Patrick Bruce Reith Symonds (born 11 June 1953) is a British motor racing engineer. He was the Chief Technical Officer at Williams Grand Prix Engineering, from 2013 until 2016 having previously worked at the Benetton, Renault and Virgin Formula One teams. He is currently the Chief Technical Officer of Formula One. In September 2009, Symonds was forced to resign from the ING Renault F1 team due to his involvement in race fixing at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. After the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) conducted its own investigation, Symonds and Renault's Managing Director Flavio Briatore were banned indefinitely from any events sanctioned by the FIA, although this ban was later overturned by a French Tribunal de Grande Instance. Early life and education Symonds was born in Bedford, England and educated at Gresham's School in Holt, Norfolk, after which he studied at Oxford Polytechnic and Cranfield University, where he gained a Masters in aerodynamics. Career After starting his career in lower motorsport categories, he joined Toleman in the early 1980s. As Toleman grew, it was taken over to become Benetton Formula, and was subsequently sold and renamed Renault F1. Symonds remained throughout this entire period with the team, working his way through the technical ranks. He served as an engineer for many of the team's drivers, including Alessandro Nannini and Teo Fabi. After a brief move to the abortive Reynard F1 project with then-chief designer Rory Byrne in 1991, he returned to Benetton. In the mid-1990s he was Michael Schumacher's race engineer while also assuming the role of Head of Research and Development. Symonds remained with Benetton when Schumacher departed to Ferrari in 1996. When Ross Brawn was also lured to Ferrari, Symonds became Benetton's Technical Director. When Mike Gascoyne joined the team in 2001, Symonds was promoted to executive director of Engineering, a post which he retained though the transition to Renault ownership in 2002. Singapore crash In July 2009, Nelson Piquet Jr. claimed Symonds asked him to deliberately crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix to manufacture a situation which would assist team-mate Fernando Alonso to win the race. The ING Renault F1 Team released a statement on 16 September 2009 stating that Symonds was no longer part of the team. Symonds was subsequently suspended from F1 events for five years after expressing his "eternal regret and shame" to the FIA World Motor Sport Council. However, his ban