GPWizard F1 Forum
F1 News & Discussions => F1 Teams => Topic started by: cosworth151 on September 04, 2020, 01:37:04 PM
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This weekend's race at Monza will be the last with the Williams family in charge of their namesake team. After 43 years and 739 races, Sir Frank and Clare will leave the team after the race.
“We have been in this sport for more than four decades," Clare willims said. "We are incredibly proud of our track record and the legacy we leave behind. We have always been in it for the love of it, for the pure pleasure of going motor racing, so this is not a decision that we have taken lightly but after much reflection and as a family.
“On behalf of Frank and the Williams family, I would like to say how incredibly grateful and humbled we are for the support we have enjoyed over the years, from our friends in the paddock to the many fans around the world. But mostly, we would like to thank our team. People who have worked at Williams in the past and present. They are the true warriors of this team and have made it what it is and we wish them well. Formula 1 has been our life for so long and now it’s time for a new chapter in our lives to begin.”
Williams is third longest seniority team in F1, behind Ferrari & McLaren.
The Williams family has given so much to the history of our sport. Our thanks & best wishes go with them.
https://racer.com/2020/09/03/williams-family-to-leave-f1-after-italian-grand-prix/
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On one hand, I was wondering why you'd do something so drastic mid season, and on the other hand, it's not like it will hurt Williams' prospects for 2020.
It is a shame to see the Williams go but we've seen namesake teams transition with and without their founders in Minardi and Sauber, and neither was a prototype for F1 success. (McLaren and Ferrari are entirely different stories, of course).
I wish well for the team, I wish well for the family. I suspect Claire will show up in F1 again in the future.
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Sad that Claire is hanging up her hat so soon. I gather the new owners would have preferred her to stay on, at least for a good while.
Guess it's hard to have your family heritage pulled away from you due to the sudden drop in income, and prospective income, due to the pandemic crisis.
Not actually sure it was Claire's choice to sell up so that could be a factor as well.
With below par performance on track this year and in last few seasons Claire is no doubt relieved to hand over soonest to someone else, I'm sure I would be if technical & engineering managers had let me down so badly.
All dynasties come to an end, we'll miss Frank and Claire but the team races on. All best wishes to them for the future Williams place in F1 history is assured.
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Yup. Kinda' sad. Empty feeling seeing an old "friend" go. Has it really been that long....?
I'm watchin' all of racing change (not for the better as far as I'm concerned) and losing people and "stuff" that kept some relation to better times just makes the diminishing passion all the harder. :'(
Oh well....'always got the memories of great people, times, places, and goings on, that younger folk will never know as this change takes place..... :(
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It's a shame. Claire definitely didn't want to go, she was talking about simply getting a big sponsor being an option. And all this started because a sponsor went for a team deal when all it was really interested in was the driver... But it's a buyer's market right now, thanks to the recession.
That said, I can see why she would not have wished to stay, because having the manager stay on when the entire leadership has changed can be super-awkward for the former subordinates (that have become peers). Claire, I think, made a wise decision to step back and let the new structure find its way.
I will miss Frank, and to some extent Claire too. Hope Frank has a happy retirement, Claire has success and happiness in whatever she does next and that Williams regains its success.
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We’ve seen it publicly and I’ve seen it personally; when a business is sold but the founder (or their successor in the family) is offered to stay on in a position of leadership. For the new owners, it’s about bean counting, while for the previous owner it’s too much emotion. I’m glad Claire stepped down.
The era of Patrick Head’s has passed. No longer can brilliance dominate, now it’s too much about money and sponsorship, but the Williams family can be thankful that they’ve become multi-millionaires as a result and will retire comfortably.
I never warmed to Claire and thought she made, or at least oversaw some major blunders. I hate that the team has been sold to a bunch of bean counters who now want a piece of jewelry until they get bored and resell it to a marketing company.
Oh well, a backmarker to fill out the grid. I hope they change the name as soon as possible so we won’t be reminded of their former glory.
Better to remember the Williams that was as opposed to what it is today.