Pretty, talented and passionate, Claire Williams leaves a void. She gave so much, she could not do more, F1 is too demanding and all-encompassing today. Cut from the same cloth of her father, she is an iron commander. But the whole team loved her and it says a lot. The last trace of F1 of the past. It was nice to know she was there. The last evidence of humanity, the last point of reference in a squeezing world. The clean face of Formula 1. We will miss you.
Claire Williams, married name Claire Harris, was born on 21 July 1976. She is the former Deputy Team Principal of the WilliamsF1 racing team. She stepped down on 7 September 2020.
Born in Windsor, Berkshire, she is the daughter of Sir Frank Williams and the late Virginia, Lady Williams. Claire graduated from Newcastle University in 1999 with a degree in Politics.
After graduation, she became a press officer for the Silverstone racing circuit. In 2002, she joined the Williams F1 team as a communications officer. In 2010, she became the head of communications for the team. In 2011, she was promoted to director of marketing and communications. When Frank Williams stepped down from the Williams board in March 2012, Claire became the family representative on the board.
In March 2013, she was appointed deputy team principal of the Williams F1 racing team. In this role she retains responsibility for marketing, communications and the commercial aspects of the team's business.
On 5 April 2017, the Williams team announced that she would be giving birth to her first child, a boy, in October. She gave birth to the baby on 10 October 2017.
2018, Germany.
In January 2018, the Williams team announced her marriage to Marc Harris.
In the summer of 2020 Williams squad was sold to Dorilton Capital.
Claire Williams has revealed that new Williams owner Dorilton Capital wanted her to remain involved with the Formula 1 team, but that she felt it was the "right choice" to leave.
Following the total sale of Williams to Dorilton Capital last month, it was announced on Thursday that this weekend's Italian Grand Prix would be the final race where the founding family was involved with the team.
Claire Williams has served as the deputy team principal since 2013, handling the day-to-day running, with her father and team founder Sir Frank Williams still officially serving as team principal.
The statement from Dorilton Capital announcing the family's exit said that it had to "fully respect the very tough decision" of Williams to step away from the team.
Speaking on Friday in the FIA press conference, Claire Williams said that Dorilton had wanted her to remain part of the team moving forward, but that she will assist in a period of transition in the coming weeks.
"There were a lot of rumours swirling around in Spa about my tenure within the team," Williams said.
"Dorilton, I'd like to make it clear, wanted me to stay. This was my decision. I felt it was the right choice for me to step away.”
"There will be a period of transition. This is obviously going to be my last race weekend, but I am going to be working a few days per week over the course of the next few weeks in order to hand over in order to talk to Dorilton about the team, the inner workings of the team and the expertise they need to come in.”
"They're in the business already, they're doing their due diligence, they're reviewing the capabilities and they're looking at what they can do in order to invest into the business.”
"I will be helping them with that to advise that over the coming weeks."
The team, which was founded by Sir Frank Williams in 1977, confirmed yesterday his family will no longer be involved in running it after this weekend. Williams thanked her competitors and the team’s fans for the support they have received.
“I would just like to say an enormous thank you for all the support that we have received since making the announcement. I think we felt quite overwhelmed by it.”
“Williams has obviously contributed, I feel a huge amount, to Formula 1. Certainly the legacy that Frank and Patrick [Head] leave behind, I think it’s nothing short of extraordinary what they have managed to achieve."
“But not just the support that we’ve received in the paddock that we are enormously grateful for, but also the support that we’ve received from our fans. We have some of the best fans out there and yesterday they were contacting us in their thousands and it was lovely to see. And we thank them enormously for all of their support.”
The exit of the Williams family marks the end of its 40-plus year association with F1, during which time it has staunchly defended its status as an independent team.
Claire Williams and her driver Felipe Massa.
But Williams said she felt the current climate of F1 meant it was difficult for independents to function in the series and be successful, much of that being felt by the team in recent years.
"The world changes and the world has changed dramatically over the past even handful of years that we've been racing in Formula 1," Williams said.
"I would like to make the point that I think we have received an awful lot of criticism for some of the decisions that we have taken at Williams over the last handful of years.”
"But until you actually see what goes on behind the scenes in Formula 1 teams, particularly operating in the environment that we find ourselves operating in at the moment in this sport, that has become ever-harsher, predominantly courtesy of the last Concorde Agreement, I think our team has done an extraordinary job.”
"All the people have worked behind the scenes in order to keep our team alive and keep the fight as an independent team. I'm very proud of that work.”
"It's never something I will regret, having made decisions that ensure we have retained that independence over the last few years."
The team subsequently announced the formation of a new board to head the company. It will consist of Matthew Savage, the chair of Dorilton Capital, Darren Fultz, the chief executive officer of Dorilton and James Matthews, the CEO of Eden Rock, an investment advisory firm based in London. Who will replace the Williams’s in running the team has not been announced.
Williams were formed in 1977 by Williams and Patrick Head and have been fiercely independent ever since. During that time they have enjoyed remarkable success, with nine constructors’ titles and seven drivers’ championships between 1980 and 1997.
However their last win was in 2012 and Williams have just endured the worst two seasons in their 43 years in F1, finishing last in the championship both times. Two weeks ago they announced their sale to Dorilton, for £136m.
Williams’ current driver pairing, Nicholas Latifi and George Russell, are yet to score a point this from seven rounds this season.
