CarlosFerreira wrote:Phoenix wrote:Pffff...if Williams was sold, then it would be a signal that something is really going wrong with F1. If the new turbo engines attract more manufacturers, albeit as suppliers, maybe Williams could score a deal with a manufacturer but only for the engines and gain much-needed stability and competitiveness. But for now, F1 still seems to depend too much on manufacturer-run teams. Is this the only way out for F1 in the future?
As someone who has long kept a keen eye on the team, I wouldn't be terribly surprised they would consider it in a couple of years. The fact they underperformed last year despite getting the diffuser right first time was very negative. This year, after everyone caught up with them, they're back to fighting Toro Rosso, with even the Force Indias away in the distance. This is the reason why Williams is pushing for the re-introduction of KERS, they believe they could have some competitive advantage. As long as F1 is this race to refine the car ever more, where you spend millions in details, I don't see Williams clawing back up. They need that breakthrough tech to be up there.
Incidentally, I do think manufacturer involvement is the way forward again.
As long as Sir Frank Williams is there, I doubt that the team will be sold to a manufacturer, since he has always wanted the team to rely only on itself, without any external assistance. He's rebuffed approaches in the past, and seems like the sort of individual who would prefer the team to close, rather than reliant upon somebody else.
The thing is, even allowing for the smaller financial resources, the team is not doing that well - Force India has a smaller budget, as does Toro Rosso, yet Williams has fallen behind the first, and risk slipping behind Toro Rosso at Barcelona (since Williams are not bringing any updates until Monaco at the earliest, whilst the other teams are bringing updates to Barcelona). It could well be the case that the only established team they are ahead of is Sauber, which would be a very sorry state of affairs (as is Sauber's parlous state - like Brawn in 2009, they have started with no sponsorship, but unlike Brawn, they have neither pace or reliability at the moment).
What has helped Force India out is the research partnership they have with Mclaren, whilst Toro Rosso can draw on the design capabilities of Red Bull Technologies. Considering the finances of Williams are not that strong, the most pragmatic approach would be to see if they could tempt a manufacturer to supply them with engines and collaborate on research, much as Force India have done. Even so, given that most manufacturers are not interested in going into F1 until the 2013 engine regulations are sorted, it could be a few hard years before Williams can find another partner.
As for manufacturer involvement, if the FIA are pushing the "green" and "road relevant" aspects of F1, then ultimately they are pushing the sport towards a manufacturer backed series (although, as has been pointed out by Gilles Simon, very little pollution arises on the track - most comes from off the track).
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/83210After all, in the above interview, Simon pushes the road car aspect repeatedly, and is clearly trying to entice a manufacturer of two to join the sport (or rejoin, as may be the case). As for the KERS systems, although Williams are pushing for it, at the moment their intention seems to be to use a standardised battery based design (the one Renault and Ferrari are promoting) since it is more compact - so I can't see how that would give them that much, or any, performance advantage. If anything, Williams seem most interested in selling their system to others, such as Porsche.
