The crisis at Williams is causing quite a stir in the latest episode of Formula 1 Paddock Talk. Guests include driver Jeroen Bleekemolen and motorsport expert Allard Kalff, who leave little of the British team’s season uncriticized. According to the duo, Williams is further away from the midfield than expected and something needs to change quickly.
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Bleekemolen points to the difficult start of the season as a key cause of the current problems. Williams missed a large part of the winter testing due to delayed preparation and, according to him, never made up for that deficit. “Williams obviously started with a huge disadvantage by missing the first test. The new rules were supposed to help them a bit. That was also why Carlos Sainz joined the team, but it’s really just going badly,” says Bleekemolen. According to him, there is also a complete lack of progress. “It seems as if they are sinking even further now that Aston Martin is moving forward again. There is no upward trend either.”
Complete drama
Kalff goes a step further and calls the situation at Williams “a complete drama.” Yet he also sees a surprising solution for the struggling team. “If I were a shareholder or owner of Williams, I would just call Christian Horner and ask him to get things back on track,” says Kalff. “Give him shares if necessary. He has excellent contacts with BYD, which is also looking for an entry into Formula 1.”
According to Kalff, people often forget what Horner has built in his 25 years at Red Bull. “Apart from everything that has happened there, he has won eight world championships. And when you talk about Red Bull Powertrains: that’s his baby. He hired all those people and made that project what it is now. So yes, he can do something.”
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That’s exactly why Kalff doesn’t understand why Horner’s name is hardly ever linked to Williams. “Everyone talks about Aston Martin and Alpine, but if I were Williams, I would throw the doors wide open to talk to him.”
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