The Williams Formula One team has been up for sale since May, but its acquisition in full by American investment firm Dorilton Capital still came as a shock.
Williams, the sport’s third-oldest team and second-most successful by constructors championships, had been the only continuously family-owned team on the grid since its 1978 debut.
But that rare tangible link to the sport’s past has been lost through this sale, and though Frank Williams and daughter Claire will retain their principal and deputy positions respectively, it marks the end of a long transition away from the independent constructors that were the bedrock of the sport for most of its 70-year history.
It’s been no secret that Williams has been struggling on and off track for years. Poor results begot a decline in financial returns, which in turn resulted in worsening car performance.
The vicious cycle is laid bare in championship results: from third in the standings with 320 points in 2014 to a lucky solitary point to finish comfortably last in 2019.
The sale of its research and development arm to refinance debts last year was a final roll of the dice to see the team through to 2021, but the plan lasted only until COVID-19 postponed the season for four months. By May it was on the market for fresh investment, and last week it was snapped up in full for €152 million.
But sale of the family’s shares at least ensures the iconic team’s survival, and Dorilton says it intends to maintain the team’s historic name and honour its heritage. The firm also says this is a long-term investment, which bodes well for the team’s growth prospects.
Williams’s white knight has arrived with impeccable timing. Not only has it galloped in during the same week all 10 teams agreed to a new, fairer and egalitarian financial deal with the sport, but it still has 18 months to prepare for a regulatory overhaul.
The sport was originally due to switch to a new set of technical regulations designed to promote better, closer racing and introduce a budget cap of US$175 million for 2021, but the pandemic forced a delay in their implementation to reduce new spending during these financially precarious times.
However, crucially the budget cap has not only remained in place but has been negotiated down to US$145 million, far closer to Williams’s annual expenditure.
For its entire history Formula One has been vulnerable to cashed-up teams spending their way to victory — Ferrari and Mercedes, for example, reportedly spend more than US$400 million apiece — but from 2021 will be restrained in how much can be spent developing a car.
The doling out of prize money is also set to change dramatically. Unfair financial terms struck by F1’s previous owners allowed the largest teams to cream money off the top of the total pool before championship standings were used to divvy up the rest, but from next year the differences in payment from first to last on the title table will be smaller and bonus payments for championship success will be correspondingly reduced. … Continue reading
Domination tends to look easy in Formula One, but Lewis Hamilton’s peerless Spanish Grand Prix victory wasn’t the effortless parade the TV cameras made it out to be.
Formula One arrived in Barcelona with electricity in the air. Only last month the paddock had been wondering aloud whether anyone could beat Mercedes in 2020, but after Max Verstappen’s breakthrough win at tyre-destroying Silverstone one week earlier, optimism had taken hold that the championship was about to break open.
Two weeks in a row Mercedes had struggled with tyre wear through a combination of Silverstone’s high-downforce demands and stiflingly hot weather.
Lewis Hamilton has broken the record for most podium finishes with a dominant victory at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Hamilton led the race from pole to flag for his 156th appearance on the rostrum, breaking the record set by Michael Schumacher in 2012.
It was also the 88th victory of Hamilton’s career, taking him to within three of Schumacher’s record 91 wins.
Lewis Hamilton will start from pole position alongside Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas for the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona.
The Briton’s 92nd career pole was won by just 0.059 seconds, but the battle for P1 fizzled out when neither Hamilton nor Bottas could improve their times with their second laps in the top-10 shootout.
High track temperatures of around 50°C put a premium on tyre preparation, and though several drivers failed to find time at the end of the session, both Mercedes drivers lamented second laps that were simply scrappy.
“I didn’t see it coming!” a gleeful Max Verstappen said after winning the Formula One 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone. And he wasn’t the only one.
Mercedes had been utterly dominant in qualifying on the previous day, having locked out the front row by almost a full second. On Saturday night another one-two finish seemed a certainty.
But unbeknownst to the paddock, the German marque was harbouring a critical weakness.
Max Verstappen has broken Mercedes hearts with a perfectly judged strategy at a sizzling Silverstone to snatch his first win of the season.
Verstappen qualified fourth on the grid behind an all-Mercedes front row, but poleman Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton’s races came undone when their Mercedes car struggled to keep its tyres alive in the heat.
All three got good starts — Verstappen scythed past Racing Point’s Nico Hulkenberg to take third on the first lap — but Mercedes immediately fell into a rhythm of tyre management to make sure the medium-compound rubber both drivers started on would make it to the first pit stop window.
Verstappen had no such troubles, starting on the hard after an astute qualifying gamble. He was free to close in on the two leaders unimpeded while both Bottas and Hamilton complained of severe blistering.
By lap 14 — barely one-quarter distance — both Mercedes cars had switched onto the hard, but while they had a momentary boost in grip, before long the more durable rubber too started to expire on their rims.
Verstappen, having inherited the lead, was suddenly able to build an advantage over the stricken black cars, and Red Bull Racing smelt opportunity.
Waiting until lap 26 to make his first stop, he raced with Bottas for the lead as he exited pit lane and dispatched the Finn. He matched the times of the Mercedes cars behind, and when he and Bottas stopped on lap 32 and rejoined the race in the same order, Verstappen was able to gallop away and secure victory.
“I didn’t see it coming!” Verstappen said. “An incredible result to win here.
“We had a lot of pace in the car. We didn’t really have a lot of tyre issues at all we just kept pushing.
“Everything worked out well — we had the right strategy, everything was running smooth.”
The victory took Verstappen up to second in the drivers championship, 30 points behind title leader Hamilton.
Hamilton had been left in first place after Verstappen’s final stop, but his tyres were badly damaged. After considering and dismissing an unlikely defence of the lead without another set of tyres, he dived into pit lane for fresh rubber on lap 40.
