The Williams racing team has undergone significant changes behind the scenes. Their lead driver George Russell is hoping that these structural changes will help them leapfrog the teams in front of them during the 2021 F1 season. The British constructor has been anchored to the bottom of the team standings in recent years. This led to a change in management as the Williams family finally sold its controlling interest in the team to the New York-based investment firm, Dorilton Capital. Russell is hoping that the financial injection will be enough to see the team challenge the Ferrari engined Haas and Alfa Romeo teams in 2021. "I think Haas and Alfa Romeo, where are two rivals last year," Russell told RacingNews365.com among others. "We want to be in the same position as last year [competing with Haas and Alfa Romeo] as a bare minimum. "It's no secret that the Ferrari engine will be much stronger this year, which puts us slightly on the backfoot but I think the guys have done a great job over the winter. "I think, as we saw last year, the amount of points that separated the teams in the back of a grid were very, very small numbers. "You only need one, one big weekend and that can catapult you from last to eighth in the constructors, which from a team side is huge." Given that the Haas F1 team are unlikely to spend a huge amount of time developing their 2021 challenger, it leaves the door open for Williams to take advantage of that fact. Even if Ferrari does make a significant step forward with respect to its power-unit, the Williams team still have the luxury of calling upon Mercedes power which remains the industry standard. If the team can make a significant step forward with regards to their chassis, then Russell's ambition for the 2021 F1 season will start to look highly realistic.
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