Words by Dionysis Nanos
We’ve read the jokes, we’ve seen the memes and we’ve laughed all we could with Williams, and finally it’s about time we stop. The 2020 F1 season is finally underway, after Covid-19 almost did a better job at ruining F1 than Bernie Ecclestone, and there are few surprises really. Mercedes is dominant, Racing Point’s version of a Mercedes is really quick too and McLaren is finally able to be best of the rest after many years of just being average at best (sorry Fernando…). But the back of the grid has gotten rather interesting this year. See, last season the landscape was the same in every race, in the form of a Williams being at the back of the pack. But as of today (July 4th 2020), George Russell qualified above the duo of Alfa Romeo drivers, leaving only teammate Nicholas Latifi to qualify last, something that didn’t surprise many as it was his very first qualifying session ever in an F1 car. So, can we finally talk of a Williams comeback after was has been a really rough past (more than a) couple of seasons? Well, let’s look at the facts.
First of all, while no favors were done to any team during the pandemic, Williams had it especially rough since they had a lot of economic troubles before Covid-19 even appeared. That led to workers being put on furlough, the divorce with ROKiT as title sponsor and finally the announcement that a stake of the company or even the entire company was being put up for grabs. Any reasonable person would think that this is Williams admitting defeat, and to an extent that’s true, but at the same time have you seen many teams in the past practically saying “alright this can’t work anymore, we admit that we’ve f***ed up, now it’s time we make this right”?
The BMW Williams FW22
You see, other teams are facing challenges too, with McLaren, allegedly, considering mortgaging their HQ in order to raise funds, but that’s not the point. Williams didn’t just become F1’s laughing stock in a day. It was something that has steadily been happening since as early as 2005 when the partnership with BMW reached its end. Yes, many people are saying that the archaic ways that are being used in the team are to blame but to that I say name me another private team currently out there. Before you answer let me remind you that Haas and Alfa Romeo are acting as Ferrari Mini Mes, Racing Point is buddy buddy with Mercedes and McLaren is owned by the royal family of Bahrain. In other words, yes, the way the team is run isn’t the best, but at the same time it’s a family owned business and I doubt that anyone involved doesn’t want to see Williams thrive. But even so, where do we stand now?
Standing between the 2022 regulations and a possible breathe of fresh air for Williams, is the 2020-2021 season, and there are certain things that need to be worked out, and it looks like Williams has gotten its act together… for now at least. The biggest issue is funding, which hopefully the sale of a part of the team should resolve. If Williams manages to secure funding then the rest should (hopefully) follow. Most of the time (sorry Jaguar) more funding means more security, which means more sponsors which means even more money which means a better car, and finally someone at Williams understood that. We’re talking about a team that’s decided that it doesn’t want to be a B-team, that it doesn’t want to be like anyone else and that has been winning races since long before teams like Haas and Alpha Tauri-jesus-it’s-still-Torro-Rosso even existed. Williams is still second behind Ferrari as far as titles are concerned, and the fact that steps are being taken to make sure that the team will kick back in the future, shows that the people in charge actually know a thing or two on what need to be done.
The car no one wants to remember…
So to answer the initial question on if Williams is on the comeback, yes it really is. The car has gotten better, the people of the team know what to expect and the eyes are staring dead ahead in the future where hopefully glory is waiting, but things are not in good shape, not even remotely. The money is running out fast and a stake sale is needed urgently to have some sort of security, but the base of a good future is there and if things work out the way they should then in a couple of years we’ll re-write this piece with the title “Williams: From Hell To Heaven”. Let’s hope for the best.