Frank Williams was the face of the Williams F1 team for almost four decades. He continued to manage the team until the early 2010s when he was no longer able to continue with the responsibilities. It was then that he handed them over to his daughter Claire Williams.
Claire recently came out on the Business of Sports podcast and revealed the early struggle of running an F1 team as a woman. She was appointed as the Deputy Team Principal of the team in March of 2013. The Briton became the official team boss and took over the daily running from her father.
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The Former Williams team principal explained how she always considered herself the caretaker guardian of the Williams F1 team. However, Claire wasn’t necessarily given the warm welcome by the team as a team principal even though she’d been working with the team since her graduation.
Claire said, “He [Frank Williams] was no longer able to do that [run the team] and then his daughter was there. Just the fact that I was a woman and I was a very young woman, at the time I was 36 when I took over the team, I was Frank’s daughter and people were a bit like, ‘Why is she running it? What’s she got? They should’ve brought in some bigwig CEO from the city or something to run this team.”
She added, “They don’t respect you” and never did what she asked for. Nonetheless, within 2-3 years she made it clear within her team and the F1 paddock that “she was running the business and she was operating as the Team Principal.” Unfortunately, the pandemic forced Claire to put Williams up for sale to guarantee a future for the team.
Claire regrets selling Williams before the Drive to Survive boom
Dorilton Capital bought Williams in August 2020 but decided to keep the name of the team and continue the legacy and great history of the F1 team. However, just a year after Williams was sold, Drive to Survive took over the F1 World. The value of F1 teams skyrocketed back then.
Claire regrets selling the team and not having the finances to continue running the team for another year. She said, “The money flooding into Formula 1 now is insane. And very unfortunately, we missed out on that by a year.”
The Williams F1 team was reportedly sold for $200 Million. According to Forbes, the Grove-based team is today valued at a whopping $725 Million, just a few years after Claire sold the side.
