Simon Roberts, the recently confirmed new Team Principal at Williams Racing, says the team are still not interested in becoming a B-team to another outfit, although they are open to collaborations that would be advantageous to them.
Williams has long been eager to remain an independent team, and even with the takeover by Dorilton Capital earlier in 2020, this philosophy looks set to remain.
Despite this philosophy, Roberts says the team are looking to be more competitive and would be open to a collaboration with another team should they be need to if things in-house are not going the way they need them to go.
“We can see advantages but we don’t want to become a B-team,” Roberts is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com. “We want to retain our independence, but we want to be more competitive.
“So for us, looking forward, we’re open to extending a relationship but the specification of that would depend on what we think we’re strong at, internally, and where we think we need help and support.
“In simple terms, if we’re good at something and we can do it – quicker to the market, quicker to the track – [then we] should focus on that. If there’s something we can’t do very well, then we should be prepared to buy that from whoever’s got it available.”
“Under the cost cap, you can’t afford to be inefficient and that’s what we’re focusing on. We need to make sure that if we’re making chassis, we’re really good at making our chassis and we apply that to everything in the car.
“But we are independent, we’re going to remain independent but there is scope for collaboration.”
Roberts says the way the team worked under the guidance of Sir Frank and Claire Williams is likely to carry on into the new era, with the team looking to avoid mistakes both on and off track.
“From the cultural fit with the team, there’s a lot of synergy between the road map that Claire had laid out and we’re staying very true to that,” said Roberts. “We want to be a great place to work.
“We want to make sure we’re caring and kind to all the people who work for us and we want to just do all the right things.
“In terms of the technology though, we now have the opportunity to invest and that’s what we’re doing. That’s started already. There’s not much impact of that on the car we’re racing on now, but we will start to see that next year.
“Really this year is part of a long-term strategy, and that will build slowly over the next five years. The main thing is, we want to invest wisely. We don’t want to make mistakes and we want to play the long game. That’s what we’re doing.”
