McLaren CEO, Zak Brown warns Williams new owners that they will need to spend if the team is to get out of its current rut.

As Williams languishes yet again at the bottom of the team standings, it's hard to believe that the Grove outfit remains Britain's most successful team in terms on constructors' titles.

Since 2018, Williams has regularly finished last, scoring just 7 points from 59 races, and other than losing sponsors - many of them to Racing Point - the team is now losing out in terms of prize money.

Last year saw the Williams family "step aside" as investment company Dorilton Capital took control and while there have been a number of changes, mainly the appointment of Jost Capito as CEO, there is little or nothing to suggest that the team's plight won't continue.

McLaren CEO, Zak Brown believes that if Williams is to get out of its current rut its new owners must be prepared to spend.

"They're a great racing team," said Brown, as McLaren, which has had its own fair share of problems in recent years, finished the 2020 season 'best of the rest'.

"They're going to need to invest, the new investors, a lot of money," he warned. "They are behind in revenue from finishing tenth in the championship, and doesn't appear to have much sponsorship.

"They have the people, the know-how, the skill," he continued. "They just need the resources which they've lacked, so it will take some time, but I think they've made a big step for this year.

"While they're yet to score a point, they've certainly been in a position to a couple of times. I think there's no reason why they can't, but they'll need to continue to invest in the team, because it looks to me that they don't have the same level of revenue that we had.

"As we know in Formula 1, it takes money to go fast, so they just need to continue to get their chequebook out."

Of course, on track, McLaren took a significant step forward with the appointment of Andreas Seidl as team boss, nonetheless the precarious position the Woking outfit found itself in in recent years should not be forgotten.

Of course, along with selling some of the family silver, pondering the sale of its Woking HQ and taking on a £150m loan from the National Bank of Bahrain, not to mention a £200m investment from Michael Latifi - father of Williams driver Nicholas - in December the McLaren Group announced that it had sold a 15% stake in the company (rising to 33% by the end of 2022) to US-based sports investment group, MSP Sports Capital.