Alex Burns, Williams F1 chief executive

The dress code for Formula 1 employees is fairly relaxed. If you’re trackside or in a car, you wear overalls. Otherwise, your team’s polo shirt is generally the order of the day. Alex Burns, chief executive of AT&T Williams F1, might well be the only member of staff who habitually wears a suit.

’The role of chief executive of an F1 team is a bit different from the role in most organisations,’ he said. ’I do run what you might call the “normal company” stuff at Williams, the support functions such as IT, HR and procurement. But I also have key line responsibilities for the production of the cars and for the maintenance and testing facilities that support them.’

In a way, Burns’s job is to allow the team’s technical staff, such as technical director Sam Michael, to concentrate on developing the cars and its business-oriented personnel, such as chairman Alan Parr, to look after the interests of the team sponsors. ’I don’t often get my hands dirty; I don’t lay up carbon fibre or run machine tools,’ Burns said. ’But I have a great job. I really enjoy the variety of it, especially because F1 tends to drive a lot of deep specialisation. Essentially we’re designing and manufacturing a car every year, and improving it throughout the season.