The Williams team is happy to proceed with plans to go ahead with next year's Formula One World Championship, despite news on Friday of FOTA teams forming a breakaway series for 2010. Unlike the sport's manufacturers, however, Williams continues to stress that its company, nine-times constructors' World Champions, is a racing team and no more than that.
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| The Williams name has been present in F1 since 1975 |
With other current teams using F1 as a marketing platform for goods and services, Williams is one of few independents remaining in the sport. "Williams is a Formula One team," company CEO Adam Parr said at Silverstone on Friday. "That's all there is to say."
With new entrants Campos, USF1 and Manor Grand Prix already lined up to be joining the fray next year, Parr described how racing against new names in the sport compares with the likes of legendary marques such as Ferrari and McLaren: "I think that it is going to be very difficult to raise sponsorship revenues in the future but it has always been difficult in the past; I think one of the reasons why we are doing what we are doing, which is trying to reduce costs in Formula One, is because nobody can sustain the spending that we have had in the past few years - it is simply ridiculous and we have to stop it.
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| Sir Frank Williams, owner of the Grove-based team |
"Therefore we have supported, both as a member of FOTA and now outside, the measures that people want to take to reduce costs, that is essential. I don't think that this situation is good in our discussions with sponsors but I am hoping it will be resolved and I am hoping that nobody really intends to create a breakaway series as I don't think it is going to be good for anybody if that happens."
Despite leaving FOTA for what it described as 'contractual obligations' with governing body the FIA, Parr admitted that the Williams team is, in no way, against the principals of FOTA. "We recognise what the manufacturers have brought to Formula One: tremendous status, as Frank (Williams, team owner) says - fantastic, reliable engines, and, in many cases, they've been very good friends to this team over decades," Parr continued, "so it's awfully difficult to find ourselves on the other side of the fence. To some extent we are, I won't say bystanders because that would be disingenuous, but I would say that we have contracts in place with Bernie (Ecclestone, commercial rights holder) and we enter the championship in light of those contracts.
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| Williams was suspended from FOTA after submitting a full 2010 entry at the end of last month |
"I think that the moment when we were asked to leave the room in the FOTA meeting a few weeks back was absolutely dreadful and something we will always remember with great sadness, but I don't know what we could have done differently. Let's just be clear of one thing: we are the only team in Formula One this year that will raise money without asking its shareholders for one penny, the only team in Formula One. I'm not saying that others don't depend on sponsorship, because they do, but every other team in Formula One raises a significant proportion of their budget from their shareholder or shareholders. We can't do that. When I look at the future, the past few years that we've been through in Williams are just not sustainable, it cannot continue like that for us. Anyway, we are where we are; we've made some tough choices, we've lost friends as a result of that perhaps but I don't think we could have done anything differently. We take no pleasure in it but that's the facts."
| Adam Parr news | |
|---|---|
| 25 Jun. '09 | Williams optimistic for FOTA return |
| 28 May '09 | Williams keen to recover harmony |
| 25 May '09 | Williams applies for 2010 championship |
| More Adam Parr news, Photos | |
| Williams news | |
| 17 Mar. | Michael confident with Hülkenberg |
| 16 Mar. | Michael pleased to finish after problems |
| 14 Mar. | Barrichello satisfied with first point of season |
| More Williams news, Photos | |
| FIA news | |
| 16 Mar. | Coulthard slams Mosley's regulation ideas |
| 14 Mar. | Mansell considering steward role |
| 13 Mar. | Frentzen, Herbert and Wurz to become stewards |
| , Photos | |
| FOTA news | |
| 02 Feb. | Less tyres available to drivers in 2010 |
| 02 Feb. | Top ten to start races with qualifying tyres |
| 02 Feb. | New points system given nod by teams |
