Up for sale

First thing any investor is going to do is follow the other small team blue print and get parts from the manufactures

Amazed Claire Williams still hasn't stepped down.

I'm a big Claire Williams fan and I've desperately hoped for the team to make the changes that they need to do in order to be competitive but, much as I'd love her to stay on, I think Claire Williams needs to go as she's too stuck in the past with regards to what an F1 team is.

I've seen numerous interviews over the years and she often goes on about them being a real manufacturer and taking pride in the fact that they basically make near everything from scratch themselves and implying that you're something of a lightweight or customer team if you so much as buy a bolt off the shelf.

I love their history, I love her passion and commitment but I think they need someone without the emotional baggage who can come in make good, long term decisions. She said in the Drive to Survive that they wouldn't save much by buying a gearbox as they'd have to pay off their staff with redundancies from that department - but I think they need to bite the bullet and adapt to the world of motorsport as it currently is. Take a leaf out of Racing Point or Haas's book. You're not betraying your past by doing what you need to do to survive.

I really hope they find a buyer / investor who gets the team and who can make the changes needed to get them back to the front.

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Watching from the cheap seats.

100%. That is pretty dumb logic tbh. Yeah you might have to pay redundancies if they can’t be placed elsewhere, but that would be a once off payout. So you’d take a hit year 1, but you’d be saving money in the long run.

Is she thinking she’d have to be paying for gearboxes + redundancies forever?

Sad news, but not in the least surprising. I hope the team will be renamed, and not carry on as a shadow of what it once was. As has been mentioned Claire will have to go, and the whole ethos come into the 21st Century. What emerges will have nothing to do with Frank and Patrick's successful past, so it should be separated from it by a new identity. We don't want the Lotus name saga to be repeated..

Well said. I love Williams and hope something good can come of this.

“The investment that we're looking for is going to help us achieve that. So for me, this is a good thing what we're doing, and it shouldn't be looked at in a negative, disappointing way, or anything other than positive"

How does she still have a job?!

I cant think of a worse managed team in the entire time i've been watching F1 (20+years). This crazy ideology they could compete with the big manufactures on a fraction of the budget whilst keeping everything in house has caused all this mess. It was an absolute no brainer when they have had the best engine in the hybrid era. Theyre now trying to find investment whilst the entire world economy is stagnant and they are glued to the back of the grid for the forseeable future

That statement is as close to a Ronspeak as it gets for me.

I know you mean Ron Dennis, but I couldn't help but think L. Ron Hubbard and his gift for all thing BS!!! LMAO!!!

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HAMILTON :: VERSTAPPEN :: LECLERC :: BOTTAS :: VETTEL :: SAINZ :: NORRIS
KVYAT :: RAIKKONEN :: RUSSEL :: ALBON :: RICCIARDO :: HULKENBURG :: PEREZ
STROLL :: MAGNUSSEN :: GROSJEAN :: GASLY :: GIOVANAZZI :: KUBICA

Whilst I agree that Williams' approach is not really feasible in the current F1 environment, I would still applaud them for sticking to their principles and at least trying to do things properly. For the sake of the purity of the competition I would much rather have Williams glued to the back of the grid than replace them with another Toro Rosso / Alpha Tauri or whatever ghastly marketing exercise they've been turned into now.

Williams' desire to design and build their own car should not be an unrealistic goal for an F1 team. That they are not able to do so while competing as a sustainable operation should reflect more poorly on F1 than it does on Williams.

I agree 100%. The model they run should be applauded. The environment they run it in is the problem. We need more Williams and less Alpha Tauri if F1 is to improve and get more competitive.

I understand what Claire is saying but I also see straight through it. This must have been one painful decision to have come to.
No one is falling for the "it's a positive thing" BS - it's a last resort and we all know they would only consider when all other options have failed.

What's not really being acknowledged out loud is that whilst this ensure the survival of a team and therefore a workforce, whatever is painted on the car, it signals the end of Williams. As a team Williams 'brand' is built on the family, the history and the fierce independence in how they operate.

Once that control, that identify-defining level of character is diluted or gone, the brand is gone. It won't be Williams if a Williams isn't in charge or is being compromised in their decisions. I know there are countless other examples you could cite where the team has lived on with the originators name after they have gone (Brabham, Sauber, McLaren, even Ferrari) but this feels different to me at least.

I'll be happy to see the Williams name stay on because we all love tradition and history in this sport, but I won't view the team with the same level of affection. Sad days indeed.

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"I'd rather lose a race going fast enough to win it, than win one going slow enough to lose it".
-Stirling Moss

I look forward to the nest 3-4 years I think things are in place for recovery Paddy Lowe has a lot to answer for in this saga.

Claire is taking a lot of flak when it's not her fault that a top designer made the worst job of his career she did the right thing and sacked him, it will take time to recover from that.
The new rules down the line will help no end,

What did Paddy do wrong?

Well, he oversaw the development of an absolutely awful car. The guy in charge of the technical department can't be absolved of all blame for such a categorical failure of a design.

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PICK 10 COMPETITION (4 wins, 15 podiums): 3rd in 2016
TOP THREE CHAMPIONSHIP (No Limit Excedrin Racing): Champions in 2015 & 2018 | 2nd in 2017 & 2019
AUTOSPORT GP PREDICTOR: 2017 USA & P-F1 Champion

It seems odd to me that someone with a very good track record suddenly just did a bad job.

