Are Williams about to become Mercedes' B team?
Are Williams about to become Mercedes' B team?
Williams may become more closely aligned with Mercedes in 2019 as they ponder adding gearboxes to their power unit order from the Silver Arrows. The move may be of interest to other midfield teams as the thorny issues of 'B' teams in Formula 1 swirls around the matter of Force India's future in particular.
Williams are among a clutch of teams - including McLaren and Renault - who have hesitated on signing off a rescue package for Force India over fears that they could become a "slave" team, in Cyril Abiteboul's terms.
Force India already take gearboxes as well as power units from Mercedes, so Silver Arrows team boss Toto Wolff does not envisage it causing too many issues.
"We are in discussions about doing that," he said. "They are an engine client of ours. It's not a huge thing to increase that to a gearbox.
"Nothing is signed, nothing is done and we need to decide in the next few weeks because the chassis design is at an advanced stage for Williams, so we'll see how that pans out."
Although Williams have previously boasted about their independent nature in F1, this move is another sign of F1 becoming dominated by engine manufacturers, with Haas among the strongest midfield teams thanks to an agreement with Ferrari which sees them take the maximum amount of parts from Maranello.
Williams chief technical officer Paddy Lowe told F1's official site: "Formula 1 is changing. Force India were one of the early ones to abandon the full constructor definition that teams had historically followed of essentially making everything except an engine.
"We've seen more and more teams adopting gearboxes from elsewhere. Now we have the Haas model where you adopt everything that is not listed.
"We have our eyes open to all of those possibilities because we owe it to ourselves. You've got to move with the times and do the best thing for the performance of the team.
"But having said that, Williams has a strong culture of being an independent, being a constructor, not only in the parts we are responsible for but also we are making them in-house.
"We have a capacity of manufacturing on our own site and we've prided ourselves on that. I don't see us moving drastically away from that. But we remain open."
Change your timezone:
Latest News
Will F1 hopeful Antonelli replace Sargeant from Imola?
- 58 minutes ago
F1 News Today: Hamilton dealt major Newey blow as Red Bull chief makes BRUTAL admission
- 1 hour ago
Schumacher reveals how Mercedes could snare Verstappen
- 2 hours ago
Red Bull chief in BRUTAL putdown of key F1 feature
- 2 hours ago
Cullen relationship blossoms with new star after moving on from Hamilton
- 3 hours ago
Hamilton dealt major Newey blow as shock COMPLICATION revealed
- Today 08:58
F1 Standings
Drivers
- Oliver Bearman
- Charles Leclerc
- Carlos Sainz
- Lando Norris
- Oscar Piastri
- Pierre Gasly
- Esteban Ocon
- Sergio Pérez
- Max Verstappen
- Alexander Albon
- Logan Sargeant
- Lewis Hamilton
- George Russell
- Nico Hülkenberg
- Kevin Magnussen
- Fernando Alonso
- Lance Stroll
- Valtteri Bottas
- Zhou Guanyu
- Daniel Ricciardo
- Yuki Tsunoda
Races
- Gulf Air Grand Prix of Bahrain 2024
- Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Australia 2024
- MSC Cruises Grand Prix of Japan 2024
- Grand Prix of China 2024
- Miami Grand Prix 2024
- Gran Premio dell'Emilia Romagna 2024
- Grand Prix of Monaco 2024
- Grand Prix du Canada 2024
- Gran Premio de España 2024
- Grand Prix of Austria 2024
- Grand Prix of Great Britain 2024
- Grand Prix of Hungary 2024
- Grand Prix of Belgium 2024
- Heineken Dutch Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Italy 2024
- Grand Prix of Azerbaijan 2024
- Grand Prix of Singapore 2024
- Grand Prix of the United States 2024
- Gran Premio de la Ciudad de Mexico 2024
- Grande Prêmio de São Paulo 2024
- Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix 2024
- Qatar Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi 2024
About GPFans
GPFans is a multi-platform, multi-language brand dedicated to Formula One coverage. We bring you all the ins and outs of the sport, 24/7, everything from up-to-the-minute news and features to the latest viral stories and clips.We believe that a new generation of exciting, outspoken drivers will make F1 more popular than ever before, and we want to give our users access to as much of their heroes as possible, on and off the track. From Lewis Hamilton to Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo to Sebastian Vettel, we provide in-depth analysis of every every Grand Prix in the season, from Australia to Abu Dhabi.
With Formula One under the new ownership of Liberty Media, how the sport is being covered is evolving, and GPFans will look to be at the heart of this progression into new media, as one of the fastest-growing sites covering the king of motorsports.
Follow us on your favorite social media channel
Corporate & Media
Innovatieweg 20C7007 CD, Doetinchem, Netherlands
+31645516860