Williams has rejected the notion their poor performance is due to not following the model taken by Racing Point.
After following largely similar paths in terms of developing their own cars in recent years, the Silverstone-based outfit changed tack for 2020 by essentially trying to copy last year’s championship-winning Mercedes.
And though there hasn’t been a race yet to prove it, that method does look to have produced results, with Racing Point considered the likely midfield leader after testing.
It has been suggested a team like Williams, who also have ties with Mercedes, should follow suit, but deputy boss Claire Williams remains convinced they can be successful by staying independent.
“I think that they’re operating within the regulations, so they’re entitled to do that, that’s their choice,” Williams said of the Racing Point model via Crash.net.
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“They have a very different set-up to that which we have. We have a full manufacturing and operations department within the team, and you know I don’t have any inclination to change that.
“They don’t have that capacity, they don’t have that bandwidth, so it makes sense for them as a business. We all have very different business models up and down the pit lane, and they all work for you as they do and you make those choices.
“So we’ve been successful with the business model that we have just in the recent past. We were very successful in ‘14, ‘15, ‘16 and ‘17. It’s just the past two years.
“It’s not because we don’t have a Mercedes that is coloured pink that we’re not doing very well.”
If Williams is to dig itself out of their current hole and return to the giddy heights they were at in the early years of the hybrid era, Claire believes the emphasis is on F1 bosses to create a financial climate where teams don’t need to use the ‘B-team’ or copycat model.
And she thinks the new $175m budget cap for 2021 is one way of doing that.
“I think we need to create a sustainable sport for all of the teams,” she claimed.
“The work that F1 has done in recent times, particularly around the financial model, has been so important so that we can create sustainability and stability for teams like ours because all business models should have the right to survive but also thrive in this sport.
“We’re not particularly happy with where things are, not least because it creates a two-tier championship, and you want to create a platform whereby every single team in this sport has the opportunity to score points, be on the podium and win races.
“At the moment we just don’t have that.”
