Claire Williams tells critic ‘f**k off’ in hard-hitting Williams reflection

Claire Williams aimed the “bullsh*t” comments that receives from people online during her time as Williams’ deputy team principal, issuing a sweary response to the perpetrator of a recent example.

Williams made the eye-opening reveal that “not even 10 per cent” of what she went through at the de fecto helm of the team is public knowledge. The Williams family sold its team to American investment firm Dorilton Capital in 2020.

Claire Williams tells critics ‘don’t hide behind a keyboard’

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Claire Williams was appointed Williams’ deputy team principal in 2013, taking over the day-to-day running of the family team from her father, Sir Frank Williams.

The team made an impressive start to Formula 1’s turbo-hybrid era with Mercedes power, finishing third in the 2014 and 2015 Constructors’ standings.

A significant decline followed, leaving Williams at the back of the grid in the latter years of the decade. The 2020 season failed to yield a single point.

It was during 2020 that the Williams family bowed out of Formula 1 after selling the team to Dorilton. The iconic team name has been retained ever since by the American firm.

Six years on, Claire Williams appeared on the High Performance Racing podcast. She sent a firm message to those who send online abuse her way, something which sadly continues to happen.

“The bullsh*t comments you get, and they’re not bullsh*t comments, they’re just really mean comments, that are just bullsh*t, that you don’t need, online,” she said.

“People just think it’s perfectly acceptable to write really mean things. I’ve just had enough of it. I still get it, and I haven’t been in the sport for six years.

“I had one last night, going, ‘Oh, yeah, hello, you’re the woman that brought your dad’s team down.’ F**k off. What do you know.

“If you want to come and say that to my face, be brave enough to come and say it to my face.

“Don’t hide behind a keyboard and be rude about people, because what have you done in your life. I find that just bullsh*t.

“That’s the thing about sport. We’re all just trying our best, and I think it’s bullsh*t that other people, that don’t walk in your shoes, think that they have a right to an opinion.”

Referring to those challenging final years associated with her family team, Williams added: “You don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes.

“For example, during those last few years of my time running the team, because it’s Formula 1, because you can’t talk about so much stuff publicly, you don’t go and talk about the contracts that you’ve got, or what’s going on behind the scenes, because you just don’t do it, and that’s the same up and down the paddock, but because you can’t talk about it, then people don’t invariably know what you are going through behind the scenes on a day-to-day basis.

“So that’s really hard, and you’re invariably beating yourself up more than anyone else could possibly do so, and then you just have that thrown at you as well, and then it’s just like, give people a break.”

Williams was asked what percentage of what she went through, as she fought to keep that team alive, actually is public knowledge.

“Not even 10 per cent of what happened,” she confirmed.

Williams believes that people’s “jaws would fall to the floor” if they knew the truth about what she was going through personally and professionally, as well as her family and the wider Williams team.

“Even not just the last few years, but from the very start, how difficult and how challenging it was,” she added.

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Williams explained her reasons for keeping so much of that information private.

“I’ve never really been that public and talked about how hard it was. It’s private stuff, isn’t it, and I’m not going to go and air my dirty laundry in public. No one needs to know about it.

“That’s one of the reasons I haven’t done a book, because it’s like, no, that’s for me, and it’s for my nearest and dearest, and people that I care to share it with.

“Because sometimes, too much is too sensitive, and if it did come out, too damaging.”

Williams has achieved three podiums during the Dorilton era. The team, now headed by James Vowles, with Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon at the wheel, holds ambitions to restore Williams’ title-winning ways.

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