ESPImperium wrote: ↑31 May 2020, 23:37
I feel sorry for the Williams Family having to sell the team. They have sold lots of Williams Assets over the past few years. I do think the rot had set a decade or more ago. I think they had a good 3 years when the Turbo Hybrid era started, they sort of lucked in in 2014, had a good 2015 and 2016, but 2017 saw the rot appear again with 2018 it got bad and 2019 was the apex of it.
The team invest a estimated £7.5m in their gearbox department, when they could hire in a supply for £4.5m a year from McLaren. Their gearbox is heavier than others, 20Kg is an estimate, they could easily take a McLaren supply and save weight and get a faster car. Paddy Lowe said they wouldn't do this ever, as their Aluminium case was integral to their car design he said or something.
They have or have had a blame culture in the team, that was ultimately a toxically dangerous mix in F1, with one department blaming one another and people within a department.
This is a team that is so set in its ways, its almost as it needs a bloody mass firing event, with maybe 50-70 fired in one fell swoop, with another new 60-85 new faces in the team. A new ethos, a scrapping of the gearbox department to save money and add performance.
The team is ripe for a takeover from a Canadian food magnate, a Japanese Car Manufacturer or a second American team who have been lined up with a Mercedes Chassis team take over, see Penskie.
F1 in a nutshell is at a crossroads, Williams if for sale and i can see another team being sold and one manufacturer leaving. The rules for the next decade need to do something about aero testing as a balance of performance, and the budgets need to be drastically reduced, this seems to be happening. F1 needs to go further and limit data gathering and data analysis, give the teams more unknowns. F1 needs to show it can be a lean and efficient operation, dare i say even a profit making sport for the teams? Then once we have a fair and even championship, then we open the technical regs up and make the cars faster for a lower budget.
Williams is just the first to blink in this economic environment, there will be more. Renault i think will be the other with Sauber and Haas looking at options. To be honest, all teams will look at their options, i can see Red Bull and Ferrari launching Le Mans Hypercar teams. F1 and motorsport as we knew it, as we loved it, it is over. Sport as a whole will see budgets slashed, i suggest Footballers will see wages cut and transfer fees culled. There is a new normal coming to all sport, not just our own.
