Where Are They Now: Peter Windsor

We take a short glance at the career of a journalist and businessman who came very close to creating an American Formula 1 team in 2010 – Peter Windsor.

Peter David Windsor was the Sporting Director of the US F1 Team, which was granted an entry for the 2010 season. However, the team stopped work on its car and did not compete. It informed the FIA that it was not in a position to race and unfortunately was removed from the official entry list. The team was fronted by former Haas CNC Racing technical director Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor. US F1 was aiming to be the only Formula 1 team based outside Europe, with their factory located in Charlotte, North Carolina. This was part of Anderson and Windsor’s plan to promote American drivers and technology, as was their initial aim to run two American drivers in the 2010 season.

Windsor started his journalism career at the now defunct monthly magazine, Competition Car. He was the motorsport editor for the British weekly magazine Autocar from the late 1970s until 1985, and was lauded for his Grand Prix reports.

In 1985, thanks to his close relationship with Nigel Mansell, Windsor became sponsorship manager at Williams. He then worked as general manager for Ferrari’s UK base in 1989, only to return to Williams as team manager in 1991. Windsor has won five awards for his writing, and most of his early television work has taken place with networks of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. From 1998 to 2000, Windsor was the on-location reporter for FSN’s Formula 1 coverage. He then joined Sky Sports as a pit reporter on their F1 Digital + package. He also worked as a pit reporter for the American Broadcasting Company’s coverage of the 2002 United States Grand Prix. He also returned to WilliamsF1 as the narrator of the museum in the team’s Interactive HQ website.

For several seasons Windsor was also the moderator for Formula 1’s post-qualifying and post-race press conferences. He handed the interviewer’s microphone to James Allen from the 2009 British Grand Prix due to a concern over a potential or perceived conflict of interest as a future team boss; but returned to the interview room at the 2009 Italian Grand Prix. He also did reports and phones in from the pitlane before the start of each race for Network Ten (ONE) Australia F1 broadcaster

Windsor is the current senior columnist of the F1 Racing magazine, for which he writes feature articles, and a column called ‘The Racer’s Edge’, which is also the name of his online racing show, broadcast online every Thursday. Additionally, Windsor continues to write about Formula 1 on his blog called The Race Driver.