Williams team boss's departure explained: 'His abilities didn't fit in the system'

Simon Roberts was appointed team principal by Dorilton Capital after the acquisition of Williams. This to bridge the takeover period. For the 2021 season, Roberts was also appointed as team boss, but on 9 June the news came that he would be leaving Williams immediately. A somewhat unexpected change and Jost Capito, the new team boss, now explains why.

Everything falls to the technical director

Roberts' appointment was to streamline the operation according to the long term goals, which include bringing Williams to the front of the grid. The partnership didn't last long, with Capito now acting as team boss, and in an interview with Motorsport.com more light is shed on the situation.

Capito wanted all departments at Williams to fall under one person and that person is currently the technical director FX Demaison. This has been quite a challenge to achieve, as Capito explains: "During the first 100 days, I took a huge effort to understand how the teams work. I talked to more than 80 managers in one-to-one meetings, and I asked them all the same questions. So I got a good overview what we should change, what we should keep."

"It became clear that engineering should be all in one hand: track engineering, design, aero, should all be in one hand. That should be under the technical director, and that should be a technical director who has done all jobs in racing, who has been at a drawing board, who has been a race engineer, who has done R+D, and FX is exactly that person."

"You have the technical director in charge of everything that is related to the car, and you have a sporting director who is relating to everything not with the car in the race team, and makes the race team work and function. So the technical people don’t have to bother, they can fully focus on the car and on the performance."

Not the right capabilities

A clear conclusion following many conversations and that was logically placed alongside Simon Roberts' capabilities. From that it emerged that Roberts didn't fit into the new system and that's why the parties parted ways. That said, Capito has words of praise for his former colleague.

"With that, the capabilities that Simon offers didn’t fit in that system. Simon did a fantastic job through the change of ownership, to keep the team together. I think that’s always a very critical situation for a team, and the team can’t fall apart and get in a dip. He did a fantastic job keeping the team together, and we’re very thankful for that," said Jost Capito.