Williams are just one of three teams with an unchanged driver line-up going into the 2021 season but a lot has changed in the management and team personnel. The Grove-based squad are aiming to not finish last in the constructors' standings after three consecutive seasons at the bottom of the championship.
Capito to lead the start of a new era
Jost Capito was announced as the new CEO of the team in December whilst Simon Roberts was confirmed as the official team principal after holding the role since the departure of Claire Williams last year. Capito is a big character in the motorsport world having been highly successful in rallying. He became the Director of Volkswagen in the WRC in 2012 and led the manufacturer to a hat-trick of drivers’ and constructors’ titles during his time there. “I think that if you're a motorsport guy and have followed Formula 1 as a boy and almost 60 years, you would never dream of running an F1 team, never mind Williams," Capito told RacingNews365.com . "There was no question when I got this offer that I would take it over retirement which I had planned for at the end of this year.
New owners already funding the team
Williams’ new owners Dorilton Capital have already invested over £100m into the team. Since Dorilton’s initial investment of £42.5m, they invested a further £5m in November, £18m in December, £15m in January and £20m in February to take the team's total investment to £100.5m. “Dorilton are in for the long term and they support the team,” said Capito. “I don't think that it is just [a question] of putting money in and going to the limit of the cost cap in order to make the team much better. You have to build on it. “Dorilton expect the team to be more competitive. They gave me the freedom to develop these objectives for the management team and that's what I'm processing. "It still has to be defined because first you have the overall objectives, then the long term, the medium and the short term objectives. “I will measure my results on how we achieve the objectives once they are set and whether we achieve them on time. That is my feedback on being successful or not.”
Russell's final year with Williams?
As for their drivers, they will aim to take advantage of any chaos to pick up some much-needed world championship points. Williams have finished last in the constructors’ standings for the last three seasons so ending that streak is important in order to gain momentum and increase team morale. George Russell has got his fingertips on a Mercedes seat for 2022 so the upcoming season will all be about minimising mistakes. He does not have to do anything special because Mercedes know what Russell can do and how good he is. To jump into the Mercedes car at the Sakhir Grand Prix last year and qualify just 0.026 behind teammate Valtteri Bottas before taking the lead and controlling the race told everything Mercedes needed to know. The best drivers in Formula 1 make an impact immediately when an opportunity arises. In the modern era, the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Kimi Raikkonen impressed early in their careers. Russell is yet to be outqualified during his time at Williams and will be looking to maintain this run of superb qualifying performances. His Sunday performances are a question mark because teammate Nicholas Latifi is still an unknown in terms of speed. But, it is significantly easier to impress in an underwhelming car over one lap than it is over a race distance. Charles Leclerc’s performances in qualifying last year showed that, when he remarkably got his Ferrari into the top five before often drifting back down the order in the Grand Prix.
What to expect from Williams in 2021
For Russell, he will want to ensure he has an agreement to drive with Mercedes in 2022 as early as possible so there is pressure to not make any silly errors. Other than his crash under the safety car at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola last November, he has been good at staying out of trouble and getting the right balance between risk and reward. Latifi has a contract at Williams until the end of 2022. His place at the team is relatively secure even though he is regularly off the pace of Russell. Latifi’s target for the season will be being closer to Russell and to try and beat the former F2 champion if he has an off day. The new Williams car looked good in pre-season testing with Russell able to post lap times that were not too far away from the midfield runners of Alpine and AlphaTauri, during the race simulations on the final day of the Bahrain test. Russell particularly struggled with the wind suggesting the FW43B is a sensitive machine but there are definitely positives the team can take from testing going into the start of the 2021 season this weekend.
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