Head's father Michael raced Jaguar sportscars in the 1950s. Head was privately educated at Wellington College. He joined the Royal Navy after school but left to attend university — first in Birmingham, and later at UCL after failing his first-year exams there — graduating in 1970 with a Mechanical Engineering degree. He immediately joined chassis manufacturer Lola in Huntingdon, where he formed a working relationship with John Barnard, whose Formula One designs for McLaren, Benetton, and Ferrari would later compete against Williams. Head met Frank Williams during this period.
Becoming disillusioned, Head left motorsport to work on boats but was lured back by Williams in 1975. On 8 February 1977, Williams Grand Prix Engineering was founded, with Williams holding seventy percent and Head thirty percent of the company. In 1977 the team raced a customer March chassis. In 1978, backed by Saudi Airlines and with Australian driver Alan Jones signed, the Head-designed FW06 made its first appearance. Williams scored 11 world championship points in that season, finishing 9th in the Constructors' Championship.
As early as the fourth round of the 1979 season, Jones made the team's first podium visit. Later in 1979, Swiss driver Clay Regazzoni won the team's first ever race at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Four further victories followed in 1979.
Head's 1980 car was the class of the field, taking Jones and the team to both the Drivers' and Constructors' Championships. Head moved toward the role of Technical Director — overseeing design, construction, racing, and testing — while Frank Dernie became chief designer. During the 1980s Head is credited with revolutionary concepts including a six-wheeled car, which was tested in 1982, and a continuously variable transmission replacing the conventional gearbox to keep the engine at optimum RPM throughout a lap. Neither system entered racing, with rule changes — attributed by many to pressure from rival teams — preventing their use.
In 1986, Head and Williams management assumed control of the team when Frank Williams was seriously injured in a road accident. Under Head's temporary stewardship Williams secured the Constructors' title in 1986 and both the Constructors' and Drivers' titles in 1987, with Nelson Piquet. In 1988 Head briefly tried his hand at racing, making an appearance in the inaugural Honda CR-X Challenge Celebrity Car category.
In 1990 Williams hired Adrian Newey, recently dismissed as technical director of Leyton House Racing. The two engineers formed the outstanding design partnership of the decade, achieving a level of dominance not repeated until the Ferrari/Schumacher era. Between 1991 and 1997 Williams won 59 races, five Constructors' titles, and four different drivers won World Championships. Newey's ambitions to succeed to the Technical Director role were blocked — Head was a founder and shareholder of the team. With Williams securing both titles in 1996, McLaren managed to attract Newey away, though he was required to serve gardening leave through the 1997 season.
After Newey's departure, Williams remained capable of occasional wins but could not sustain a consistent challenge. During the dominant Ferrari/Schumacher period from 2000 to 2004, Williams finished runner-up in the Constructors' Championship in 2002 and 2003; 2003 represented the closest that a Williams driver, Juan Pablo Montoya, came to the world title. In 2004, Head moved to the position of Director of Engineering, with Sam Michael becoming Technical Director. Following Montoya's win at the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix, the team entered a lengthy period without a Grand Prix victory that ended only with Pastor Maldonado winning the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix.
Head resigned from Williams in 2012. He continued involvement with Williams Hybrid Power Limited until it was sold to GKN in April 2014. In March 2019, he returned to Williams Racing in a consultancy role.
In April 2007, the Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport reported that a court in Bologna had concluded a technical failure was responsible for Ayrton Senna's fatal accident at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix. No action was taken against Head or Williams' chief designer Adrian Newey, neither of whom attended the court hearing, with the findings made public 13 years after the accident. On 13 April 2007, the Italian Court of Appeal stated in verdict numbered 15050 that the accident was caused by a steering column failure arising from "badly designed and badly executed modifications," placing responsibility on Head for "omitted control." Head was not arrested because Italy's statute of limitations for manslaughter is seven years and six months, and the final verdict was pronounced 13 years after the accident.
Head was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) in 2002. In the 2015 Queen's Birthday Honours he was appointed a Knight Bachelor for services to Motorsport.
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