Motorsport: Williams' struggles a sign of the times in Formula One

Williams driver George Russell in 2019. Photo / Photosport

Formula One teams were once the bastion of individuals who had the passion and drive to go racing, but not so anymore - F1 teams are now a business like any other.

There are only three teams left in the sport who were founded by someone who had a dream. Ferrari (Enzo), McLaren (Bruce) and Williams (Frank). McLaren has wobbled over the past decade or so and is just starting to right itself, and Williams is in dire straits.

Ferrari has always had the road car business to fall back on and to a certain extent McLaren's F1 team is still going in part due to Ron Dennis' decision to get into making road cars. Williams however has no such back-up plan and hence is up for sale.

Over the decades since the 1950s some of greatest names in motor racing have come and gone. Using the benchmark of having been in F1 for at least 15 years, we have seen the demise of some great teams created by individuals.

Team Lotus founded by Colin Chapman, 1958-94, Brabham founded by Jack Brabham, 1962-92, Tyrrell founded by Ken Tyrrell, 1970-98, Ligier founded by Guy Ligier, 1976-96, Minardi founded by Giancarlo Minardi, 1985-2005, Benetton founded by Flavio Briatore, 1986-2001, Jordan founded Eddie Jordan, 1991-2005 and Sauber founded by Peter Sauber, 1993-2018.

On top of these long-running teams, there are more one-hit wonders than you can poke a stick at.

The Weekend Herald called Bob McMurray, as he spent 33 years working at the McLaren F1 team, for his thoughts on the demise of the 'garage' F1 teams.

"It used to be that individuals started racing teams and now it's corporates who own them. It's a bit different these days," he said.

"In the past, except for Ferrari, they [Brabham, Tyrrell, Chapman etc] were known as the garagistas. You could build a Formula One car in a garage and try and qualify for a Formula One race.

"Engine manufacturers are now involved either by having their own race teams or leasing or selling engines to teams. It's far too expensive to make your own engine now and the money required is quite staggering.

"That's where the smaller teams couldn't keep up and were gobbled up by conglomerates, companies or billionaires. It's sad, as this approach is just making Formula One more and more expensive.

"Although it's still a sport, it's more about corporate responsibility to succeed now, and if you don't, you don't get sponsorship."

The latest F1 team to be put on the chopping block, and one of the last three old school names, Williams Racing may be sold to Michael Latifi who already has a hefty stake in the team. The Iranian-Canadian businessman has already invested $392 million into McLaren, so if his Williams deal goes through it only really leaves Ferrari, and even they were owned by Fiat.

"Part of Williams' downfall is that they didn't evolve as many of the others did and head down the corporate road and is still family owned. They just haven't moved with the times," said McMurray.

"It's unfortunate, but since Williams haven't had any success for a number of years now nobody really wants to pay big money to be associated with them.

"They have had opportunities in the past but didn't take them. They had a chance to get Pat Fry to join the team but didn't take the opportunity.

"What will help Williams in the future will be the introduction of a spending cap [$226 million] next year and the possibility of another investor, Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Mazepin.

"When Bernie [Ecclestone] was in F1 he would often put up his own money to bail out struggling teams including Williams.

"They [F1] can't really let Williams disappear as they can't afford to lose another team; otherwise the grid will get too small."