2019 experienced Williams is probably the most difficult season of his long formula 1 history. With only a world Cup to counter the tradition of the team finished the championship in tenth place and Last. The poor performance was not an outlier but rather reflected the negative trend, already evident for years.
Finished Williams the 2014 season with 320 points, third at the world Championships, it was in the years that followed, 257, 138, 83, of seven and last only a skinny counter. Especially the crash after the 2017 season was a cause for concern. It was become to him the previous year, the world Cup, the Fifth, was it in 2018 – a year later – the last rank.
The TV-expert, Martin Brundle and Karun Chandhok believe that Williams has made in the year 2017, a crucial error when they decided against a switch from Mercedes to Honda. “I think Williams had two paths to choose from – and you have opted for any of this,” Brundle in ‘Sky’.
Williams gave then a clear rejection
Option A, there was an even closer cooperation with Mercedes, as you have a Racing Point currently. Option B was a switch to Honda, which would be a quasi-works team of the Japanese become. Honda parted ways after the 2017 season of McLaren and, finally, a new partnership with Red Bull.
in 2018, we supplied first Toro Rosso with engines from 2019, then the A-Team of cops. “Publicly they will say probably never, but if you talk about what you can do last otherwise would have, then I think that you should pursue would be the Honda Deal, perhaps more active,” says Chandhok.
The Deputy team boss Claire Williams said at the time, clearly against such a change. They didn’t want to leave Mercedes, and certainly not “in favour of a drive, the competition is not yet time,” said Williams at the time, to “talkSPORT 2′. In fact, Mercedes was at the time significantly more than Honda.
at the beginning of the Hybridära was the Mercedes engine is the superior drive in the field. Therefore Williams in 2014 and 2015, was twice third at the world Championships. Honda on the other hand, experienced with McLaren a PR Disaster after the next. Thanks to the new partnership with Red Bull, it was the Japanese, however, are clearly in an uptrend.
Would come with Honda the upswing?
“hindsight is always smarter. But it makes you wonder whether the combination of Williams and Honda could have done this, what is happening now at Red Bull,” said Chandhok, who also recalled that the Deal for Williams would have been financially a relief, because Honda is putting a lot of money in the formula-1 project.
“were It written in the last few weeks so many articles about the kinds of things Williams [in the past] otherwise could have, and should,” says Chandhok, and reveals that the already started the departure of Adrian Newey in the 1990s and the end of the BMW partnership in the 2000s would have drawn.
“But that was a long time ago,” he says. And in the recent past, especially the missed Honda Deal was the biggest missed Chance. Brundle reveals meanwhile: “Bernie [Ecclestone] has called me on my birthday and tell me that he had two or three years ago a very good buyer for Williams.”
“But I understand why Claire and the family [at the time] wanted to sell,” said Brundle, who declared, that had the goal of creating it yourself from the sporting and financial crisis. “However, I fear that you have become a victim of circumstances,” says Brundle.
This article was written by Ruben Zimmermann
*The contribution of “formula-1 experts: Honda-Deal for 2018 could have saved Williams” is published by Motorsport-Total.com. Contact with the executives here.
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