Governance

David Richards is Chairman of Motorsport UK, the governing body for motorsport in the UK, a role he assumed in January 2018. He is also Chairman of Prodrive, a motorsport and engineering business and is a former Chairman of Aston Martin

David initially trained as a British Chartered Accountant following which he spent eight years as a professional rally co-driver. He concluded his competition career in 1981 by winning the World Rally Championship as co-driver to Ari Vatanen.

David then devoted his time to developing his business interests, which led to the creation of Prodrive in 1983. Over the last four decades Prodrive has become one of the largest multi-disciplined motorsport businesses in the world, winning numerous championships in almost every category of the sport. David also spent five years in Formula One as Team Principal of the BAR F1 Team finishing runners up in the 2004 F1 World Championship.

In the 2005 Queen’s New Year’s honours, David was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to motorsport and has honorary doctorates and fellowships from the Universities of Wales, Coventry, Warwick, Wrexham and Cranfield. In 2017 he was inducted into the Motor Sport Hall of Fame and presented with the Spirt of Le Mans award by the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO). In 2019 Autocar presented him with their Outstanding Leader Award and in May 2022 the Sturmey Award for leadership in elevating and reshaping UK motorsport for the future.