Sir Frank Williams has stepped down from the board of his own formula one team.
Earlier this week, the Grove based team’s 69-year-old founder, major shareholder and team principal named chairman Adam Parr as his future successor.

“If for whatever reason I couldn’t come in to do my job, Adam would fill the gap,” he told the British magazine F1 Racing.

On Friday, a team statement read: “Sir Frank Williams, founder and team principal, announced his decision to step down from the board.”

He explained: “I turn 70 in April and I have decided to signal the next stage in the gradual but inevitable process of handing over the reins to the next generation.

“This is not as dramatic a move as it may appear: I shall continue to work full-time as team principal and I shall continue to attend all board meetings as observer,” added Williams.

He will also have a Williams family member on the board, as his daughter Claire steps up to be director of marketing and communications.

Frank Williams said: “I am proud to say that she has fought hard to earn this appointment and of all the battles she has had to fight, the prejudices of her father were not the least challenging.”

Late last year, the team’s co-founder Patrick Head also stepped down.

 Kimi Raikkonen has taken yet another step towards signing with the Williams team for 2012.
At the end of an intense weekend of speculation regarding the 2007 world champion’s possible return to formula one, Finn Raikkonen’s managers duly appeared in the Abu Dhabi paddock.

The appearance of managers Steve and David Robertson was all the more notable given Raikkonen’s participation thousands of miles away in the Welsh rally.

And Turun Sanomat newspaper reports that they watched the grand prix from within Williams’ hospitality area.

The signs are growing stronger every day that 32-year-old Raikkonen is definitely motivated to return to the sport that gave him 18 wins between 2001 and 2009.

Sir Frank Williams finally confirmed to the Finnish broadcaster MTV3 on Sunday that his Oxfordshire based team “has strong interest” in housing Raikkonen next year.

“Obviously, anyone worth his salt in any business will argue about the price of things,” he grinned, “so there is an argument going on, which of course is quite normal.

“I must choose my words carefully by saying only that it (Raikkonen coming to Williams) is possible.”

And team co-founder Patrick Head confirmed in Abu Dhabi that Williams’ interest in the former McLaren and Ferrari driver is not new.

“We were interested in Kimi when he drove for Sauber,” the Briton is quoted as saying. “We proposed to our then partner BMW to make him an offer but they thought it was too much money.”

The bulk of the shares for Williams’ stock market floatation have been freed by co-founder Patrick Head, it has emerged.
Reuters reports that while the Grove based team’s long time engineering director holds 27 per cent now, his ownership will dwindle to just 5 per cent after the floatation on the stock market on March 2.

The news agency also said Head, 65, is set to retire “in the near future”.

“That will take me out of a day-to-day role within the team,” said the Briton.

“Even after the listing I will be a significant shareholder, around five per cent, and I plan to retain that until I do retire,” he added.

Williams confirmed last week that it is offering 27 per cent of the team to the public, with Sir Frank Williams remaining the majority shareholder and boss.

Head revealed that he agreed to release most of his shares for the listing “because Frank wishes to remain in control of the team” and the other shareholder Toto Wolff “invested only 15 months ago”.

“But we are not there (retirement) yet and I want to play my part in bringing Williams back to the front of the grid,” he added.

The 2011 rules are still not set in stone, leaving Luca di Montezemolo calling for “total clarity” ahead of next season.

Next year, along with the return of KERS and the arrival of Pirelli as F1′s tyre supplier, drivers will be able to adjust their rear wing angle when close to a rival in order to boost their chances of overtaking.

But Williams’ co-owner and engineering boss Patrick Head warned recently that the latter innovation is “not set in stone”.

Ferrari president Montezemolo said at the team’s end-of-season event in Valencia: “I hope we start the season with total clarity as regards the regulations.

“I am not worried about it, but our experience of 2009 still grates,” he added, in a reference to the rule loophole that led to the development of so-called ‘double diffusers’ early last year.

Flavio Briatore twice blocked Heikki Kovalainen’s formula one race debut, according to a Finnish report.

The Turun Sanomat newspaper said the 29-year-old, who in 2010 is contesting his fourth season with a third separate team, could have made his debut in 2004.

Actually, Kovalainen debuted in 2007 with Renault, then run by his former manager Briatore.

But he tested with Minardi as far back as late 2003 and was almost signed for the following season by the Faenza based team’s boss Paul Stoddart.

At the same test was Jose Maria Lopez, Kovalainen recalls.

“I was clearly faster than him,” he said. “Paul Stoddart would have offered the seat to me, I was ready, but my management had a different view.”

According to the report, another opportunity for Kovalainen came ahead of the 2005 season, when he met with Williams’ Sir Frank Williams, Patrick Head and Sam Michael at Grove.

But Briatore reportedly called off the talks when he decided that Kovalainen should contest a season of GP2 before becoming Renault’s full-time test driver in 2006.

“Of course, each time when you have a chance to go into F1 and you don’t, you are disappointed,” Kovalainen confirmed.

