Williams has announced that Dickie Stanford has been appointed General Manager for Williams Heritage, a new division of Williams that oversees the maintenance and public demonstration of the team's historic Formula One cars. He was most recently Race Team Manager for Williams.

Stanford began his career with Williams in 1985 as a mechanic on Nigel Mansell's FW10 and worked his way up to Chief Mechanic, before becoming Team Manager in 1995. He remained in that job for 10 years, before stepping back to spend more time with his family. In 2010 he returned to take up the reins once again as Race and Test Team Manager and helped guide the team through a difficult period. After seeing the team through a successful winter ahead of the 2014 season, he has now decided to retire from life on the road for a factory based position.

As General Manager of Williams Heritage, Stanford will report to Jonathan Williams and have responsibility for the team of highly experienced Williams mechanics that maintain the team's historic racing cars at the Williams Grand Prix Collection in Oxfordshire, the largest private collection of Formula One cars in the world. He will also help manage the regular series of events and promotional activities that the cars take part in each year such as the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

"A team of our longevity has many historic assets that need to be cherished and preserved for future generations to enjoy," said Frank Williams. "Dickie combines strong mechanical knowledge of our cars from his time as a mechanic, with first class operational and logistical skills honed as Race Team Manager. He is therefore perfectly placed to take on the day-to-day operational running of our historic car programme and provide support to Jonathan in ensuring that Williams' Heritage programme goes from strength to strength. I would personally like to add my thanks to him for his services to the team during his time as Race Team Manager."

"I have a lot of passion for the company and its heritage and the opportunity to take charge of our historic car programme is too good to turn down," added Stanford. With the formation of Williams Heritage as a distinct division within Williams, we will be well placed to ensure that our legendary cars continue to be well looked after and can be showcased to Formula One fans for many years to come."