It only feels different because Williams or more like Ferrari in that they've been in it from day 1 and have been self sustaining all this time without the assistance of anyone, with the exception of the BMW era which always felt like an embattled existence with BMW wanting to call the shots over Frank and Patrick. Sauber has been in it for less time, but they've switched hands several times over the years, and while I love the team and their founder and feel they should be a mainstay in F1, they don't have the rich history in the sport to the likes and level of Williams.

Ferrari is different in that regardless what's going on with the parent company, the F1 operation is for all intents and purposes a sole entity tied to the road car division for the old adage of win on Sunday, sell on Monday, and the images of the Tifosi supporting the brand in every single palce around the globe helps them sell product like no other which generates revenue.

McLaren was started by Bruce and then was led by Teddy Mayer after his passing and the team was quite successful under his leadership across several disciplines, but eventually they merged with Ron Dennis' Project 4 Racing thanks to Marlboro forcing Teddy Mayer out in favor of Ron, with whom they had a standing relationship with. The question there in is, did McLaren cease to exist and Project 4 was merely re-badged as McLaren or was it the other way around? Either way, as far as I recall, McLaren has never been thought of as not being the same McLaren it always was, so I'm not so sure Williams would be thought of differently either. The vast majority of existing personnel will remain and will continue to do the work, only with new leadership in certain areas, just as Sauber has under it's new Alpha Romeo branding. It's still Sauber F1 to me.

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HAMILTON :: VERSTAPPEN :: LECLERC :: BOTTAS :: VETTEL :: SAINZ :: NORRIS
KVYAT :: RAIKKONEN :: RUSSEL :: ALBON :: RICCIARDO :: HULKENBURG :: PEREZ
STROLL :: MAGNUSSEN :: GROSJEAN :: GASLY :: GIOVANAZZI :: KUBICA

I think it's remarkable that Williams lasted this long with the same ethos they had in the 90's. For me, the decline began in 1998. I remember seeing the Winfield cars pootling around and being amazed how quickly the team had fallen. The loss of Adrian Newey and Renault was massive, and the purism of Frank Williams and Patrick Head meant that Williams were always going to find it hard to turn things around.
The brief renaissance with BMW sadly didn't lead anywhere and I suspect the appointment of Claire Williams was more about ensuring that the Williams philosophy continued than anything else.

It will be interesting to see who buys Williams in such an economic environment. A company like Mahindra? A Middle-East investment company? SAIC or Geely?

Reports that Toto has bought a 5% share in Williams. That now gives him a financial interest in three different teams.

I’m surprised there isn’t some sort of rule against that on the basis of conflict of interest.

Well I guess if someone can fully own two teams having a minority stake it three is almost small beer.

I remember Flavio buying Ligier in 95 just so he could transfer the Renault Engine supply to Bennetton.

What we need is for Toto to move to Williams now and start sorting things out from the inside!!!!!

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Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. [Lord Acton]
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Do you have a source for that? I know he had shares in Williams previously - he sold his last shares in Williams in 2016 - but it would seem strange to buy into a 3rd team. Then again, an investment is an investment and it didn't really trouble anyone in F1 when he had a 30% stake in Mercedes F1 and 15% in Williams at the same time and I doubt it would be a problem now.

Peter Windsor on Twitter.

Thanks! Windsor has tweeted a correction of sorts. Wolff hasn't bought a 5% stake in Williams:

Peter Windsor:
Re Toto's 5 per cent in WilliamsF1: Merc point out that it is a Security and thus technically not a "buy-back". A Security is "a first-priority Interest in favour of the Security Agent in respect of all of the shares in such Owner". Make of that what you will.

I think the security agent is the entity arranging the sale, and Wolff has put himself in a position of priority for 5%.

Didn't Briatore have a similar sort of thing going on in the 90s? Benneton, Ligier and I think Minardi he had a stake in.

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PF1 Pick 10 Competition 2019:
Current positon: 14th | 4 Podiums | 5 Wins
2018 Pick 10 Champion

Pleased Toto has invested it shows he believes in Williams as they say money talks.

You and Exediron seem to know for sure what happened within Williams to know for sure that Paddy Lowe is to blame for Williams' current state.

This is what I just wrote in the Mercedes F1 thread…

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HAMILTON :: VERSTAPPEN :: LECLERC :: BOTTAS :: VETTEL :: SAINZ :: NORRIS
KVYAT :: RAIKKONEN :: RUSSEL :: ALBON :: RICCIARDO :: HULKENBURG :: PEREZ
STROLL :: MAGNUSSEN :: GROSJEAN :: GASLY :: GIOVANAZZI :: KUBICA

i made my peace with williams, not being williams anymore a few seasons ago. at the moment, yes williams is still a constructor and run by a williams. i just figured their downward spiral was always going to end this way. someone may purchase them, even keep the name, but it isn't the same to me

from the outside it looks as if toto just made a short term investment. hoping someone offers bigger bucks than he put it. it does seem plenty are interested in taking over the team though

Are they selling the rights to the Williams name as well?

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Räikkönen - Vettel - Bottas
Thank you Nico - You´re the champ!

PF1 Pick 10 Competition 2016: CHAMPION (2 wins, 8 podiums)

Surely its the end of Williams

I think that's a little harsh. People act like Williams have been at the back for forever but they were on the podium only a few seasons ago. Outside the big three they are still the most successful team in the Turbo era.