Williams is not getting out of the crisis. The third oldest and also third most successful GP team (after Ferrari and McLaren) has taken the last world championship rank for two years in a row and is barely able to stay afloat. Claire Williams, the daughter of company founder Frank Williams, speaks of sales.
For Ralf Schumacher it is like a stab in the heart. The German drove for the traditional team from 1999 to 2004 and won six Grand Prix victories there. In 2001 and 2002 he finished fourth with Williams in the World Cup. But today’s Sky GP expert cannot avoid a brutal judgment: “It looks like neither Frank Williams nor his daughter were able to lead the team in a modern style.” Ralf Schumacher speaks from the long-time Williams critic Jacques Villeneuve from the soul: The fish stinks from the head. Ralf: “There are a lot of things wrong with the management style.”
Williams misunderstood the signs of the times and thus missed the connection. Ralf continues: “Years ago the path should have been cleared for young management personnel. I have experienced this myself – times have just changed. The Frank Williams system always consisted of exerting a lot of pressure from above. But now we have a lot of young people with a degree in Formula 1. Some of them are only briefly in the premier class, because they cannot be handled like that. »
Claire Williams no longer rules out a realignment. Ralf Schumacher senses an opportunity, “but only if Frank and Claire withdraw completely and a good investor comes on board. I still think the racing team is great. If I had the right partners and the money, I would take part immediately. At Williams, however, it has to be properly dusted. »
Michael Latifi and Dmitry Mazepin are considered candidates for a takeover. Iranian-Canadian entrepreneur Latifi (57) is already one of those companies that support Williams with loans through Latrus Racing. His son Nicholas (24) will make his GP debut for Williams in early July. The grocery entrepreneur, which Forbes magazine claims to have a fortune of $ 2 billion, has also been a partner in the McLaren Group since May 2018, where he secured 9.84 percent of the company’s shares for $ 265 million.
The Russian Dmitry Mazepin (52) from Minsk in Belarus made his fortune with fertilizer. In 2018, he was valued by the business experts at $ 7 billion. His Moscow-born son Nikita (21) drives in Formula 2. Dmitry Mazepin has tried to take over a GP racing team before, but Force India became the property of Lawrence Stroll and his business partners in 2018; the team is now called Racing Point and will be Aston Martin’s new factory stable in 2021.
Ralf Schumacher again: «Mazepin is in the starting blocks and is wealthier than Latifi and Stroll. So far he has bought all teams for his son, from Formula 3 upwards. »
Ralf Schumacher does not necessarily see that billionaires can afford entire racing teams for their sons as a negative trend. “I can’t criticize that because I’m glad that there are people who love our sport and are willing to invest so much money – be it for their children.”
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