Almost three months after Pitpass first reported it, Williams chairman Adam Parr has confirmed that team co-founder Patrick Head is to retire later this year.

Despite denials at the time, on February 2, Pitpass reported that the main reason for the floatation of the company on the Frankfurt stock exchange was so that Head could sell his holding in the team, thereby giving the Englishman a well-timed payout before his retirement. This was confirmed by one of the bankers involved in the preparations for the float because if a company wishes to float it has to disclose a large amount of financial information including details of who is providing the shares to be sold.

Speaking today, in the wake of the departure of Sam Michael and Jon Tomlinson and the recruitment of Mike Coughlan, Parr confirmed Head's intention to retire.

"Patrick has made it clear that he will be retiring this year, so at some point this year that will happen," he told reporters. "That's nothing to do with the restructuring, it's just the fact that he's turning 65 and had already signalled that it's time for him to move on to his next set of interests in life."

Last week, Pitpass reported that the shares, which netted Head around £31m, have fallen in value by around 27% in the eight weeks since the floatation.