Peter Kenyon has been appointed as Williams’ commercial advisor. The ex-Chelsea and Manchester United CEO will take over the reigns of the iconic British team’s financial side of things and his first task at hand is a monumental salvaging job worth around $2 million. After successful stints in the Premier League, Kenyon will now focus his efforts towards uplifting Williams in Formula 1.
A Williams spokesperson commented on their alliance by saying (as quoted by Formule1.nl), “[This is] an example of how we are strengthening ourselves on and off the track, in line with our long-term ambition to return to the forefront.”
Kenyon was associated with Manchester United and Chelsea between the 2000 and 2009 seasons and was responsible for the overall operations and running of two of the biggest clubs in English soccer history ever.
Williams has had a disastrous start to the 2024 season in terms of the repair bills they’ve wracked up just four races into the season. At the Australian GP, Alex Albon crashed his FW46 and damaged his chassis beyond repair.
At the Japanese GP last weekend, both, Logan Sargeant and Albon had crashes that added to the entire repair bill that is now in the ball-park figure of around 2 million dollars. This is exactly what has prompted Kenyon to join the team on a full-time basis now, after a brief association last year.
Williams are on the verge of disaster
After Albon’s lap 1 incident with Daniel Ricciardo at the Japanese Grand Prix, Williams find themselves in dire straits. It has been reported that the British Thai driver’s chassis has once again taken enough damage to warrant a repair. Hence, the team will send the chassis back to Grove before the Chinese GP.
This is a big problem for the team as they only have two chassis and no spare available as yet. This means that if the team are not able to repair Albon’s chassis, then, they will only be able to run one car during the Chinese GP weekend. If such crashes persist, there might be a time when they have no chassis available and might have to pull out from the weekend altogether.
Team Principal, James Vowles is himself unsure of the extent of the damage Albon’s car has taken. RacingNews365 quoted the Briton as revealing, “Let’s see how bad it is. It looks like it is repairable to me, but that was through images taken.”
Last year was a breakthrough year for the team which were looking to get back to winning ways in F1. However, despite a strong ending to the 2023 season, the team have hit another roadblock which might derail their resurgence completely.
