Williams deputy team boss Claire Williams has warned of potentially dire consequences for the legendary British outfit if a budget cap is not introduced to Formula 1 in 2021.
Her warning comes after Mercedes and Ferrari once again voiced opposition to efforts by F1 bosses to reduce spending by putting a limit of around $150m with some exclusions, with motorsport boss at the German manufacturer, Toto Wolff, claiming the figure was “much too low”.
The topic has gained greater traction in recent weeks after a meeting between CEO Chase Carey, managing director of motorsport Ross Brawn and the 10 team principals in Bahrain to put forward their vision for the sport when the new commercial rights contract comes into effect in three years time.
“If I look at it from my perspective, if we don’t do this, then Williams will close, the whole of the company,” Williams told RaceFans.net.
“[In Bahrain] I was very positive about it, but then there are some of the people that are very negative about it.”
The British team has received some criticism for appearing to favour financial income over talent in their driver decisions in recent years with the arrival of Lance Stroll last year and the hiring of Sergey Sirotkin over Robert Kubica for this season.
“We are lucky that this works for us, but I think it probably demonstrates the fact that our team, track performance aside, is a good model of how a Formula One team should be operating in our sport,” the daughter of team founder Sir Frank Williams insisted.
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The main argument teams such as Mercedes make is by cutting their spending by almost half in some cases would result in job losses and a complete restructuring of their operation.
“It pains me to say, but sometimes you have to look at the bigger picture for the sake of the sport,” Williams responded.
“I don’t know the exact numbers and yes, of course it’s going to be difficult for teams to restructure and reorganise, and yes, of course the thought of anybody losing their job, as a result, is not something we welcome in any way, shape or form.”