Brawn: ‘Williams cannot go on like this’

F1 managing director Ross Brawn has said that the series is “very concerned” about the recent plight of Williams.

The Grove outfit are a mainstay of the Formula One grid with nine Constructors’ Championships and seven Drivers’ Championships to their name.

And despite making their way back towards the business end of the grid come 2014 under the new regulations, a steady decline followed before the team hit rock bottom in 2018 and remained there in 2019.

After arriving late to pre-season testing, Williams would spend last season well adrift at the back of the grid with Robert Kubica picking up their only point of the season, but hardly in normal circumstances with that point coming at a chaotic German Grand Prix and after penalties to others.

Brawn admits that the situation is concerning and he hopes that the revised prize money distribution in the series from 2021 will help Williams recover.

“We are very concerned [about Williams],” Brawn said in an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport.

“Williams have had a couple of very hard years and they cannot go on like this because they risk losing sponsors and drivers.

“I hope the new distribution of prize money will help them, because Williams is part of the history of F1.”

At the other end of the grid there has been talk of a three-way battle for the 2020 title as Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull fight it out under the stability of the final year of the current regulations.

And Brawn thinks the engine gains made by Honda make Red Bull a real threat to Mercedes’ six-year stranglehold on the sport.

“Honda have done an incredible job in the last 12 to 18 months,” he added.

“The engine has improved a lot and I believe if they continue this way in 2020 then Red Bull will be really hard to beat. Ferrari last year had a lot of ups and downs.

“And then there is McLaren that also improved a lot, but I don’t think they will be able to fight for the title.”

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