Roberts wants to become permanent Williams team boss

Simon Roberts has revealed he wants to make his acting team principal role at Williams permanent next year but will wait until the end of the season to discuss his future.

Roberts, who replaced former boss Claire Williams when the team was taken over by Dorilton Capital after the Italian Grand Prix, returned to the paddock in Bahrain after missing the Turkish Grand Prix due to Covid-19.

When asked about his future at Williams, the former McLaren chief operating officer said: “I’d like to stay as team principal next season but we haven’t had those discussions yet.

“Right now we are focusing on getting through to the end of the season, trying to get some points, then we will take it from there. We don’t want to walk away disappointed that we didn’t try everything we could.”

Roberts tested positive for coronavirus ahead of the last race in Istanbul and was replaced by team manager Dave Redding and chief engineer of vehicle design Adam Carter.

Asked how he was feeling, Roberts said: “I feel very well thank you. I was very lucky, I only had mild symptoms of losing a sense of taste and other than that I felt absolutely fine. So I feel that I missed a bullet there.

“The guys in Turkey did an amazing job. We had a lot of people step in at short notice to support, from the factory, and that caused guys in the factory to shuffle around a bit too.

“So that was a great team effort and it sets us up quite nicely. We’re back at full strength now for the last three races, so we just have to get everything we can out the car.”

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