Williams owners have 10-year plan for success

Tom Rawcliffe
Simon-Roberts-PA

Simon-Roberts-PA

Williams team principal Simon Roberts has revealed the new owners have a 10-year plan to help them become a renewed force in the future.

Dorilton Capital took full ownership of Williams Racing, while settling all outstanding debts, midway through the 2020 season and have the potential to invest in the future.

The company and those working behind the scenes are well aware there is no quick fix in Formula 1, so will instead take a steadier approach, improving gradually as time goes on.

While the owners understand this, there will still be some level of pressure to achieve – the main aim this season arguably just to get some points back on the board after Williams finished on zero in 2020 for the first time in their history.

Roberts told GPFans Global: “They (Dorilton) are working on a 10-year horizon in terms of this as a project for them, which is great.

“That’s not to say we are not under pressure. They expect us to improve, they expect us to deliver. There’s no free ride here but we are up for it.

“We are a great team, it’s a great bunch of people and we are all super-competitive. None of us like being 10th in the Championship. We are all desperate to improve but we know everyone else in the pit lane is too.

“Was it the right time [for the takeover]? It was a good time. It was far enough ahead of 2022 that it will really make a difference in our preparation and in our design and development for ’22 and it will help us a little bit in ’21.

“It’s not going to change our world for ’21 but it hopefully will put us in a much, much better place for ’22.”

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With the regulation changes being delayed until 2022, the alterations they can make ahead of the upcoming season are limited anyway. But lots of work will be done in the future to try and return Williams to their former glories, and they have reason to be hopeful after they became much more competitive last season compared to their 2019 showings.

Roberts said: “If they’ve invested and wanted us to be mid-grid next season then it’s too late for that, but they don’t.

“They genuinely want us to build, to put the right things in place, to focus on areas that will really make a difference going forward and they understand there is no magic bullet in F1.

“We’re not here because we’ve got one thing wrong and if we fix that then suddenly we’re going to be a Q3 car, so they get that. They have been working very closely with us.”

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