Patrick Head, one of the most respected Grand Prix designers of the modern era, will give his name to a new class division within the Grand Prix Masters historic race series this season.

Head's name will adorn the class for Post-1978 Formula One cars, in the series run by Masters Historic Racing, and he becomes the first non-driver to be honoured in such a way. The other classes within Grand Prix Masters are named after legendary drivers Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, Emerson Fittipaldi and Niki Lauda. “The Patrick Head Class” is now open to ground-effect and flat-bottomed Formula 1 cars produced between 1978 and 1985, an era when Patrick’s design team at Williams Grand Prix Engineering were constantly producing ground-breaking new designs.

Head, still very much Williams F1’s Director of Engineering, has a superb record in the sport having joined Frank Williams as Chief Designer in 1976. His first design was the excellent FW06, a car very much part of the Grand Prix Masters races in recent years; and he later created the classic FW07, which took the team's first World title in 1980 with Alan Jones; both these designs are eligible for GPM in 2010.

Head has been at the centre of the 16 World titles won by Williams in three decades at the very pinnacle of the sport. The designs created by Head and his team include the later years of the Grand Prix Masters eligibility list, including the ground-effect cars of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

"There is no one better than Patrick Head to typify the innovation and fresh thinking of this dramatic era of Grand Prix racing," said Christopher Tate of Masters Historic Racing. "We are thrilled that he has kindly agreed to his name being used for this class. Patrick's achievements in three decades at the top of Grand Prix racing are remarkable, and we hope he will find time to come along to one of our races."