Whenever a big story breaks involving a Formula 1 team, it seems like the first place the journos head for opinion is to ex-drivers.
Fortunately for them – less so for the team, Williams Racing have their fair share of outspoken, and often somewhat disgruntled, ex-drivers happy to weigh in with their opinion whenever a dictaphone (Dictaphone?? I’m so 1990s!) is pushed under their nose.
Mark Webber, Jacques Villeneuve and Ralf Schumacher have all expressed dismay at the recent plight of Williams recently, and have all offered their advice as to how the once mighty team might regain their standing as one of the sport’s key players.
The latest ex-driver to weigh in with his take on the situation is Colombian Indycar Champ Juan Pablo Montoya, who drove for Sir Frank between 2001 and 2004, winning four races.
Montoya believes that Williams’ biggest problem isn’t with the people they’ve recruited, it’s that those people aren’t being used to their strengths.
“One of the big problems that Williams had, that in despair they started hiring people, they believed that it was the solution and they did not take advantage of what people were good at, but instead made them manage others.” Montoya told motorsport.com
“It is like saying ‘you are very good as a journalist, but that you are a good journalist does not necessarily mean that you are good at managing a channel or a newspaper, because you are good at reporting, not necessarily driving journalists.”
“So when you get a person who is good at certain things to do others, not what they are good at, it doesn’t help.”
He goes on to say that he hopes that Williams survives, but that if they do, it’s will most likely be as a result of investment by a rich father wanting to buy a team as a way of getting his son into F1.
“Probably someone is going to put money there and end up putting their son there, as happens many times.”
Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.
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