Williams F1 Team up for Sale

[chrismscotland]

Williams are considering selling the F1 Team and entire company and have split from Title Sponsor Rokit - not looking good for them to be honest; would be a sad day if Williams left the sport

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/52847040

You've also got to wonder what kind of market there is for buying what is currently the bottom team? - yes there's history and heritage there but its been a long time since Williams F1 looked (or indeed were proper race-winners) (not counting Maldonado's 2012 blip).

They should probably have swallowed their pride and became a B-Team before now to survive; they could have been the Merc B team but thats now Force India; Ferrari have Alfa and Honda/Red Bull have Torro Rosso - the only one left really is Renault and their works team isn't much better!

 

[Tweaker]

The 2014 & 15 seasons were wasted IMO, beating red bull and gaining a load of cash only to through it all away.

 

[Steampunk]

The philosophy of their car design has been wrong for years. When everyone else had figured out you get a faster lap if you can go round bends and corners faster with more downforce and grip, Williams was still designing fast, slippery low downforce cars that are fast on the straights, but lose everything they gained and more on every other part of the track.

So sad to see one of the historical teams (who have had a fair bit of success) lose their way so badly. Claire Williams is going to have to carry the can, and even a couple of years ago there were articles regarding Jonathan Williams who should have been running the team after his successes with their Formula 2 team.

 

[GravyMonster]

Just saw this. It sounds like the death knell for the team to me. They've already sold most of their historical cars and mortgaged the land the team's factory sits on. They've got nothing left to sell. It's been proved time and again that you don't go in to racing to make money, so I'm not sure who's going to be dumb enough to buy them as they clearly need a lot of investment to even stay alive, let alone become competitive.

 

[Stumble Bum]

Inevitable really when Claire Williams is in charge. Utterly useless.

 

[vanpeebles]

F1 is a mess full stop.

 

[ajf]

It would be a real shame if this happened. Almost better for it’s history if it just folded, but that would obviously lead to a lot of job losses.
Does this also include Williams Engineering as I thought they did a lot of Formula E work for the Powertrain?

 

[chrismscotland]

It would be a real shame if this happened. Almost better for it’s history if it just folded, but that would obviously lead to a lot of job losses.
Does this also include Williams Engineering as I thought they did a lot of Formula E work for the Powertrain?

I'm sure they sold off a chunk of Williams Advanced Engineering last year but not sure if they still have a stake.

 

[Slam62]

No ones going to buy Williams are they, what exactly would be the point?

 

[englishpremier]

Best thing that could happen, Frank, Claire and Patrick Head ran that team into the ground.

Their engineering side is probably more interesting than the F1 team though, with their battery tech, flywheels and other developments.

 

[Danthus]

I don't understand why they are selling it now.

They are not at attractive purchase for anyone, there is no way in the current financial climate that VAG, for example, would buy them and brand the team as Audi. On a sporting level it also makes no sense, Mercedes waltzing off into the distance and your Audi is plum last.

Even with the cost capping that has been introduced you still need an enormous amount of money just to come last.

Formula 1 is at a crossroads.

 

[Steeps]

No one's going to buy the team until the administrators have been called in then another billionaire can pick on the carcass like Stroll did with Force India. Stroll tried to buy in to Williams and form a closer relationship with Mercedes but the arrogance at the top refused to.

Stroll is comfortable now with his Aston Martin team, Latifi is a possibility but he's currently invested in McLaren and I can't see that money coming out any time soon unless he cuts his losses. Mazepin is sniffing around Renault after he missed out on Force India but could be eyeing up the Williams carcass once it's dead depending on how much of the heritage he could get included.

A running team is of no interest to anyone unless it was already profitable/minimal losses. This should have been done years ago instead of running it into the ground.

 

[glenimp617]

F1 is a mess full stop.

I stopped watching it a couple of years ago. Too expensive, not to mention......boring.

God is it boring now.

is the Electric series any good?

 

[chrismscotland]

is the Electric series any good?

Not a huge fan of Formula E to be honest but there have been some good races; the street circuits have some interesting configurations!
The noise does my head in though; agree on F1 though its not exciting; I've been watching a lot of 90's and early 00's stuff on the F1 TV Archive and its was just much more competitive and exciting to watch

 

[V F]

Not a huge fan of Formula E to be honest but there have been some good races; the street circuits have some interesting configurations!
The noise does my head in though; agree on F1 though its not exciting; I've been watching a lot of 90's and early 00's stuff on the F1 TV Archive and its was just much more competitive and exciting to watch

I was watching F1 rerun the 1998 Spa race the other night. The one in the rain that Schumacher dominated until Coulthard slowed down and destroyed his car from the blind spray. I miss those days of Schumacher.

 

[this_is_gav]

I stopped watching it a couple of years ago. Too expensive, not to mention......boring.

God is it boring now.

is the Electric series any good?

FE is much more exciting than F1, despite the small, narrow and slow circuits.

F1 has had a few decent races in the last few years, but it says a lot that with F1TV's being free that I'm watching old 90s and 00s races rather than more recent ones.

Franking, if Indycar wanted a to take a hammer blow to F1 now is the time, but they're just not interested in de-Americanising it.

 

[Steampunk]

No ones going to buy Williams are they, what exactly would be the point?

A ready-made team with an entry in F1 is a pretty valuable and exclusive thing. Unfortunately the same global happenings that have brought the Williams team to this point are the ones that would stop anyone from buying them unless they had absurdly deep pockets and cash to burn to bring the team back to life.

 

[Psycho Ned]

They've pawned half the family silver off to Latifis dad already haven't they? Guess he'll be the one buying them if anyone does.

As a team they've been circling the plughole for years, I guess their best chance of jumping back near the sharp end was getting lucky with an out of the box flyer when the new regs came in but now thats been delayed a year they're faced with probably another 2 years at the back.

F1 as a whole you look at it and wonder what will be left of it if covid19 doesn't get resolved imminently. Williams in trouble, Hass you'd imagine would be first out the door if they could, Renault another who really aren't getting anywhere.

 

[adam cool dude]

Such a sad end but really Williams needed to branch out to survive. It all started when they refused BMW and they have never been back since.

Such a shame as some of the prettiest F1 cars ever were Williams and I started watching F1 during Mansells winning season.

 

[Dup]

I suspect they already have an offer on the table, it's just been publicly put out there for the sake of being fair and legal. They've always been resistant to let any part of the team go so why now? Because they have an offer they can't refuse already, which would explain binning off their main sponsors so quickly.

We need teams on the grid, it's just a shame a team with such pedigree has shrink to what Minardi used to be. It's strange times and this season is going to be a joke really but hopefully we have all the current teams in 2021, well maybe except Renault they irk me for some reason