Why nobody cares about Williams anymore 

It's so disappointing to see that the news regs didn't help Williams like it did back in 2014... In 2013 they were nowhere. Now it looks like there are nowhere with the new regs. Which is saddening.

The very first F1 race I ever remember watching was the 2001 San Marino Grand Prix. I remember tuning in and seeing a red car going slowly. It turned out to be Michael Schumacher limping into retirement, a rarity back then if ever there was one. But the other thing that stuck out for me that day was the race's eventual winner, Ralf Schumacher, driving, yes, a Williams. It's because of that race that I've always had a soft spot for the Williams F1 team and will always look out for them through whatever comes their way.

Alex is going to drag this iconic team kicking and screaming into the midfield. I'm manifesting it.

I really want to see Albon do well.

I miss williams being at least in midpack

Williams was one of the last privateers left. This was the reason for a lot of their support I think. Imagine Minardi was still on the grid.

Williams can be defined by this statement. "People love an underdog, not a lost cause."

I have to say I feel your poll was missing an option - nostalgic backing. I'm not ready to give up on Williams as they've been a staple for so long. Also the Schumacher v Schumacher of my youth tugs at the heartstrings. I've never been a fan of Williams, but they belong on the sharp end of the grid alongside Ferrari and McLaren.

I definitely would love to see the return of Williams. What I love about the team is that even though they don’t have a giant budget in comparison to the top teams, they are still trying to innovate. Unlike some of the other backmarkers who just try to copy a top team, like haas who clearly has a relationship with Ferrari. Case and point being the steering wheel in their car.

Alexander has done so much for williams, for a long time i personally think he was the only driver to push the walliams car to its limit and extract the most possible pace out of it when it wasn’t even competitive, when he joined williams i had a glimpse of hope and he has proven it right, i mean have you seen him this season? He scored points for williams in the season opener! When was the last time they’ve scored points in a season opener? I respect him so much and i believe he is williams’ lifeline.

I love that Duracell "battery" placement on 2023 car, brilliant placement.

Tbh I can see Vowels and Albon carrying the team hard. And hopefully Sargent is picking up his pace like Zhou in 2022. Proving every one that not being F2 champion is still a good F1 driver

My first memory of F1 was when my cousins gave me a huge poster with the 2001 BMW Williams and pictures of Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher. My father started putting the races on tv for me after that and I became a Ferrari fan, but still have a spot for Williams

They've been consistently at back of the grid for years, kinda hard to even care about a team like that

I'm super impressed by how Alex Albon gets that Williams around the track, he makes it look easy when as his team mates have shown it's clearly not. I don't think Alex's time at Redbull is an indication of his potential.

Anybody who thinks Williams having a legacy is a reason for them not to get kicked out of the sport doesn’t truly know the history of the sport. Plenty of teams with heritage have become bad and left the sport. It’s always good for the sport and there’s no reason to keep watching them die.

I follow Williams because of Albon

They need a partnership with Porsche or someone like they did with BMW back in the 00s. I really have had enough of Williams trying to cling on to this independent identity, that's why the team was sold in the first place. F1 landscape is changing and I think they need to jump on the opportunity to partner up with someone or get left behind even more.

Two words... Claire Williams. She refused a closer partnership with Mercedes to "remain independent". How did that go? You can't be an independent team in modern formula 1. Only full manufacturers can win now. It is what it is.

My dad is a 60 year old Irish man, I'm 30. He got me into F1 as a kid. We were big Vettel fans. But his favourite team is Williams, he haw and will always support Williams and I think it is because it's a small team he felt he could relate to and they started F1 when he started to follow F1. Also I'll just add he was a Piquet fan over Mansel.

This is my first season watching F1 learning a lot. Williams is my team! I like pain! Alex Albon just seems like a good dude. I’m all in. Hoping for some solid top 10’s.

Loving the vids mate!

As someone who worked there twice in the late 2010s I would say the main issue with Williams is the people. No other team I worked at was even close in terms of the toxicity that one can experience in the Williams design office. Zero amount of flexibility towards new and different design ideas, people throw eachother under the bus just to get that promotion etc. The design philosophy is basically - "this is how we do it so don't try to change it." Even though it clearly hasn't worked for a very long time. As a former colleague I used to work with put it - it's a boys club, extremely clickey.

I love the Williams story because he loved racing so much he started his own F1 team, so did Enzo Ferrari and he created the largest racing team of all time across different sports

Love having a pers video drop on my lunch break 😏 youre a legend

Williams was such a good team in the 90s that it would have been a clean sweep from 1992-1997 in WCC and WDC if not for Damon Hill being a mediocre driver. They were the Red Bull of the 90s.

