“Williams F1 Would have been Like Red Bull”: Former F1 Driver Highlights the Team’s Big Blunder

Recently, former F1 driver Karun Chandhok spoke about the beleaguered Williams F1 team. The Indian believes that the Grove-based outfit would have been better off if they partnered with Honda in 2018.

At the end of the 2017 season, whatever was left of McLaren and Honda’s relationship, shattered. So they elected to part ways and Honda searched for a suitable customer. Admittedly, Williams F1 was one of the options, but the team chose to stick with Mercedes power.

In hindsight, they may probably be regretting not gambling with the Japanese engine manufacturer. So, in the last couple of years, the British team has propped up the tail of the pack. This is a far cry from finishing inside the top three in the 2003 world championship when they partnered BMW.

Things went from bad to worse for Williams F1

After splitting with BMW, the Grove-based outfit went through Cosworth engines before switching to Toyota. After that failed to reap rewards, Williams crawled back to Cosworth before moving to Renault and finally to Mercedes power in 2014.

“It is interesting how many articles I’ve seen online in recent weeks about various things Williams could have done differently,” Chandhok told Sky F1.

“From not letting Adrian Newey go to the BMW relationship breaking down. Things like that. But those are all long gone and there are two critical points in recent times. Obviously the alignment with one of the major teams and the other is the Honda deal.”

According to Chandhok, Williams F1 should have been a little more proactive in chasing after Honda. However, their loss turned out to be Red Bull and Toro Rosso’s gain, as the outfit became competitive and brought the best out of the Bulls.

Chandhok concluded, “I know hindsight is 20/20 but you do really wonder if a Williams-Honda combination could have done exactly what they are doing with Red Bull. Financially Honda would have invested money into the programme and built that up.”