[David] We were looking forward to seeing you before the Singapore Grand prix this year. How are things with the team? The 2020 pre-season testing appeared to be going really well.
[Claire] As with many businesses around the world, this [COVID-19] has had an enormous impact on our team and what we do. We have announced that a strategic review, which will see us look for either new capital investment, divesting in minority or majority shareholding or perhaps even the sale of the team over the coming months.
There are also other factors at play. We recently had to terminate our title partnership with one of our major sponsors, Rokit. On the back of two unachieving years in the championship, income has been impacted. This is the position in which we find ourselves, but we're very much in control of this process. The team has spent the past few weeks working out how we get through this very difficult period. We can, and will, decide based on what is right for Williams.
Getting to the Australian Grand Prix must have been challenging from a leadership perspective due to COVID-19. How difficult were those decisions when you got to Albert Park, Australia?
We have done a huge amount of work in the background over the past 12-18 months and we really wanted to come out at the first race of the season in Australia and put on a better show. We were the first car in testing, and we wanted to send a very particular message out: we are back, and we are going to do better for us, for our fans and for people watching us around the world.
The pandemic had hit us while we were in Melbourne, and it was unfortunate because we had travelled halfway around the world and didn't even get to put a wheel on the racetrack. It was a very difficult time for the team.
I have plans in place to make sure we can take ourselves through this. We hope to go back onto the racetrack in July, so that Williams can prove that we have turned a corner and are getting back to where we want to be.
With the recent news of budget cap announcements, the narrative appears positive for the sport. Why has this come about?
It is positive because our team can capitalise on these new regulations, which we have worked incredibly hard to secure with F1 and our governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA).
As an independent team, changes to the commercial regulations have the most significant effect. Prior to these regulations coming into force in 2021, there was no spending cap, and the top three teams were out-spending us by three or four times, which impacts our competitive edge.
Prior to COVID-19, we had put in place a £175 million cost cap, which will now be limited from 2021 to £145 million and potentially £135 million from 2023. It was enormous progress for our sport, having lobbied for this for about a decade. However, when COVID-19 started, we all had to look at how our sport was going to survive this pandemic, as races are a huge part of the budget.
SPECIAL FEATURE:
In Conversation with Claire Williams OBE