Ambition, rebirth. Williams is called once again to get up from a difficult season, culminating with the farewell of Jost capito, which arrived at a time of profound change in Grove with the new presidency. Williams finished the season in last place in the championship managing to collect eight points and before turning our gaze to the 2023 he will have to understand who to allocate the important role of Team Principal to. A role that Capito had inherited from Claire and Frank Williams, and which could now return to another important woman that the team and the paddock know well: Susie wolff.
Susie and Claire, two models of life
"I resign to allow Dorlinton a fresh start". With these words Claire Williams, in September 2020 announced the definitive separation between the famous English stable and its founding family, of which she, through the role of Deputy Team Principal which she held since 2013, alongside her father, Sir Frank, represented the last great pillar. Williams had recently been sold to the Dorlinton Capital company, with the aim of preserving its history and identity by restoring prestige and a future to a team on the verge of bankruptcy and which could not survive on its own strength or with its own history. A difficult, bold, but necessary step to allow the creature of his father and of the whole Williams family to rediscover the brilliance and power of the old glories of the past which brought 9 constructors' championships, 7 drivers' championships and 114 victories to Grove.
Claire dedicated her whole life to the team, taking the helm in the most difficult years, those of the rebirth, with a new engine, partnerships, pilots. He also did it in one of the darkest periods in his private life linked to the disappearance of his mother, Virginia, a real rock in Frank's life, and of the entire Williams family, team included. Claire has shown the same tenacity, putting all of herself on the line in an attempt to save the team and her employees, part of the Williams family. That large family from 2012 to 2015 also hosted another young woman, a figure complementary to that of Claire: Susie Wolff.
The beginning of the story in Williams
“At the age of 12 I did my class project on the Williams, and I still keep it today – he wrote Susie in 2020.Little did I know that 20 years later I would be representing Williams on track at the British Grand Prix, while my husband had started his F1 career with the team. The Williams family has built a legacy few can rival and a name that will forever be synonymous with our sport. From both of you, a huge thank you for everything.”
Susie Wolff, started building her career from karting to arrive in 2014, under the guidance of Williams – team for which he also held the role of test and development driver since 2012, to be the first woman to participate in an official Formula 1 weekend since 1992. Her love for the sport then continued in managerial roles, and this is perhaps where the greatest confirmations have come. In 2018 he held the role of team principal of the Venturi Formula E team, becoming its CEO after three seasons, proving to have a great gift and a deep dedication even in that - also considering the excellent results obtained in that context. Due to the Maserati takeover for the 2022-23 season, Susie has left Formula E and is back on the market.
A homecoming?
The rumors about his return to Williams, in place of the newly outgoing Team Principal Jost Capito, although they are still speculations, are rather persistent and the reason is clear. Susie would bring knowledge, resources, skills, dreams to a team that needs an ambitious future to be able to return to victory. Her relationship with Toto Wolff, with whom she has been married for 11 years, would strengthen the collaboration between Williams and Mercedes, in addition to Susie's position, already highly appreciated in the paddock. Ambition and competence are two points on which Williams must necessarily work, and he could do it by drawing on one of the most important and influential figures who gravitates around his own backyard and who is already ready for the next challenge.
