Williams sells stake in team

Frank Williams and partner Patrick Head have sold part of Williams F1 to an Austrian investment group lead by businessman and amateur racing-driver Christian “Toto” Wolff. Wolff is believed to have purchased between 10-49% of the team.

Is Williams stepping down? According to his statement, that is not the case:

“I have no intention of stopping my involvement in this company or of ceasing my Formula 1 activities,” Williams said.

“I cannot stress highly enough that Toto is a minority shareholder. The company is still under my control and I will not relinquish control of the business until I go completely.

“It’s simply that I want to take care of one or two private needs. I’ve never taken a penny out of the business in 40 years and time is getting on a bit.”

Williams also says that the move will have no affect on the operations and might actually help Williams F1 with the quest in sponsorship:

“Nothing changes really,” Williams said. “Adam Parr, as our CEO, runs the business on a day-to-day basis. I have a keen interest in the sponsorships of the team and work fairly extensively on that with all the other guys here. Patrick is still very involved, and comes in every day.

“Of course Toto is a very shrewd businessman and has created and invested in a number of businesses and sold them on for a profit, so him being involved in a benefit to everyone who supports the team, namely our partners and team members.

“Certainly he can be very useful in finding sponsors. It’s an area where he can, I’m sure, be very active.”

Wolff says his investment is purely strategic as he sees a rebirth of F1 value in the future:

“My investment in Williams is a pure strategic decision,” said Wolff.

“With recent pull-outs of manufacturers from F1 the value of privateer teams will increase. Overall, I expect the value of F1 to rise again. Therefore this is a commercial decision,”.

“I met with Sir Frank and Patrick (Head) in May for the first time. None approached the other side deliberately, we just got together and started talking. Soon we realised to share opinions and agreed on the way we would go.

“I have full respect for the racer attitude in the team and the work of Adam (Parr) and Sam (Michael)”, Wolff added.

Wolff has an impressive track record as a businessman and racer. He is partner to Mika Hakkinen in their driver management company, speak five languages, holds the record at the Nordschleife circuit, was runner-up in the Austrian Rally Championship in 2006, Dubai 24 hour winner and is engaged to Mercedes DTM driver Susie Stoddart.

The rise of the privateer? Fair enough. When the FIA was wrangling Cosworth deals and opening the grid to a host of small teams for 2010, one could easily see how this could be construed as the rise of the privateer. All that is conventional but tertiary in my opinion. Sir Franks comment of not taking a dime from the company and having some personal issues to sort out suggests that he needed to cash/equity from Williams F1 to handle some personal finance issues he is facing.

Is that bad? Of course not, we all have personal finance issues that need sorting out but it is interesting that Williams says he is in control. That would suggest that it was not only Williams stock that was sold to Wolff but that Patrick Heads stock was sold as well. This means that both owners, Williams and Head, sold a portion of their respective stock to constitute the 10-49% that Wolff now owns. Head and Williams both would have benefited from a cash perspective but that is supposition on my part.

So how will this affect Williams F1? I submit that when Williams and Head decide to leave the sport for garden leave, Wolff will be the new owner of Williams F1 unless he sells at that time as well. Williams F1, like all businesses, needs a good right-of-succession plan. Perhaps a younger investor with a penchant for motor sport would be the perfect and legitimate heir to the thrown that has become world champion team Williams F1?

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