17/09/2020
NEWS STORY
Mugello marked the first weekend for Williams since the family that formed the legendary eponymous Grove outfit severed ties.
Members of the new board, including Matthew Savage and James Matthews attended the Mugello weekend (pictured), their first race at the helm of the company since Dorilton Capital bought it last month.
Though George Russell was unlucky not to mark the occasion with the team's first point of the season, acting team principal, Simon Roberts is confident for the future, though, taking a leaf out of Ferrari's silver (magic) bullet book, he admits that there is no quick fix.
"They've been around in the factory for a couple of weeks now, so I've spent quite a bit of time with them," he said of the new owners, according to Motorsport Week.
"We're looking at all of it, we're reviewing everything," he continued. "They're really interested in what we do. This is all new to them, which is great.
"But it's still early days, we're looking at; ‘What do we need to do? What's the sequence?' Assuming for the 2021 cost cap, so we've got to be careful," he admitted.
"Obviously we operate under the cost cap so we've got a bit more flexibility. But we just want to do the right things and they're talking really seriously about ‘This is long-term'.
"This isn't a quick fix," he insisted. "They can't just come in a wave a magic wand around. So they're really keen on working with us and establishing the right thing to so."
While nobody expects a "quick fix", especially with the team forced to continue using the same car next season, there are a number of things that can be done in the short term, but that will require investment.
First off will be putting together the best possible driver line-up, which means no more Friday mornings for the likes of Roy Nissany, no disrespect intended.
It will also mean some significant hirings and the permanent appointment of the right team boss, much like McLaren did in securing the services of Andreas Seidl.
Asked about the possibility of being given the role on a permanent basis, Roberts, who joined Williams from McLaren earlier this year, said: "We haven't discussed it at all.
"I've met the new owners," he added, "they're great, but that's not really the focus. The focus is keeping stability within the team, working with everyone who's here and just start to move it forward. That's kind of secondary really, we haven't discussed it at all."