Just randomly appeared, but came to say your thubnail is really really good

I totally relate to this. I feel the same about them. They seem to be a shadow of their former selves, and if they don't start to even incrementally improve their days have to be numbered, which is a huge pity. I really want to see them up there in the midfield this year.

they just showed off the new livery on the old car. love your channel, sending love from germany ❤

I'm an Alex fan so I care but I can appreciate the frustration.

I‘m also not an engineer but the car they launched was just last year’s car with a new livery so there really is no point in analyzing it. However the way the line from the livery moves upwards on the sidepods could indicate that they are going with a pretty similar design to the RB18 which had pretty much the type of sidepod that would fit in that form

We do mate!

RU-vidrs always apologize for noise in the backgrounds, but I never hear anything. Maybe microphone technologies have gotten really good.

Nice video, as always. However, the car shown during their launch was just the FW44 (2022 car) with new livery.

This has just popped up in my recommendations, so this comment is going to be a bit late. I am one of the die-hard, one-eyed Williams fans you spoke of. I started following F1 in 1994, and immediately fell in love with the Rothmans livery on the FW16B and instantly became a Williams fan, and a Damon Hill fan. I was lucky enough to have seen Williams' glory years in which they won many races and championships. I am still a die-hard, one-eyed Williams fan to this day, regardless of how they perform and where the are on the championship table. Bit like footy, once I've chosen a team to follow, they are my team for life. I will never, ever stop supporting Williams - as long as they remain Williams. If Williams weren't on the grid any more, I doubt I would continue to watch F1. I agree with most of what you said, but what you missed out is that the new investment from Dorilton Capital came too late. It came mid way through 2020, and the cost cap was due to be imposed from 2021. As much as Dorilton has the capacity to invest in the team, they are unable to do so except where there is room under the cost cap to spend that money, so this means that there will be quite a few more years of pain, more years of cost-cutting for Williams fans like myself, in order to plan ahead for the future. There will be improvement going forward - of that, I'm optimistic, but those improvements won't come overnight. James Vowles was interviewed after the Bahrain Grand Prix, in which he said that the path to success isn't a matter of weeks or months, but years. I'm on board for that journey. I've waited 25 years to see Williams win another championship. What's another few years?

Only 2 races in but it seems like they've made a small step forward, I think it's safe to say that they're not the worst team on the grid this year. Sargent is looking promising.

It was really hard to accept that the golden days of Williams are done and dusted. And you are right, I don't care anymore. Let's never forget on the 90's and early 00's when the team was 100% Williams. Not now when it's just "a name" of a f1team.

This video aged like milk. Williams is a midfield team nowadays.

If Williams doesn’t get last in the championship that in itself will be hopefully a step forward

5:58 unfortunatly, is just the 2022 car, so is agressive exactly like we left it in Abu Dhabi. Even the "Duracell logo" placement was already tested.

Mad to think in 2002 when I started watching, Williams were one of big 3 boys. But losing Honda, Renault & BMW and Adrian Newey were blows which proved fatal. Plus Frank's and Patrick Head's "my way or the highway" management alienated people and their subsequent business decisions (allowing Claire to become TP) and remaining independent at all costs (resorting to Maldonaldo and pay drivers) meant they never stood a chance

Hi there, keep up the good work! Can you please make a more specific video about the downfall of Williams? It would be great, especially for newer F1 fans that don't know about their history.

It’s hard to imagine any of the lower grid moving to the top half

I think Williams was personified so much to Frank, and it doesnt feel like a family anymore.

Whenever I think about the back of the grid, particularly around reg changes one problem is that there will always be someone in last place & I don’t really want to see any teams in that worst position but it’s unavoidable. I do think though there’s only so much you can dine out on your previous success, especially now an increasing number of fans like myself will have only seen post Martini days Williams performances even if we know about the barnstorming days of Mansell etc.

Williams, Patrick Head, Alan Jones and the Keke Rosberg years were awesome !!!!

Williams have long been their own worst enemy, even going back as far as the 1980's. They've had a lot of success of course, but at the same time they've had a grand total of four(!) drivers leave the team immediately after winning the WDC with them. They managed to drive away Adrian Newey. They turned down the opportunity to become BMW's works team, which would have made them *the* team to beat in F1. Their stubbornness and obstinate management style has inevitably led them to where they are now. Williams are a team who value independence over success and that attitude has long caught up with them. The world of F1 has changed and so long as their company culture doesn't change along with it, their fortunes won't either.