He split with Briatore after last year’s crashgate scandal, and negotiated his own move from McLaren to Lotus for 2010.

Nico Hulkenberg’s manager has played down suggestions the young German will definitely lose his race seat at Williams at the end of the season.

The British team on Monday seemed to confirm speculation it is considering replacing the 2009 GP2 champion with the feeder series’ new title winner, Pastor Maldonado.

Venezuelan Maldonado, 25, is heavily backed by the state owned petroleum company PDVSA, and Williams co-owner Patrick Head in Korea admitted that economic factors would influence the board’s driver decision for 2011.

In a media statement, the Oxfordshire based team announced that Maldonado will test the FW32 in the post-season Abu Dhabi ‘young driver’ session next month.

And he is not in contention for merely the team’s 2011 test seat, because Finn Valtteri Bottas “will remain” in that post next year, Williams said.

Maldonado said last month that he hoped to secure a deal for his 2011 debut “before the race in Abu Dhabi, so I can participate in the tests there after the GP with my new team”.

But Hulkenberg’s manager Willi Weber insists his rookie charge is still in the reckoning at Williams.

“Nico is not ‘out’ already, as has been speculated,” he told the German news agency DPA.

“The talks with Williams are continuing, but there are obviously alternatives,” added Weber.

“Williams is the first choice and we would love to stay, but it is extremely important that Nico has a race cockpit in formula one for 2011,” he said.

Interestingly, Weber seemed to acknowledge the legitimacy of Williams’ apparent reconsideration of Hulkenberg’s place at the team.

“(Chairman) Adam Parr has a great responsibility to hundreds of employees and as the highest priority he must consider the welfare of the team,” he said.

Christian ‘Toto’ Wolff has admitted he might increase his minority stake in the Williams team to 49 per cent in the future.

It emerged last week that, alongside founders and long-time owners Sir Frank Williams and Patrick Head, the stake bought by Austrian entrepreneur Wolff in 2009 was 10 per cent.

“I can confirm it is 10 per cent,” he is quoted by the German-language motorline.cc.

“But I have an option to increase my minority stake to a strategic investment.”

The publication said Wolff’s share could increase to as much as 49 per cent, also quoting him as saying he would consider exercising the option “in time”.

But he rejected British reports that the Oxfordshire based team is in financial trouble and struggling with losses and debt.

“If you look at the last 12 months, 2009 for us was a good and very profitable year,” Wolff insisted.

The minority share of the Williams team now owned by Austrian Christian ‘Toto’ Wolff is 10 per cent, it has emerged.

sThe stake bought in 2009 by the motor racing enthusiast and investor, whose girlfriend is the Scottish DTM driver Susie Stoddart, was not disclosed at the time.

But according to a report in London’s Evening Standard, based on company filings by the Oxfordshire based team, the figure is 10 per cent.

The report said Wolff is believed to have paid about $16 million for the stake, which would value the British outfit at about US $160m.

Sir Frank Williams’ stake has therefore dropped from 70 to 63 per cent, and Patrick Head’s from 30 to 27 per cent.

Wolff, 38, also owns shares in Aces Management, the driver management firm involving Didier Coton and Mika Hakkinen, as well as the F3 engine supplier HWA.

Team founder Frank Williams and Patrick Head associate themselves with the Austrians took Toto Wolff another partner on board, the former CEO Adam Parr was charged in July with the Presidency of the Formula 1 teams. The generational change at the former World Champion team is thus on track. After difficult times economically, and sporty, it is now to go back uphill.

A key role is played by Parr. The 45-year-old is in the team since 2006 and is now the successor of the now already 68-year-old Frank Williams. Here, Parr has had to painstakingly hineinarbeiten in the Formula 1 world. The Briton had to do until not too long ago with the PS-circus nothing.

“In every single second I think of Williams,” Parr said in an interview with ‘Motorsport-Total.com’. The new Williams-chairman has captured not only within a very short time the Rennbazillus, but in the big business formula one found new challenges elsewhere, it does not exist in this form. “Williams is my life, I love it. I have in my life have made a lot of different things, but now I could not think of anything else.”

The path of the man from Great Britain in the great Formula 1 world is mapped out over many years is anything but. Adam Parr on 26 Born May 1965 in London. “A very special date,” he laughs. “Back then there was the important fight of Muhammad Ali vs. Sonny Liston, who was terminated after just two minutes. My father has watched the fight live at night for two on television.”

The family holds no ready Motorsport genes for the pupil. On the contrary: In the youth Parr is in the course of the separation of their parents rather little disoriented. Young Adam is growing up with his mother and stepfather, is adopted by him and gets the surname Parr. With his “new family”, he moves to Northamtonshire goes in Brackley – where the present-Mercedes Formula 1 factory – is in school.

