Claire Williams regrets not entering a Formula 1 partnership with Lawrence Stroll which could have prevented her family from selling their cherished team.
Williams entered financial turmoil in the late 2010s, but the team was bolstered by investment from Stroll after his son, Lance, joined the team in 2017.
Another team encountering financial trouble at this time was Force India, which Stroll bought midway through the 2018 season, forming Racing Point.
Stroll rebranded Racing Point into the official Aston Martin F1 team in 2021 and has invested significantly in the Silverstone-based squad.
The Canadian billionaire has rebuilt the team’s headquarters with a state-of-the-art wind tunnel due to come online in the New Year.
He has recruited the driving talents of Fernando Alonso, set up major partnerships with Aramco and Honda and recently acquired F1 design genius Adrian Newey.
“That was a genius move of Stroll’s [to hire Newey],” Williams told Business of Sport.
Stroll’s putting together all the pieces to challenge for F1 titles from 2026 and beyond when Newey’s talents, wind tunnel output and Honda power should all come together.
With that in mind, Williams revealed that losing Stroll’s backing “drives me nuts.”
Instead, a sponsor row and the COVID pandemic provided the perfect storm to force the Williams family to sell its F1 team to Dorilton Capital in 2020.
Williams haunted by F1 team sale
“It was a thing completely out of our hands, unfortunately, as events transpired,” said Williams.
“There is not one day when I ever, ever have the emotion that I’m pleased that we sold Williams.
“We were very lucky because 2020 was a horrible time for everybody. People were not buying businesses and they certainly weren’t buying flailing Formula 1 teams.
“We were very fortunate that these people came along and they did exactly that and so that was the greatest outcome that we could have had.”
Williams has started to flourish under Dorilton’s ownership.
The team’s owners have invested heavily in infrastructure and staff with Williams boasting over 1000 employees.
Such investment has resulted in Williams reporting a record financial loss in 2023, but one that Dorilton can stomach given its plans to lift the team up the F1 grid in the future.
The Williams family sold its team just as F1 was making the start of a meteoric rise in global interest.
That interest has culminated in all 10 teams approaching $1 billion valuations and as such Williams has one more point of regret with regards to the Dorilton sale.
“I’m quite gutted that as part of the deal I didn’t just say, well, we want to retain 5%, but never mind,” she rued.
READ MORE: Claire Williams explains tumultuous road to F1 team sale
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