Williams happy with Mercedes engine: 'We can be second'

Williams is so far a team that is not tied to a fixed manufacturer. In a way a private team, but there are some rumours that it joins Renault as a junior team. This would be a good opportunity for Alpine F1 Team to employ some juniors, as they have more talents than places. In contrast to Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull Racing they don't have a partner team to stable those drivers. If it is up to Williams however such a partnership is not on the cards.

New manufacturers

Williams CEO Jost Capito states that Williams remains a team owned by Dorilton Capital. Still, as a customer team there is a limit to what you can achieve, where engine suppliers can go that extra mile. Especially when they have their own team. The exception to the rule is Red Bull Racing, who have taken over the entire intellectual property concerning the Honda engine.

For Williams it is interesting when new manufacturers enter Formula 1, because it allows them to make a direct commitment with a full focus on their own performance. Like Honda has done with Red Bull and AlphaTauri in recent years. However, it's going to be a while before new manufacturers step in, if they want to step in at all. In any case, it won't be before 2025.

Williams wants to be the A team

In the meantime, why not work more closely with Alpine F1 Team? Capito says in conversation with The Race: "But our clear objective is to stay an independent team, and not be bought by any other team, or by a manufacturer, because we see our future in the sport. Williams has always been independent and what we say is an ‘A team’ or a ‘B team’.

"For us, a ‘B team’ is a team that doesn’t have independent ownership, where it has some ownership from a manufacturer or from another Formula 1 team. On that definition we don’t want to be a ‘B team’, we want to be the ‘A team’. Because racing is our core business and should stay our core business, independent from a manufacturer who decides to be in or out. That would challenge our existence."

Collaboration with Mercedes

Williams are now supplied with power sources from Mercedes and they want to keep that going for the time being. For example, Capito says: "If you have the engine of the team that wins the championship, you can still come second. And that’s quite a long way for us. We can do much better with the Mercedes engine than we are doing now, and that’s what we are focusing on."

Not that Williams should or could be second right now, Capito points out, but it does outline the prospect of much more potential. For now, a partnership with Alpine F1 Team seems more or less out of the question, as evidenced by Capito's words about working with Mercedes.

"We have a good relationship with Mercedes and we have a contract that goes still a couple of years. We respect this contract because we are very happy with the relationship," said the Williams CEO.