McLaren confirmed on Tuesday night that Redding would be leaving the Woking-based team, and will be replaced by erstwhile chief mechanic Paul James.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Williams made it clear that Redding’s move has come about because Nielsen is eager to take a more factory-based role for next season.

Claire Williams, deputy team principal, said: “From the start, our sporting manager, Steve Nielsen has always been clear about his desire to do less travelling following the end of the 2017 season and we fully understood and respected his request given he has been in travelling roles for over 30 years.

“Steve has done a fantastic job since joining the team in 2014, from restructuring the race team to the brilliant work in driving the turnaround of our pitstop performance.

“We can confirm that Dave Redding will join Williams as team manager later this year to work alongside Steve to ensure a seamless handover ahead of taking full responsibility for the race team in 2018.”

Nielsen’s efforts at Williams helped the team become the pace-setters in F1 pitstops last year, as it consistently delivered the quickest tyre changes for Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas.