Williams appoints Somerville and Gillan in ongoing technical rethink

Following the first phase of its regig, which will see technical director Sam Michael and aero chief Jon Tomlinson leave later this year, the team has signed Jason Somerville to take charge of aerodynamics and Mark Gillan to head up operations engineering.

Somerville first worked in F1 with Williams, where he helped work on the race-winning FW23, FW24 and FW25 cars, before he made the switch to Toyota in 2003. He moved to Renault at the end of last year following Toyota's withdrawal and will rejoin Williams on August 15.

Gillan's F1 career began at McLaren in 1998, where he as a vehicle dynamicist, before he was promoted to Principal Operational Aerodynamicist in 2001. In 2002 he switched to Jaguar and he remained there through its takeover by Red Bull Racing until 2005, where he since worked in both academia and for Toyota. He will join Williams on October 1.

Williams team principal Frank Williams said: "Williams F1 is looking forward to welcoming Jason and Mark to the team. They bring with them talent, experience and good team skills. We now feel that, together with Mike Coughlan, Jason and Mark can form the right technical leadership to take the team forward as we work our way back to the front of the grid."