

He left Ferrari in December 2014 but returned to Formula 1 in 2016 as Manor Racing’s Engineering Consultant. Pat then returned to McLaren in 2018 on a temporary contract as Engineering Director, aiding the team to its best Championship finish since 2012 with fourth place.

On 20 April 2002, Fry married Kate Habershon, a food editor and stylist who had worked in motorsport catering.