“With the future of the team now secured, this feels like the appropriate time for us to step away from the sport,” Claire Williams said in Monza. “We are incredibly proud of our track record and the legacy we leave behind.”
Williams as deputy team principal has handled the day-to-day management of the team at race weekends since she took on the role in 2013 and is the only woman in the role in F1.
“We have always been in it for the love of it, for the pure pleasure of going motor racing, so this is not a decision that we have taken lightly but after much reflection and as a family,” she said. “This may be the end of an era for Williams as a family-run team, but it is the beginning of a new era for Williams Racing and we wish them much success in the future.”
Williams at 40: ‘Frank Williams is the closest we have to an Enzo Ferrari’. The British driver George Russell, now in his second season with the team, was confident in the new owner. “For Claire and the Williams family, the team means a huge amount to them, more than it does to anyone else,” he said. “They would have not sold it to a company if they did not have faith that they have the team’s best interests at heart.”
In 2004, three years before Lewis Hamilton joined F1, Frank Williams had come close to signing him. Hamilton has always maintained the great respect he has for Sir Frank, who said in 2012 he would snap Hamilton up should he have wanted to drive for his team. The world champion was among many drivers who expressed his sadness at the end of the family’s involvement in Monza.
“I am big fan of Sir Frank and his incredible contribution to the sport,” he said. “He was always so positive to me he was one of the people I spoke to most here. He was one of the most if not the most honest people in F1.”
“It is the end of a chapter but the legacy will continue, I believe they will keep the name at least. I was hopeful at some stage they would come back and be back at the front. I remember dreaming of driving the car [Nigel] Mansell had but it never turned into a real option for me and that was when I moved to Mercedes. I wish them all the best on their next endeavours.”
Why Claire Williams’s departure should worry F1. September 4 2020. By Lucy Morson.
Thursday’s news that the Williams family will depart Formula 1 has been met with understandable sadness from those lamenting the loss of a final tangible link back to the good old days.
The Williams F1 team is one of incredible heritage and it’s an intrinsic thread to the tapestry of motorsport history. For the last seven years, it has also been led by a woman – who has shouldered the responsibility of the fight to keep F1’s last true independent team alive.
And now Claire Williams’s departure from her role as deputy team principal at the end of this coming Italian Grand Prix weekend means that F1 has lost something it can’t afford to lose.
The legend of Williams Grand Prix Engineering has been committed to folklore, regardless of what happens next with Dorilton Capital at the helm – nothing will change the fact that it will live long in the memory of any F1 fan.
But when will an F1 team be led by a woman again?
Nine months into the tumult of 2020, there’s no need to talk again about the importance of representation and what it means to those that strive to achieve it, to see themselves reflected back from a place they admire and aspire to be.
Whether it was predestined by birthright or not: Claire Williams’s place at the top of one of F1’s most prestigious teams has demonstrated that, yes, women can run an F1 team too and can hold their own in a world that isn’t built with women in mind.
Williams’ exit comes just over three years after the departure of Sauber team boss Monisha Kaltenborn. And now, with Williams gone, so too has that little flicker of representation – and who knows when it might come back again.
The gravity of that might be inconsequential to some, but as a woman working in motorsport – which so often feels like some sort of contest to go above and beyond to prove your worth – it is Claire’s departure from the paddock that struck me as the saddest part of this ending to the Williams story.
Over the course of the last seven years, Claire Williams has led the Williams F1 team through its stormiest period. She has been the public face, been key to the major decisions taken by the team and most recently she has played a main role in negotiating the terms of the new Concorde Agreement.
Outside of F1, she has leaned her support to initiatives such as Susie Wolff’s Dare to be Different – as well as attending the inaugural W Series race at Hockenheim last year, before publicly admitting her initial misgivings about the validity of the series were unfounded.
In recent years – perhaps as a result of female leadership, perhaps not – the Williams F1 team has looked certain to be the team to finally give a long-awaited female driver an F1 chance.
First, it could have been Wolff and now reigning W Series champion Jamie Chadwick is signed as a development driver for the team.
It’s unfortunate that the team’s miserable fall from grace has coincided with Williams’s spearheading of the team, if only for the vindication that it gives to sexist corners of the internet that this could have all been avoided if only for a man’s stewardship. It’s unfortunate that as the team heads in a new direction – hopefully toward a secure and successful F1 future deserving of its heritage – that it will come only after Williams has gone.
That is not to say that the hard facts of Williams’s leadership should be above scrutiny – anything less would be tokenism, which achieves nothing for anybody. Williams’s role in the last seven years should be assessed through the same lens as any male counterpart.
But the uncomfortable truth remains that it seems unlikely (though I would be delighted to be proved wrong) that the next person to sit in the team principal slot on the Williams pitwall will be a woman.
And in the current moment, if you think across the expanse of top-level motorsport, you would be hard-pressed to find another woman in such a leadership position. There’s Wolff at Venturi in Formula E and Catherine Bond Muir at W Series… but that’s about it.
Like with the lack of female racing drivers, because of a fundamental shortage of young girls getting into go-karting, a similar drought of women in leadership positions is a product of the world F1 operates in. Seeing is believing, believing is breaking through a glass ceiling.
Put simply: there are six other Toto Wolffs, Mattia Binottos and Christian Horners, there is no other Claire Williams.
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