Jacques Villeneuve joined Williams in 1996 and Clear was his race engineer; the Canadian won the world championship the following year under Clear's guidance. When Villeneuve moved to British American Racing for the 1999 season, his engineer followed suit.[8] The relationship continued until the 2003 Japanese Grand Prix, when Villeneuve walked out on the eve of the race. Takuma Sato took up the vacant seat[9] and drove to sixth position on his racing debut with the team.[10] Clear worked with Sato again in 2004–2005[11] and then with Rubens Barrichello from 2006 to 2009.[1] After the team became Brawn GP in 2009,[12] Barrichello won the European[13] and Italian Grands Prix[14] and finished in third place in the World Championship.[15]
In November 2007, Clear was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Engineering by Heriot-Watt University "in recognition of his outstanding success in applying engineering science in the most demanding and competitive environments and as a role model to young engineers."[16]
In December 2014, it was announced that Clear had been signed by Ferrari, and would move to the team for the 2015 Formula One season.[17]
