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Early days for Williams Racing new owners


By Andrew Hooper
September 12 2020

 
 Early days for Williams Racing new owners
 
Simon Roberts
 

With the departure of Claire Williams from her Deputy Team Principal role she has been replaced, if only in an acting role, by Simon Roberts with the title Williams Acting Team Principal. He has been working at Williams Racing since last May but has been very much working behind the scenes. But now with Claire's departure he has been pushed into the limelight. He has been seen working on the pit wall at both the recent Italian Grand Prix and the Tuscany Grand Prix.

The Tuscan raced weekend will be the first time that the new owners will get to see the team in operation with Dorilton Capital chairman Matthew Savage and CEO Darren Fultz coming to Mugello for the Tuscan Grand Prix.

In a recent interview on gpfans.com Simon spoke of the relationship with the new owners. He made it very clear that there will be no quick turn around of the teams fortunes with the arrival of the new owners Dorilton Capital.

Simon said: "They’ve been around in the factory for just over a couple of weeks now so I’ve spent quite a bit of time with them."

"And we’re looking at all of it, we’re reviewing everything. They’re really interested in what we do.

"This is all new to them, which is great. Quite a lot of similarities, which I haven’t appreciated when you talk to them, about the competitiveness in the financial world, which is something I don’t really understand, and the translation in thinking and strategy and risk and stuff like that.

"All the things that we think we’re great at in Formula 1 they have quite an insight into. There’s quite a lot of synergy there.

"But it’s early days. We’re looking at what do we need to do, what’s the sequence, assuming to the 2021 cost cap, so we have got to be careful.

"Obviously, we operate under the cost cap, so we’ve got a bit more flexibility than other teams. We just want to do the right things and they’re talking really seriously about it."

But Simon also spoke of how the team fortunes will not change over night. He added: "This isn’t a quick fix, you don’t just come in and wave your magic wand around.

"They’re really keen on working with us and establishing what are the right things to do. So very early days. We’ve just gotten the first plans in place."

Looking forward to showing Savage and Fultz how an F1 team operates over a race weekend, Roberts said: "It’ll be great.

"It’ll be the first time they’ve met the team. It’s just coming to see what we do, start becoming a part of what we do, no more than that."

 

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Early days for Williams Racing new owners
Discussion started by Williams F1 , 12/09/2020 08:44
Williams F1
12/09/2020 08:44
What do you think? You can have your say by posting below.
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Mr Brooksy
16/09/2020 07:01
Kinda surprised this hasn't surfaced here yet...
[www.racefans.net]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2020:09:16:07:02:38 by Mr Brooksy.

Myvatn
16/09/2020 10:08
Yes, they were there. And I think this is a very positive sign.

Matt Brown
16/09/2020 11:27
Quote:
The new owners are conducting an extensive review of the 43-year-old team’s operation before deciding their next steps.

Stu69
16/09/2020 11:28
Great to see they are not a faceless entity. How big an impact they can have on next years car is the interesting question. Some effect but not loads I guess.

Even if they buy Merc parts they still have to integrate them into a working concept. It isn’t just a simple bolt it on and it works Job!

Ridiculous comments in the race fans link. Our best result of the season finishing 11th!! Don’t make me laugh! Only 12 finished! It’s not a finish to rejoice about.

BUT I honestly believe the new owners will and can do a better job than the old guard! Fresh ideas and hopefully a full budget. Come on team Willy!!

Matt Brown
16/09/2020 11:38
Quote:
Ridiculous comments in the race fans link. Our best result of the season finishing 11th!! Don’t make me laugh! Only 12 finished! It’s not a finish to rejoice about.

Yeah I noticed that too ,Williams finished 11th but half the god damn field got wiped out in that race.

Stu69
16/09/2020 11:59
Quote:
Matt Brown
Quote:
Ridiculous comments in the race fans link. Our best result of the season finishing 11th!! Don’t make me laugh! Only 12 finished! It’s not a finish to rejoice about.

Yeah I noticed that too ,Williams finished 11th but half the god damn field got wiped out in that race.

Spin worthy of Trump or Boris!! :-)

GPL
16/09/2020 13:09
hahahahahaha.

GPL
16/09/2020 13:16
Anyway enough pie in the sky drivel from Robson.

Who is designing next years car because we are running out of time.

Don,t tell me we have to wait till 2022 to see a car capable of points.

Stu69
16/09/2020 13:47
We have to wait until 2022 to see a car that can score points!! Ha ha ha!!

Actually I don’t believe that. Racing Point prove it can be done reasonably quickly. Last years racing point was decent and this years better. With a decent plan, some cash, good people we should have a much better car next year and a better one the year after!

However, if the new owners can’t deliver on their investment then it will be a disaster..., again! I think they can deliver! If Stroll can, they can! It can be done.

GroveF1
17/09/2020 07:16
Well let’s face it Racing Point is a Mercedes in disguise so that won’t be difficult. My thinking is They’ll still have Dave Worner and Dave Carter kept in the design department with Doug McKiernan and Adam Carter in the technical side - all new arrivals for 2020 remember.

The need an overseeing figure to direct them.

Stu69
17/09/2020 08:00
“Won’t be difficult”

Well not as difficult as designing from scratch but not as simple as bolting on the Merc bits and away you go. It still takes engineering skill and design know how to get all those parts working together.

an.jo
17/09/2020 20:36
Quote:
Stu69
Even if they buy Merc parts they still have to integrate them into a working concept. It isn’t just a simple bolt it on and it works Job!

And yet RP claims to have reverse-engineered last year's Mercedes to design this years RP that miraculously came out at the 1st test working as well as last year's Mercedes. If you believe that and not that Mercedes -- in particular, £37 million investor last spring in Aston Martin after talks with Lawrence Stroll, Toto Wolff -- decided that RP (going forward Aston Martin, which was purchased by a consortium led by Stroll and has an ongoing partnership with Daimler AG) would be the Mercedes B team and use the previous years Mercedes chassis and they would get around the prohibition against that with the "reverse-engineering" BS ... well, some proverbial Florida swamp land needs a new owner. The only thing RP engineered -- no doubt, also with Mercedes help -- is plausible deniability.

The only plausible explanation for RP's "reverse-engineering" miracle is they had access to something similar to what Ferrari's Nigel Stepney gave Mclaren's Mike Coughlan in 2007:

Quote:
After analyzing Stepney's laptop, investigators discovered that, at some point, he had printed out the soul of the 2007 Ferrari F1 car: 780 pages that, as court documents would later reveal, constituted "technical documents for designing, engineering, building, checking, testing, developing, and running a Formula One racing car." These included schematic drawings, technical reports, photographs, budget sheets, planning materials, and more. (Link)

The other teams knew immediately what was up, the problem was proving it. Renault used the brake ducts issue as a means of indirectly attacking what was going on and hoping, I'm sure, through the appeals process to directly implicate Wolff and Mercedes before the FIA headed that off, promising to change the regulations to prevent future "reverse-engineering". So Williams can't repeat RP's "reverse-engineering" miracle for the last year of the current regulations in 2021.

Matt Brown
18/09/2020 12:09
How many more years will Williams run Mercedes engines how long before Williams change engine manufacturers? Will it be 4 or 5 years before they change engine manufacturers?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2020:09:18:12:13:06 by Matt Brown.

Stu69
18/09/2020 14:54
Quote:
Matt Brown
How many more years will Williams run Mercedes engines how long before Williams change engine manufacturers? Will it be 4 or 5 years before they change engine manufacturers?

How many more years will Merc be involved??

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