74. Ron Meadows

Ron Meadows is unusual in the Formula 1 paddock, for not only retaining the same job title for many, many years but also doing it at the same team. Meadows was there for the inception of BAR in 1997 and has stayed with the team throughout their various iterations. In 2008 he became Sporting Director at Honda, and he has been doing the same job since, for Brawn and now for Mercedes.

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Meadows admits he wanted to get into motorsport at a young age, after sneaking into nearby circuit Oulten Park to watch various races. He became a mechanic in his early teens and worked his way up the order until he was running his own Formula 3000 squad. After several years as a team boss, Meadows moved to the US to work for Walker Racing in the Indy Car series.

With plenty of team manager credentials behind him, Ron Meadows got the call from the brand new British American Racing team to come and be their factory manager, and he was very soon promoted back to the more familiar team boss role.

Once installed at Brackley, Ron Meadows couldn’t be shifted. He remained with the outfit as they became Honda Racing and then took on the sporting director role in 2008. In 2009, he helped Brawn GP take their one and only World Championship, and remained in the same sporting director position as the champions were bought out by Mercedes.

Meadows current role consists of ensuring that the team is operating with the FIA sporting regulation, he is also a member of the Mercedes team that communicates with the Formula One Race Director Michael Masi. He works with the Chief Strategist James Vowles on pit strategy and is also the team member who calls out the pit crew and ensures the correct tyres are being prepared for the pit stop.