Williams and McLaren "looking down the gun barrel" - Mark Webber

Formula 1

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Williams and McLaren "looking down the gun barrel" - Webber

Ian Parkes

Wednesday 10 June 2020 14:01 Updated: 14:12

Mark Webber has expressed his fears for the future of two of Formula 1's biggest names - Williams and McLaren.

As independents in F1, both have been forced to make sacrifices. Williams is now up for sale, or at the very least willing to accept outside investment to help overcome significant financial losses, while McLaren recently announced the need to make 1,200 of its 4,000-strong workforce redundant across the Group, with around 70 of those from the race team.

Although F1's managing director motorsports Ross Brawn has this week expressed confidence F1 will not now lose a team in light of the recent regulations changes, including a significantly reduced budget cap compared to that originally planned, Webber is concerned for two of the giants of F1.

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"I think for independent teams, they're looking down the gun barrel in terms of what the new Formula 1 looks like," said the nine-time F1 race winner, speaking on the 'At The Controls' podcast.

"And if you're a little bit flaky pre-Covid then you're going to be super-flaky now in terms of how your commercial partners look, just your overheads, what you have to run the team on a day-to-day basis. It can catch up with you very, very quickly."

Webber, who spent two years with Williams in the mid-noughties before moving on to Red Bull, is hopeful the team can find a new investor.

"I think it's a good thing for Williams to have finally made the call that...it's not a white flag, but [saying] 'We can't crack on as we are. We need outside funding, whether it's a minority, whether it's a majority'," added Webber.

"In terms of how they're going to do that, whether they lose control, they may well do, who knows, but for them to have outside funding, protect the staff to start with, that Williams name, because clearly if they go on as they are - by their own admission - it's not going to last, so they need support.

"Nothing's forever, we've all seen that, whatever sport, whatever F1 teams, we have seen changes.

"Williams! What a name, global, Frank's legacy is extraordinary. Let's hope they can fight."

While McLaren has partnerships with significant investors, the fact the Group has been forced to make heavy job losses underlines the effect the current pandemic has had on such a major company.

Webber feels it could be time for both to look at other options. He said: "And McLaren. There are still a couple of independent guys.

"Other teams are married up with sister relationships, in terms of gearboxes or engines, or sharing funding, and also sharing votes at the Formula 1 table when it comes to key decisions.

"McLaren and Williams are very much independent and have no real synergy with any other partners. Williams needs to get a big cash input, and also start to jump into bed with maybe another team, or somehow how that might look in terms of ownership."

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