Lmao I got this notification whilst wearing my Williams shirt 😅

I'll always have a soft spot for Williams. My formative F1 memories are of my hero at the time, Damon Hill, challenging for the title and finally winning it in 96. Though it has sucked to see them fall to where they are now these days I see them as a plucky underdog and I can't help but want them to do well

Sadly, Williams have been irrelevant since they lost the BMW deal. The loss of Adrian Newey started the collapse, but once they lost their works deal with BMW, they fell off the face of the earth. Frank and Patrick wouldn't treat Newey like he wanted, and should have been treated. All he wanted was a say in how things went, and Frank and Patrick axed Damon without telling him. That was the end of the line for Newey, and when Ron Dennis came calling with a big job title, and big paycheck, he left. Williams was able to get by in 97 without Adrian simply because the 96 car was so good. All they had to do was evolve it a bit, and cruise to another championship. When the regs changed in 98, Patrick had problems, and i think it was at that time that they knew they messed up by treating Newey the way they did. Then the BMW fiasco. BMW wanted a majority share so they could have a say in the direction Williams was going with the car. Frank, having been ousted from his first GP team by Walter Wolf, understandably said no. That was probably the wrong decision, as BMW then went to Sauber, and took their engines (which were likely the most powerful engines in F1 at the time) with them. That was a bad call on both halves though, as Sauber didn't really work out too well for BMW, and by 10 they were gone, leaving tye team back to Sauber. Frank's trust issues, and his it's my way or the highway attitude is what made Williams a great team in the 80s and early 90s, but was it's own undoing in the late 90s through present day.

They started the hybrid era pretty well with Massa and Bottas getting two consecutive 3rd places in the WCC. In 2014 Massa was the only non-Mercedes driver to get a pole during the whole season. Shame they couldn't sustain the moment.

Seems like engine supplier regs limit buyers to be at a disadvantage to the OEM

I’d honestly have to disagree. You yourself just published a video the other day in support of Haas; another backmarker underdog team that people like to rally around. You could argue that Williams shouldn’t be a backmarker team considering their history but that’s the hard truth.

I wish they could at least return to the midfield, but i have doubts this will happen this season, hope they get better soon, its a shame so see them being bad for so long.

If anyone recalls, they actually were fighting for podiums and were one of the strongest midfielders as recently as 2017. Maybe not over the entire season but still, I remember Stroll and Massa, especially Massa being up there dishing it out behind the big 3. 2018 was a tough year and it remained like that until now. Mclaren in their second Honda stint, since 2015 was abysmal until well, at least 2019. So there's still hope for Williams. They still are like 3rd of 4th most successful team in history of this sport.

I care about William 😢

Williams have reached the bottom of the barrell in the last few years. But they are improving, small amounts but they are improving little by little. with Alex there and building confidence it can get better

Williams was the swan song of the Cosworth Ford engines, and my country man took that last world title 1982. Many doesnt know that Ford is 3rd succesful engine in F1 history.

do you have a video about the story of mr. Williams? would be great

Dorilton Capital is a Private Equity firm, which IMO means that they're mainly trying to get a return in 5 years on their investment. The growing popularity of F1 in the US is probably giving them enough return on the team's valuation that they'll sell it to someone serious in 2 years who can't get in by being the 11th team.

When I was little one of my first racing games that weren't Need for Speeds was Williams F1: Team Driver, featuring one of their cars from the BMW era. The Hot Wheels Williams cars are super playworn too, but I still have some turn of the millennium era 1/64 Williams pit crew. It's been a long way down since then. And I'm not sure what's going to bring them back in the long term, short of Porsche changing up its F1 entry ideas and the resulting partnership working.

I started watching F1 in 2015, and even then Williams was a mid pack team. What happened to the team to go from top team to back markers? Was it just luck or did something specific happen?

That's just the 2022 car in the new livery that they showed. We don't know how the new car looks

I hope this year Williams can get better. I agree Latifi was too inconsistent, which was his downfall. But I'm putting my confidence in them for 2024

Frank should've given more control to BMW in the mid 2000s. His stubbornness killed the team

THIS AGING LIKE MILK LETS GO BOYS 🥛🔥🔥

I do agree that their car design, from the livery to the aero-shape, look very aggressive and out there. And of course you have Vowles as team principal, Albon as main driver and Sargeant as an proven upcoming talent with a ton of potential. Hopefully they will be a bit better this year, but I wouldn't bet my money on it. They've just been too underwhelming for too long.

