David Richards Famous athlete and entrepreneur, sports functionary. Date of Birth: 03.06.1952 Country: Great Britain

Biography of David Richards

David Meachem Richards, known as David Richards, is a well-known sportsman, entrepreneur, and sports executive. He was born on June 3, 1952, in Warwickshire, United Kingdom. Richards gained fame in motorsport as a rally co-driver, competing for teams such as Leyland, Opel, and Ford. In 1981, he won the World Rally Championship as the co-driver for Ari Vatanen.

After his championship victory, Richards retired from competing and founded his own team, Prodrive, which competed in rally championships. Over time, the company expanded and Prodrive cars also competed in the world of Grand Touring. The headquarters of Prodrive is located in Oxford.

In 1998, after Flavio Briatore was fired from the Benetton Formula One team, David Richards was invited to take his place. Richards took over the leadership of Benetton during a challenging period, as the team lost the support of the Renault automotive group. However, Richards managed to attract Giancarlo Fisichella to the team, who became its leader for many years. The results of Benetton Supertec in the 1998 championship were significantly lower than in previous seasons. This dissatisfaction led the Benetton family to personally take charge of the team, but they also struggled to overcome the crisis.

For the following years, David Richards led the World Rally Championship, which he had previously won. He successfully increased the popularity of this form of racing through the effective distribution of television broadcasting rights.

Richards returned to Formula One in 2002, replacing Craig Pollock as the team principal of BAR. The influence of the tobacco sponsor, represented by Pollock, decreased as the Honda corporation acquired a larger stake in the team. Richards restructured the team and brought in young driver Jenson Button, who soon became the leader of BAR. In 2004, David made the unpopular decision to dismiss former world champion Jacques Villeneuve. Villeneuve's salary accounted for a significant portion of the team's budget, but in his last year, he performed no better than Button. When Honda finally took over BAR in 2005, Richards stepped down and was replaced by Nick Fry, who had previously worked at Prodrive. From that moment, David focused on managing his own company, seeking a license for Prodrive to compete in Formula One. In 2007, he signed an agreement with the series management, stating that Prodrive's cars would join the grid as the twelfth Formula One team starting from 2008. Prodrive planned to use previous year's McLaren cars, repainted in their own colors. However, due to a lawsuit filed by the Williams team, this was deemed illegal, and Prodrive was excluded from participating in the championship.

In 2005, Richards was awarded the title of Commander of the Order of the British Empire. A biographical book about David Richards, titled "Driven Man," was written by Alan Henry.