Williams Racing has roped in Francois-Xavier Demaison as its new technical director, while F1 signs Herjavec Group as its cyber security partner.
In another step towards revamp, Williams has hired Demaison in the technical director role, where he will be responsible for whole of the technical operation of the business including the Design and Aerodynamic. He will report to CEO Jost Capito.
Demaison – also known as FX – spent his last decade at Volkswagen Motorsport, where he was responsible for various projects, including the ID.R electric race car. In his tenure, the German manufacturer also won the WRC titles between 2013 and 2016.
It is not his first foray into F1 as Demaison has previously worked with Renault. “I am really looking forward to joining Williams Racing, as they begin an exciting journey to turn their performance around,” he said, upon his signing.
“It’s going to be a great challenge, but one that I am eager to start. They have a great team of talented people, and I hope I can work with them and the senior management team to help carve out a direction for the future, to help the team achieve its ambitions.”
At the same time, Capito, added: “We are delighted to welcome FX to the team. I have seen his technical capabilities first-hand, and his sporting successes speak for themselves. Bringing in someone of his calibre to our already experienced technical team will help drive the future direction of our operation and strengthen our team.
“I have no doubt that his knowledge will contribute to us taking another important step towards our ambitions of winning again. At Williams we have an exciting challenge ahead of us, and I look forward to seeing FX contribute as we continue on this journey.”
Elsewhere, F1 has announced Herjavec Group as its cyber security partner, where the company will help the sport in three critical areas. They are:
- Securing the F1 Event Technical Centre – HG will provide Managed Security Services including threat intelligence and cyber analysis to support F1 race operations, bolstering the security for the world’s most data-rich sporting environment as it travels the globe. The F1 Event Technical Centre will be transported to 22 countries this year, generating real-time racing analysis, security event logs, and threat intelligence information.
- 24/7 Threat Detection as the Cyber Security Services Provider for F1 – Herjavec Group’s cloud-based, remote & geo-redundant Security Operations Center (SOC) infrastructure will provide 24/7 expertise to detect and respond to emerging threats targeting the critical infrastructure of Formula 1, including corporate operations, digital platforms and mission critical assets. Threat detection has grown in importance as the digital ecosystem of F1 increases in scale, and Herjavec Group’s HG SOAR platform will facilitate proactive hunting on curated intel to disrupt and block attacks before they become security incidents. In addition to SOC operations, Herjavec Group’s specialized Managed Security Services include managed phishing, incident response management, vulnerability management and security engineering.
- Cybersecurity Advisement & Expertise – Herjavec Group will further enhance security posture for Formula 1 through key cyber initiatives in the realms of security planning, privacy, PCI compliance, architecture, identity & access management and emergency preparedness.
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