Parr changes later on the legendary Eton College. “This was a great time, and I also have an interesting year at that time caught,” he says. “Boris Johnson was there with me, who is mayor of London today. Abhisit Vejjajiva was in my class who has managed to become Prime Minister in Thailand. And the current British Prime Minister David Cameron was also there. What a year …”

In June 2009, the next change followed in the Unternehmsstruktur. An Austrian went to the big stage. “Was added as Toto Wolff, we had to restructure something.” The passionate “Petrol Head” from Austria is third partner with Frank Williams and Patrick Head. “Frank has the majority and he has everything under control. Patrick and Toto have compared rather smaller holdings, but even as a minority owner of course they have certain rights.”

The Board will be filled in July 2010 new. From now Parr leads the race team – at least nominally. He bears the responsibility as Chairman mixes, but by no one in all areas of daily operations. “My job was from the beginning rather the financial, legal and the political side of the business. We have the new division of responsibilities clearly communicated because it is in my view, very important that people know who they are dealing with us have. ”

“There must be outward always clear who has what skills. When quick decisions are required, then you know to whom you have contact,” said the businessman. “When I spoke with Frank very beginning, I asked him, ‘Frank, you’ve worked with huge companies such as Canon or Renault. Where these companies the biggest difference to your team?” He then said: ‘Obviously: the decision-making. The are outlined more clearly in such companies. ”

At that time the Williams decision paths were difficult to follow. This should change quickly under the leadership of Parr. “If you have even a comparatively small Formula 1 team such a confused decision-making authority, then that is bad. It is bad if people know how Jean Todt or the media does not know who has what to say.” Therefore quickly clear boundaries were installed.
On the level of world champions

“Frank is certain things I’ll never learn. This is true for Patrick or Michael for Sam as well. Everyone has his Department, who is with us now defined very clearly,” says Parr, the new division at Williams. “I had to provide as chairman that the company is pursuing the right strategy. I have to implement this strategy alone, but because all are involved. But I must ensure that all necessary means for implementation are available. We need the right people the right tools. “

The next formula one team working hard on a Red Bull-style exhaust system for its 2010 car is Williams.

Ferrari will debut low-mounted exhausts, with gases directed through the double diffuser as seen on the impressive RB6, this weekend at Valencia.

McLaren, Mercedes and Renault will soon follow suit, and now it emerges that Williams is to adopt a similar layout for its Cosworth-powered FW32.

Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport said the new exhaust system will appear no later than the British grand prix in mid July.

The report said the package will include new wings and a bigger double diffuser.

“We are expecting a big step,” said Williams’ long-time engineering boss and co-owner Patrick Head.
(GMM)

Rubens Barrichello has denied claims he recklessly endangered his F1 rivals after crashing out of Sunday’s Monaco grand prix.

The Brazilian veteran threw his steering wheel onto the racing line after shunting due to a technical problem whilst climbing Beau Rivage at high speed.

The impacts dented the Armco barriers on both sides of the Monaco layout, and in apparent frustration Barrichello, who turns 38 this Sunday, threw his $50,000 steering wheel onto the track.

It was promptly run over by Karun Chandhok, who dragged the expensive debris all the way to the tunnel before it came loose and was run over again by Bruno Senna.

It was a spring from Barrichello’s Brawn that last year struck the hapless Felipe Massa on the helmet.

It is also a fundamental rule breach not to re-connect the steering wheel after abandoning a stricken car.

“What was he doing?,” Chandhok said of Barrichello.  “Charlie (Whiting) actually asked me about it.  You see on the video that he just throws it.”

But the Williams driver insists: “I threw the steering wheel because I wanted to get out of the car as soon as possible.

“After the shunt I was facing the wrong side of the track and the car was on fire,” he argued.

Williams co-owner Patrick Head also defended his driver.

“If you are standing in the middle of a 120mph corner, you tend to think ‘let’s get out of here as quickly as you can’.”

(GMM)

Sir Frank Williams admits that letting Mark Webber switch to Red Bull at the end of 2006 was a “mistake”.

After two disappointing seasons with the British team in 2005 and 2006, the Australian moved to Red Bull, where in the past week he has won two grands prix from pole position.

“You could say we made a mistake,” Williams is quoted by Austrian newspaper Kleine Zeitung.

“Our car was a disappointment, and we thought he was a part of that problem.  Therefore, he was not our first choice (for 2007),” added the Grove based team’s eponymous chief.

It is now expected that Webber, 33, will sign an extension to his current contract for the 2011 season.

Williams co-owner Patrick Head confirmed that he and Sir Frank were reluctant to pay Webber a high salary to stay on board in 2007.

“It wasn’t that we thought he wasn’t worth a decent salary, but we’d lost a major sponsor and we were going through some very tough times commercially,” he is quoted by the Guardian.

“For the amount Flavio was asking, we didn’t think we could build a car that would justify keeping him on,” added Head.

The Briton also thinks Webber, the first Australian world championship leader since Alan Jones in 1981, has improved since leaving the Williams team.

Said Head: “He was very quick over a single lap but in our view he had an occasional tendency to make mistakes in the race and suddenly go off.

“In his first year with Red Bull he was pretty much the same.  But in his second year with them we noticed that those in-race mistakes disappeared.”

(GMM)