I love Williams and always will being a fan of Ferrari and a supporter of Merc Williams and Aston Martin are my 3rds and hopefully they will pull it together

It would be dope if Honda went back to Williams as part owners.

I couldn't hear how bad Williams is with all that construction noises going on! :P

Title is a bit harsh, But good vid mate

I care mostly because of Logan Sargeant.

I think getting 6th or 12th in a car where your teammate barely fights for 18-20th is a good point for your career

if williams finishes last again this year, i don’t think it’ll be quite as distant. albon was hella solid last year, and i have much more faith in florida man than latifi. plus, there really doesn’t seem to be any direction to go but up.

The car Williams shew was the actual 2023 car? I didn't think it was, I think they shew the 2023 livery on the 2022 car cause if you look at a side by side of the images of the 2023 livery and last year's car at the end of the season the cars are identical

I really don’t see why Andretti can’t partner or buy a stock within Williams

Growing up when I did and as a Damon Hill fan, Williams were the team to beat - that's part of the reason their slump (which isn't as bad as it was when they were scoring 0 points all season) seems as bad as it is. Compare that to Sauber who have never really been that good! Challenging at the front at times but only 1 win (as BMW) in nearly 30 years. Nobody would be that surprised if they were to fall down the pecking order again especially with the gap between Alfa and Audi about to start.

Can't get enough of this channel 🫶

I think Williams biggest problem is that Frank and Claire Williams refused to change the way the team worked. There is a reason it was the last privateer team and it reason it has been doing badly since BMW left, I don't count the first turbo hybrid era because of how much better the Mercedes engine was compared to the others. I think dorilton should be on the phone to Porsche about becoming a customer team to be honest because with their current facilities and investment they are going nowhere as a team and it's a shame because I like the drivers

Williams are my team, but they’re starting to feel like an English Minardi. They have a legacy alongside the likes of Ferrari and McLaren, but because they’re not a manufacturer, they don’t quite have that same pull for new fans. I hope they turn it around

No hate (I love your content) but what happend to your mic? Mabe it's just me but it doesn't sound very good to me.

The camera movement for your face-cam is a bit much, personally I'd like to have it tweaked to a bit slower if you really want to keep it.

The Williams launch was just a livery launch. It was still the same old 2023 car.

At this point, 2023 Williams needs to improve or the only thing keeping this team live is their name and past history.

Aston Martin went backwards first of all, and they've also had huge investments. How you use the investment is incredibly important. I.e. taking on the right people, investing in new facilities, and addressing cultural issues wherever the team mindset is outdated. I very much care about Williams, and I hope James Vowles will have a good effect on the team. It'll take a while to see the effects come through though

That car is beautiful tho

I care, let’s hope they get better this year!

Been a long time Ferrari fan since I was a little kid back in the late 90's early 00's, so Williams, along with McLaren, are somewhat of "the auld enemy" to me. It'd be great to see them (and McLaren) back up the front end of the grid. Fighting Red Bull and Merc is all well and fun but it's not the same as battling Williams or McLaren to the bitter end, init? (Yes that is absolutely the nostalgia talking...)

Still love em

Guys chill last year was the first with new regs. There is always the possibility of getting it completely wrong. And with the financial struggles Williams had in recent years they couldnt afford the best engineers. Lets see how they do this year

I think the Dorilton money has to get some time. Cash doesn’t buy speed immediately. And also, James Vowles needs at least a year, along with their new technical chief. I expect them to be 10th this year, but if they don’t finish at least 9th or even 8th in 2024, I think they are doomed

Reminds me of Melbourne Football club, they just need a faster car, and the tide will sway fans

Williams has just beaten Ferrari 👀

Williams is a huge part of F1 history, but so was Brabham, so was Tyrrell and so was Lotus; all were winning teams but they either disappeared or bought out by other companies.. I wish Williams stay in F1 but in their current status they must be bought by a rich manufacturer instead of being the worst team of the field and continously offending their bright history.

At the moment Williams have a better car than both McLaren and Haas and with a 10th and 12th in the first race of the season I would say they have improved since last season

Porsche needs to help Williams get out of being backmaker status

Yesterday says different to your title. People love Williams

williams need to work on finding a new team structure

So we all wait for new Brawn to find a loophole and made smaller team a winner

I loved watching the Frank Williams Williams. Absolutely incredible. Now, “Williams” no longer exists! They do not deserve to occupy a slot on the grid! Sell the team to Andretti, or at least drop out of the field and open that slot for Andretti! WILLIAMS HAS BEEN DEAD AND ROTTING FOR YEARS!!!