F1 | Williams Agree Majority Sale Of Williams Advanced Engineering

Paul Jeffrey

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Former multiple World Championship winning Formula One outfit Williams have agreed a majority stake sale in their offshoot business, Williams Advanced Engineering.

Williams Advanced Engineering has long been a part of the Williams group of companies, developed to specialise in 'world class technical innovation, engineering, testing and manufacturing services to deliver energy efficient performance to customers', however the British outfit confirmed on the build-up to Christmas that a majority stake in the business has been sold to EMK Capital LLP, an independent private equity firm.

“Williams Advanced Engineering has developed a strong reputation for providing energy-efficient advanced performance solutions to a diverse range of sectors and blue-chip clients. This expertise and our technologies in areas such as electrification, lightweight structures, aerodynamics and precision manufacture will become even more relevant and in-demand globally going forward. This new ownership structure will enable WAE to take advantage of these emerging opportunities and comes at a pivotal moment allowing us to further invest in new areas of capability and technologies in order to realise the full potential of the business.” said Craig Wilson, Managing Director of Williams Advanced Engineering said of the announcement on December 24th.​
Although the team are set to relinquish a 'majority stake' in the business, and thus release much needed funds into other areas of Williams Grand Prix Holdings, the outfit will still retain what they call a 'significant minority interest' in Williams Advanced Engineering, presumably in a bid to help steer the direction and technology output of what has proven to be an organisation with a strong reputation within the automotive and racing sectors.

The deal has been agreed between the two parties, with the transaction expected to conclude within the next few weeks.


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Williams Advanced Engineering Sale.jpg
 
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Wait, people say "this is sad", but why? WAE is/was a battery supplier for Formula E, that Williams stared in 2014 and was the sole supplier for batteries until 2018. WAE now wants to grow larger, and therefore Williams sold their stake in it. Williams probably made some cash from this, and WAE can go on and further develop their products, so this is a win-win, isn't it? I can't see the bad part in this for any of the involved parties.
 
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Wait, people say "this is sad", but why? WAE is/was a battery supplier for Formula E, that Williams stared in 2014 and was the sole supplier for batteries until 2018. WAE now wants to grow larger, and therefore Williams sold their stake in it. Williams probably made some cash from this, and WAE can go on and further develop their products, so this is a win-win, isn't it? I can't see the bad part in this for any of the involved parties.

This part of the group was the profitable one, the F1 team is not (and neither is any other).
They made money from the sale which will be burnt quickly. And then I fear we may lose one of the greatest F1 teams there are.
 
f1 has been very commercialized since the 80s, sad to see this team stoop so low but the writing has been on the wall since JPM leaving. The brand has been totally lost for some time now. Bottas and the martini livery were the only vestiges of hope for them and they were squandered.
 
They are in peril. But it is teams like Williams who made F1 what it is today. They are great.

That's the point...
They *made*. :(

The current Williams F1 team does not perform, at any occasion, except giving talented junior drivers a possibility, to participate in the sport, and even there, they're somewhat weak because they're short of money, so then giving an old driver with problems to keep up but also with financial benefit the cockpit (and i like Kubica, so it's sad for me to say that) and some heads of the team (i'm not calling the name, watch "Drive to Survive" for the quote of the particular person) are refusing to restructure some things, to maybe keeping themselves over water.

Year after year, it gets worse. It's not the glorious Frank Williams time anymore, unfortunately and they need some radical steps, to stay in this expensive shark basin.

They're not the "high amount of sponsoring force - focused" team anymore, that can afford being independent for the most part, because they don't perform, therefore they're not getting very lucrative offers anymore.

The vicious circle, of being "underfunded and slow". I see them being like a somewhat Minardi revival today, just with less soul and springboard value for younger talents (h3ll, i want to see Jamie Chadwick driving in F1 some day!)...i know, it sounds BS-ish, but the reality is, the current team needs an all-in, to regain some value for investors. IMO.
 
f1 has been very commercialized since the 80s, sad to see this team stoop so low but the writing has been on the wall since JPM leaving. The brand has been totally lost for some time now. Bottas and the martini livery were the only vestiges of hope for them and they were squandered.


Sorry what? Bottas??
Are you one of the deluded that thinks Bottas would of been coming 2nd in that Williams this season because he can in a Merc?
 
They must keep the name for statistical reasons. And that means family involvement. I think Patric Head had 80% share. He has retired and there are big boots to fill as he is the man that ran the team from the beginning. Bigger input than Frank Williams himself. The team needs a lot of work for little money to fix airo and it wont happen overnight. It will take 3 to five years to get them to the mid or front of the pack. The hardest job in the pit lane.
 
I saw a show on UTUBE with designer Gordon Murray. He says teams have 300-1000 engineers working on parts for cars. Making it impossible to manage them. This is why we have cars on track behind in airo with issues that the team are blind to tell it is to late. Like McLaren had a sidepod to far back so it could not filter the airflow from the front tire to the sidepod. And they could not fix it during the season.
 

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