But catching Verstappen was never going to happen, with 12 seconds to make up in as many laps. Instead Hamilton’s final stop allowed him to fight with teammate Bottas for second.
The Finn was at a nine-lap tyre disadvantage and could offer little defence, the Briton cutting past him with two laps to spare to consolidate second place.
“It was a massive challenge,” he said. “Definitely unexpected to have the blistering as hardcore as we experienced it, but I’m really grateful to have progressed and manage my way through the race.
“I’m sure the team will be working as hard as its can because we’ve not had that before.”
It left Bottas to trail home a disconsolate third, now third in the title standings and 34 points behind his teammate. … Continue reading
Valtteri Bottas will start the F1 70th Anniversary Grand Prix from pole position after pipping teammate Lewis Hamilton at the death.
Racing Point supersub Nico Hulkenberg qualified a sensational third in just his second weekend back in F1 filing in for the COVID-19-infected Sergio Perez.
Mercedes was in a class of its own in the battle for pole, the black cars qualifying almost a full second quicker than Hulkenberg’s pink machine, but the intrateam battle for pole was tight.
When it rains it pours, at least if you’re Valtteri Bottas.
The Finn, upon whom the entirety of the sport is relying to make the 2020 championship a contest, started the British Grand Prix with a five-point deficit to teammate Lewis Hamilton but ended it with a yawning 30-point chasm after a catastrophic final three laps.
Up until lap 50 of 52 the British Grand Prix was another demonstration of Mercedes imperiousness. The famous high-speed bends of the Silverstone Circuit looked as though they had been designed around the W11 rather than the other way around, and reigning champion Hamilton put the synergy to devastating use by shattering the track record to take pole position.
Lewis Hamilton took a record-breaking seventh home-race victory at the British Grand Prix on just three wheels after a last-lap tyre failure robbed him of a cruise to the chequered flag.
Hamilton’s front-left tyre let go with half a lap remaining and a 40-second advantage over second-placed Max Verstappen, who had just put on a set of the fastest rubber.
The gap closed at a ferocious rate, but Hamilton coaxed his stricken car to the line with five seconds of his margin remaining to record perhaps the most tense home win of his career.
Lewis Hamilton has taken pole and Mercedes has crushed the competition in a dominant qualifying performance at the British Grand Prix.
Hamilton had little trouble seeing off teammate Valtteri Bottas in their exclusive battle for pole, with both his laps in the top-10 shootout quick enough to secure him a place at the front of the grid.
The gap from the leading pair to the rest of the field was astonishing. While only 0.3 seconds separated Hamilton from Bottas, more than an entire second split the Briton from everyone else.
Sebastian Vettel must feel particularly aggrieved with the way 2020 is panning out.
The four-time world champion expected two things from this Formula One season: a car to contend with Mercedes for the title and an extension to his expiring contract.
Little did he know, as 2019 turned into this wretched 2020, neither was ever going to happen.
Can anyone beat Mercedes in 2020?
The F1 paddock’s burning question, to be clear, isn’t whether Mercedes can be beaten to the championship; the question is whether Mercedes can be beaten in a race at all.
Mercedes has clean swept the three grands prix, with Lewis Hamilton winning twice from pole and Valtteri Bottas once, and excepting opening-round unreliability, the German marque has been almost entirely unimpeachable.
Lewis Hamilton has cruised to a record-equalling eighth victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix to take control of championship standings.
Hamilton was peerless all weekend in Budapest, setting a new track record to take his 90th career pole on Saturday and dominating the race on Sunday.
His lead stretched to almost 30 seconds over the field before a late-race pit stop for fresh tyres to set the fastest lap, which he duly captured with a new lap record. The extra point took him to a five-point lead in the championship standings over teammate Valtteri Bottas.
Lewis Hamilton has taken his 90th F1 pole position with a new lap record at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The Briton’s best time of 1 minute 13.447 seconds beat the previous best by more than a second on a day Mercedes was peerless over a single lap.
Hamilton’s only competition came from teammate Valtteri Bottas, who ran him close but fell just 0.107 seconds short after completing two laps apiece.
Never has the Formula One paddock been more intensely pressurised than in this most unusual 2020 season.
We’re two rounds into an unprecedented run of 10 races in 13 weeks, and with the full schedule of events still undetermined, every grand prix threatens to make or break a championship.
The pressure has never been higher. Fortunately Lewis Hamilton thrives on it.
Lewis Hamilton has taken his first win of the season in a one-two victory for Mercedes at the Styrian Grand Prix.
The Briton had been untouchable since recording his masterful pole position in the wet from Max Verstappen on Saturday afternoon. The Red Bull Racing driver expected to challenge Hamilton for victory come the race, but the reigning world champion never gave him a chance, acing his start and nailing the single safety car restart to keep the Dutchman at arm’s length throughout.
The margin at the chequered flag was 13.7 seconds, and Hamilton was serene in rejoining the winners circle in 2020.
Lewis Hamilton has put on a masterclass of wet-weather driving with a dominant pole position in saturated Styrian Grand Prix qualifying.
The superlative driving spectacle almost didn’t happen, with heavy rain cancelling Saturday practice and threatening to write off qualifying in the deluge.
But fortunately the rain eased enough to allow the track to drain sufficient to get the session underway after only a 46-minute delay, allowing Hamilton to put on a show of wet-weather excellence.
Valtteri Bottas may have taken the chequered flag at the season-opening Austrian Grand Prix, but this was no Mercedes domination.
Superficially Formula One’s long-awaited resumption looked little different from races past. Mercedes was blistering quick in qualifying, locking out the front row by more than half a second from Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, and Bottas converted pole into a flawless light-to-flag victory.
But the face-value evaluation belies how hard the reigning constructors champion had to work to get the job done.