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Williams on track to reclaim Formula One glory, one race at a time
It's a long-term goal that won't be accomplished soon, but the future is starting to look far more promising than in recent years.
Williams Racing is one of the most significant teams in Formula One. The British outfit, founded by grocery salesman Frank Williams and engineer Patrick Head in 1977, is the second-most-successful team in the sport's history. Only Italian team Ferrari (16) has won more constructors' championships.
The team was dominant throughout the 1980s and 1990s, earning its nine constructors' championship titles in that period. Australian driver Alan Jones won Williams its first drivers' world title in 1980. Clay Regazzoni had earned Williams its first points a year before.
In the following decade Williams achieved more success with the likes of Alain Prost, Keke Rosberg, Nelson Piquet, Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve becoming Formula One champions in its stable.
Decline and change
The turn of the millennium brought a decline in Williams' performances, and it only worsened as the years went by.
The team earned a single point in 2019, finishing at the bottom of the 10-team constructors' championship after 21 races. To highlight just how poor Williams performed, first-placed Mercedes collected more than 700 points that year.
Fans of the team who were still holding on to the golden era of the Eighties and Nineties would have been forgiven for thinking it could not get worse. They were mistaken. Williams performed even poorer in the 2020 season, concluding it without a single point.
It was a horrid period for the once influential Formula One outfit. The only positive result from that annus horribilis was the Williams family deciding to sell to Dorilton Capital towards the end of the season because of financial difficulties.
'I'm delighted that we found a buyer like Dorilton, which has a passion for Williams and getting that team back to where we all want to see the team in Formula One – being successful,' Claire Williams, the team's former deputy team principal, told PlanetF1 in 2024. 'I'm just incredibly happy that it's got that future and it can now thrive. That's what I wanted to see.
'Towards the end I saw how difficult it was for everybody at Williams that they weren't able to be successful, despite enormous efforts on their part. We didn't have the budget, we didn't have the money to enable these great people that we had working for us to do the job that we were asking them to do.
'That wasn't fair. Selling at that point was the right thing to do because Dorilton has now armed those people with the money to get the job done.'
Heading in the right direction
Williams is now in better financial standing and heading in the right direction. Though it is still not on solid ground financially, recording an £84-million deficit in 2023, the new owners have invested significantly in the team. They are focused on the future and restoring it to its former glory.
Some promising displays so far this season from drivers Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz Jnr have seen Williams performing strongly. The team has already collected 54 points, compared with a paltry 17 last season.
'It's been a very promising start to the 2025 season. We've produced some really strong results and scored a huge number of points compared with recent seasons,' Albon told SB Nation.
'We have started the season strongly and we're delivering on the opportunities we're creating. We just need to ensure we don't get complacent and get the very maximum from what we have.'
Leading this Williams resurgence is team principal James Vowles. With more than two decades in Formula One in various roles, the former Mercedes strategy director has been charged with bringing back the glory days of the British team.
He was instrumental during Mercedes' dominant Formula One run between 2014 and 2021. Before that he played a pivotal role at minnows Brawn, where he oversaw the race strategy that resulted in Jenson Button securing the 2009 Formula One drivers' title and the team shockingly taking the constructors' championship.
Key hires
Vowles has been clear about his long-term vision and commitment to building the team 'from the ground up' since his arrival in 2023. At this point, the most important thing is fostering a competitive culture. Then, hopefully, the results will follow.
'If you want to win there is only one way to win: you can't get caught in the now,' Vowles told reporters at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. 'We were in a mess because we were short-termist all the way through the last 20 years. Some of it was financially driven, some of it driven by other elements.
'It's hard for fans to understand why we're doing this, but our targets are actually around the introduction of infrastructure, technology systems, how long it takes to build a front wing, how expensive it is.
'If I said to you our goal this year is to finish eighth, who cares? We'll probably beat that, but that's a moment in time. What we're defining here is a pathway that leads us back to winning.'
In addition to Vowles, Williams has roped in a number of key people to bolster the technical team, including respected and experienced Pat Fry as chief technical officer. This move is aimed at strengthening its technical departments, particularly in aerodynamics and design.
Williams may not reap the rewards any time soon, especially with its rivals also aiming for improvement after each race. However, for the fans who have followed the team through its ebbs and flows, the results so far will provide some hope that Williams can one day reclaim its spot at the summit of Formula One. DM
This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.
