Claire Williams details her strategic decisions in 2014, leading Williams F1 to triumph beyond mere engine power.
Claire Williams’ record was inevitably marred by the exceedingly challenging final years she endured as the head of her father Frank’s team.
Yet, in 2013, when she assumed the role of deputy team principal (effectively acting as the principal, as she never took on her father’s official title), Claire Williams made a bold, decisive, and ultimately profitable decision: to switch from Renault engines to Mercedes in 2014, a move that proved to be a tremendous success.
Before opting to change engines, Williams first decided to replace a driver, choosing Felipe Massa over Pastor Maldonado, as she shared with Planet F1.
“That was one of the first things I did.”
“Pastor was tied to a brand called PDVSA, which was the oil giant in Venezuela. At that time, Venezuela was not in good shape politically, financially, or economically. I spent a lot of 2013 negotiating with PDVSA for Pastor’s departure from the team. That took up my year.”
“With Pastor, it was much more of a political situation, unfortunately with his backing, so we had to negotiate a departure with them.”
The successful switch to Mercedes in 2014
Then came the decision to abandon the Renault power unit in favour of a Mercedes F1 unit, coinciding with the introduction of new engine regulations in 2014.
This gamble paid off spectacularly for Williams F1, which then had by far the most powerful hybrid engine on the grid.
Claire discusses the process behind this pivotal decision…
“We were entering an era of new engine suppliers in 2014, and we needed to decide on a partner with whom we wanted to work, based on who we believed had done the best job with these new regulations, with these new hybrid units.”
“It was almost a 50/50 split between Renault and Mercedes—nobody really knew where we would stand with these new engines.”
“We had all the data, of course. We spent weeks and weeks analyzing this data, talking to our current partners at Renault and everyone at Mercedes to gather as much information as possible.”
“As we saw in 2014, it was absolutely the right decision. We made a handful of strong decisions in 2013 that really laid the groundwork for the success we began to see from 2014.”
“We brought in Felipe, we implemented the Mercedes power unit, and we underwent a fairly significant restructuring of our technical department by recruiting new staff to bolster those we already had.”
“Then, we brought on Martini as a title partner to give us a new showcase, if you will!”
“But we secured 15 podiums in 2014 and 2015, the highest behind Ferrari (and Mercedes F1, editor’s note) and the most podiums of any team outside the three leading teams for the last decade.”
Williams F1 thus finished in 3rd place in the constructors’ standings in 2014, behind Red Bull but ahead of teams with much larger budgets like Ferrari or McLaren F1.
“At one point, we analyzed our budget and the points we were gaining from it, compared to the larger teams and the points they were achieving.”
“It was an excellent ratio. We were truly punching above our weight, as is often the case at Williams.”
Not just a matter of luck…
Some might argue that Williams F1’s high performance in 2014 was primarily due to the Mercedes power unit. However, this would not be a fair assessment: both Force India and McLaren F1, equipped with the same engines, were decisively beaten by the Grove-based team.
“We didn’t just get lucky in choosing the Mercedes engine. We selected the Mercedes engine based on sound decision-making tactics.”
“Having a powerful engine is not enough; you also need a good racing car. At that time, the team developed a very competitive racing car.”
“I don’t think it’s fair to say that it all came down to the Mercedes power unit, because that simply isn’t the case.”
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Williams’ Bold 2014 Moves: More Than Just Mercedes Power Williams’ Bold 2014 Moves: More Than Just Mercedes Power f1 2024 Williams’ Bold 2014 Moves: More Than Just Mercedes Power
