Paddy Lowe

Paddy Lowe FREng
Lowe in 2021
Born	Patrick Allen Lowe (1962-04-08) 8 April 1962 (age 61) Nairobi, British Kenya
Nationality	British
Alma mater	Sevenoaks School Sidney Sussex College University of Cambridge
Occupation(s)	Founder and CEO, Zero; Former Formula One Chief Technical Officer
Spouse	Anna Danshina
Children	2

Patrick Allen Lowe FREng (born 8 April 1962), known as Paddy Lowe, is the founder and CEO of the fossil-free synthetic fuel company Zero. A former motor racing engineer and computer scientist, he spent 32 years working in Formula One, serving as Chief Technical Officer at Williams Racing, Executive Director (Technical) at Mercedes Formula One team and Technical Director at McLaren. He was involved with cars that won 12 World Championships (7 Drivers', 5 Constructors') and secured 158 race wins. He left Formula One in 2019 and co-founded Zero in 2020.

Education

Lowe attended Sevenoaks School from 1976 until 1980 and graduated from Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge in 1984 with a degree in Engineering.

Formula One career

Lowe worked in Formula One over four decades. He was involved in cars that won 12 World Championships (7 Drivers and 5 Constructors) and 10 Autosport Racing Car of the Year awards, pioneering innovative systems including active suspension, traction control and driving simulators. He was the Technical Director behind the first 53 wins of Lewis Hamilton's record-breaking career and he led the Mercedes team to 19 wins from 21 races in 2016.

Williams (1987–1993)

In 1987 Lowe was employed by Williams as Joint Head of Electronics. He spent six years at Williams, during which time he oversaw the development of active suspension, used to help Nigel Mansell win the 1992 World Championship.^[1]

McLaren (1993–2013)

Lowe moved to McLaren in 1993, when he was employed as Head of Research and Development, a department subsequently renamed Vehicle Technology.^[2] He was head of the department for eight years until 2001, when he was appointed Chief Engineer Systems Development, a role focusing on the race programme for the McLaren MP4-20. In May 2005 he assumed the role of Engineering Director, which gave him responsibility for all the engineering departments.^[3] In January 2011 Lowe became the team's Technical Director.^[4] He left McLaren in 2013.

Mercedes (2013–2017)

Lowe moved to the Mercedes Formula One team as Executive Director on 3 June 2013.^[5][6]

In 2015 Lowe was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He and his elder brother Professor Michael Lowe were the first brothers to both be elected as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.^[7]

On 10 January 2017, Mercedes announced that Lowe had left the team, and entered a period of garden leave.^[8]

Return to Williams (2017–2019)

Lowe returned to Williams as Chief Technical Officer on 16 March 2017.^[9] He replaced Pat Symonds, who left the team at the end of 2016. Alongside his technical position, Lowe became a shareholder in the team.^[10] The Williams cars under his supervision, FW41 and FW42, turned out to be largely uncompetitive and relegated Williams to the bottom of the Constructors' Championship in 2018 and 2019. On 6 March 2019 it was announced that Lowe would be taking a leave of absence due to personal reasons.^[11] On 25 June 2019, Lowe left Williams with immediate effect.^[12]

Formula One World Championships

Drivers' World Championships

• 1992: Nigel Mansell, Williams FW14B
• 1998: Mika Häkkinen, McLaren MP4/13
• 1999: Mika Häkkinen, McLaren MP4/14
• 2008: Lewis Hamilton, McLaren MP4/23
• 2014: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W05 Hybrid
• 2015: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W06 Hybrid
• 2016: Nico Rosberg, Mercedes F1 W07 Hybrid

Constructors' World Championships

• 1992: Williams FW14B
• 1998: McLaren MP4/13
• 2014: Mercedes F1 W05 Hybrid
• 2015: Mercedes F1 W06 Hybrid
• 2016: Mercedes F1 W07 Hybrid

Zero Synthetic Fuels

Lowe is the co-founder of Zero, a British technology company that develops and manufactures whole-blend synthetic, non-biological, fossil-free fuels – petrol (gasoline), diesel and jet fuel. The process uses just carbon dioxide taken from the air and renewable hydrogen made from water. Lowe calls this process petrosynthesis. Synthetic fuels, which can be made at scale, can be dropped straight into the existing engines of cars, aircraft, commercial and agricultural vehicles, allowing them to run sustainably in exactly the same way and with the same performance as they do on fossil fuels, without the need for any engine modification. They eliminate greenhouse gas accumulation through the creation of a circular carbon cycle, and so eliminate the need for fossil fuels in global industries such as aviation.

Family

Lowe is married to screen actress, Anna Danshina. He has two children from a previous relationship: Noah Kelly and Finty Kelly.

His brother, Michael Lowe, is a British mechanical engineer.

Further reading

• Kenward, Michael (March 2018). "A formula for success". Ingenia (74): 37–42. Archived from the original on 13 August 2018. Retrieved 24 March 2018.

References

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Mercedes-Benz in Formula One

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport (2010–present)

Ownership Mercedes-Benz Group (33.3%) Toto Wolff (33.3%) Ineos (33.3%) Executive management Toto Wolff (CEO & team principal) Ola Källenius (Head of Mercedes-Benz) Current personnel James Allison Peter Bonnington Simon Cole Jérôme d'Ambrosio Mike Elliott Ron Meadows Jarrod Murphy John Owen Markus Schäfer [de] Britta Seeger Loïc Serra Andrew Shovlin Hywel Thomas [ja] Geoff Willis Former personnel Bob Bell Loïc Bigois Eric Blandin Ross Brawn Aldo Costa Andy Cowell Jock Clear Mark Ellis Nick Fry Thomas Fuhr Norbert Haug Ben Hodgkinson [ja] Jürgen Hubbert Niki Lauda Paddy Lowe Tony Ross Wolfgang Schattling Mark Slade James Vowles Craig Wilson [ja] Thomas Weber Ian Wright Dieter Zetsche Current race drivers 44. Lewis Hamilton 63. George Russell 2023 Test and reserve drivers 47. Mick Schumacher Simulator drivers Jake Hughes Anthony Davidson Junior Team drivers Frederik Vesti Paul Aron Andrea Kimi Antonelli Alex Powell Yuanpu Cui World Champions Lewis Hamilton Nico Rosberg Ambassadors Nico Rosberg Esteban Gutiérrez Susie Wolff Notable drivers   Valtteri Bottas   Michael Schumacher Drivers' titles 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Constructors' titles 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Formula One cars W01 W02 W03 W04 W05 W06 W07 W08 W09 W10 W11 W12 W13 W14 Engine division Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains Related Mercedes-Benz Group Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-AMG

Daimler-Benz (1954–1955)
Personnel Fritz Nallinger Alfred Neubauer Max Sailer Rudolf Uhlenhaut World Champions Juan Manuel Fangio Notable drivers   Hans Herrmann   Karl Kling   Hermann Lang   Stirling Moss   André Simon   Piero Taruffi Drivers' titles 1954 1955 Formula One cars W196 Related Mercedes-Benz Silver Arrows

Success with Mercedes-Benz engines
Drivers' titles 1954 1955 1998 1999 2008 2009 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Constructors' titles 1998 2009 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Related Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains Mercedes engine customers' Grand Prix results Mercedes-AMG Italics indicate factory team.