Claire Williams on missing out on $2bn, state of F1 and MP ambitions
Six years ago, in August of 2020, Claire Williams sold her eponymous Formula 1 racing team – founded by her father in 1977 – for around $150m to US investment group Dorilton Capital. The deal cleared the team’s debts amid financial difficulties and the Covid-19 pandemic, and ensured the team would race on – keeping its name – under new ownership.
Williams admits, however, that the team could have fetched $2bn-$3bn in today’s market, such has been the surge in valuations across a global sport that seemingly cannot stop expanding.
“The last four, five short years we have had exponential growth in the sport and it is quite extraordinary because a decade ago there were several teams that were in trouble financially and invariably went into administration and that was the last we heard of them,” Williams tells City AM.
“People weren’t buying Formula 1 teams a decade ago. My experience of selling Williams in 2020, we were in the middle of Covid-19 and I felt at the time incredibly fortunate that we had buyers lining up – not huge numbers, and certainly not writing the kinds of cheques that are being talked about today.
“We didn’t have that runway and it’s ifs and buts and maybes. But it’s incredible to see the turnaround and I think there have been a number of factors that have all contributed to that, not least the commercialisation of the sport and then Drive to Survive has played a massive part in bringing in that new audience that has swelled the numbers beyond all recognition.”
Williams eyeing return?
Williams, 49, is now away from the pitwall. Or at least, no longer has a say on major team decisions. She’s taken up a role with Drive to Survive – the Netflix phenomenon credited with engaging swathes of people with a sport that until recently was seen as a billionaire boys’ club – as an analyst.
But there’s always goings-on in the paddock, and the current investment opportunity appears to be at Alpine. Former Red Bull team principal Christian Horner is reportedly in for the French team, as is Mercedes – though Williams appears to be against the idea of owning stakes in two teams at once – and New York Mets owner Steve Cohen.
Responding frankly when asked whether she’d ever be the face of a bid to buy into Formula 1 if asked, Williams said she’d “love to do that”.
“I grew up in the sport,” she adds, “but leaving Williams was hard and they now have new owners.
“If I could wave a magic wand and have Williams back and run it as our family team again, then that would probably be my biggest dream – that probably isn’t ever going to come true.
“I don’t have the money and I don’t know if anyone is going to bet their dollars on me.
“But I’m always open to what might be around the corner and that’s the great thing now about my world. You never know what’s coming around.”
Season impacted
At the time of interview, Williams is yet to see the result of the Chinese Grand Prix because she – in true Match of the Day style – avoids the result until she can watch it with her family. She correctly predicts Kimi Antonelli’s inaugural Formula 1 victory, but admits she wants his Mercedes teammate George Russell to win the world championship.
And if her former employee is going to triumph, it may be in a reduced 22-race season due to the postponement of both the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix amid ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
“Having two races pulled off the schedule is a big deal from the financial side of things,” Williams says, drawing on her experience. “Teams get paid for the races that they go to as part of the constructor’s prize fund payment.
“And you take two races out of that, will they still get those two race incomes? I don’t know. I don’t know whether the prize fund monies will be adjusted because they can’t race there or whether insurance payments will kick in.”
Now that she is outside of Formula 1’s very inner sanctum, Williams has turned to what comes next. And the answer to that may, she says, lie in Westminster.
She wouldn’t be the first sports figure to enter the wild world of politics, with the likes of former Olympic champion Lord Sebastian Coe, cricket legend Sir Ian Botham and West Ham United vice-chairman Baroness Karren Brady all contributing to varying levels to parliament.
Not racing into politics
“I would one day love to pursue that as a career,” she says of a political run. “It’s really hard when you have to transition; you’re almost forced to transition out of something that has been your world for so long like Formula 1 was mine.
“It’s quite difficult to find something that you might feel as passionate about and have a full career and feel like you’re contributing and doing something meaningful.
“And politics has always been something that I’ve been interested in. Perhaps one day that might be a pathway I take.
“I can’t even dip my toe at the moment because I have an eight-year-old and I have motherly duties. But perhaps when he’s a little older I might have some conversations.”
And who would she stand for? “My father had a picture of Margaret Thatcher over his desk so I think that probably would tell you everything about which party I would be in.”
Conservative Party chair Kevin Hollinrake told City AM that Claire “would be a fantastic addition” to the party, adding that “strengthening our party with people who bring fresh thinking and practical experience will be key to winning again and delivering for the country”.
Given the considerable amount of chop and change Formula 1 has been through in its 75-year history, the ever-presence of Williams Racing – as an independent team – since 1977 is genuinely impressive.
Claire and her father have been central to that, but that chapter of Williams Racing has closed. From now on Williams must watch from the periphery.
For how long? Maybe we will see her on a ballot paper sooner rather than later.