Williams deny setting timeline for revival

Jon Wilde

George Russell, Williams

Williams’ new CEO, Jost Capito, is not prepared to stipulate any timeline for a major improvement in the team’s fortunes.

Nine-time winners of the F1 Constructors’ World Championship, Williams have fallen on hard times in recent years having collected only seven, one and zero points respectively in the last three seasons.

The first major step in reversing the decline was Dorilton Capital’s purchase of the team last summer and besides considerable financial investment, they have appointed Capito as CEO while Simon Roberts has become team principal.

Capito, best known for his success in rallying with Ford and Volkswagen, knows it will be extremely difficult to lift Williams too far up the order in the short term, certainly this year before the big regulation changes arrive in 2022.

The 62-year-old German insists he will not, certainly at this early stage, put any pressure on himself and his colleagues to deliver results within a specific timeframe.

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Jost Capito, Williams

“They [Dorilton] expect the team to be more competitive,” Capito told RacingNews365.

“They gave me the freedom to develop objectives for the management team and that’s what I am processing.

“It still has to be defined because first you have the overall objectives, then the long-term, the medium and the short-term objectives.

“I will measure my results on how we achieve the objectives once they are set and whether we achieve them on time. That is my feedback on being successful or not.

“I have too much experience to make a timeline. You can always be wrong when it comes to a timeline.”

One thing of which Capito is certain is that “miracles” cannot be expected as Williams, with drivers George Russell and Nicholas Latifi, prepare for the 2021 season’s opening race, the Bahrain Grand Prix on March 28.

“With the new beginning, also with the new owners, you now have the opportunity to restructure and streamline again,” said Capito in January, before he had started work with the team.

“This is important because fewer than zero points is not possible! It can only be better.

“But no matter what changes you make, it always goes down first. Then it has to go up. That means for this year, no miracles are to be expected because you can only change very little on the car.”

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