Williams F1 is one of the world’s leading Formula One teams, formed in 1977 by Frank Williams and Patrick Head. Williams has won 16 FIA F1 World Championship titles to date, including seven Drivers’ Championships won by drivers as notable as Nelson Piquet, Nigel Mansell and Damon Hill.
Driving up the A338 through Grove, you can’t fail to notice the sign for their HQ and I’ve always been intrigued as to why such a big company as Williams F1 was based in such a sleepy rural area. Recently I had the opportunity to find out when I spoke to Alex Burns, Williams’ Chief Operating Officer. His answer was very simple: “The team were originally based at a site in Didcot and, as the company expanded, we required a larger site to accommodate the business’ growing demands,” – and so Grove it was. I asked Alex what sort of links had built up between Williams F1 and the local community since the team moved here.
“Williams is one of the largest employers in the area. The company employs over 500 people, most of whom live in the local vicinity. We have a corporate responsibility towards the area and always provide assistance whenever we are asked, whether that's supporting local charities (we support all requests received within a ten mile radius) or our local schools by offering work experience placements or promoting engineering studies with visits to the factory.”
Williams F1 also supports the Spinal Injuries Association as its nominated charitable beneficiary and holds monthly auctions for F1 memorabilia to raise money for disaster funds, engineering and motorsports organisations and local good causes.
Environmental issues are never far from the news headlines and F1, with its fast cars and longhaul travel to races all over the world, doesn’t appear to be one of the greenest sports around. Alex told me what Williams F1 have done to reduce their carbon footprint.
“We have been engaged with the Carbon Trust for some time in assessing our carbon footprint and examining ways of reducing it. We have set up new methods of monitoring our electricity usage so that we can see exactly where the largest consumption occurs and now have a number of projects underway to reduce this. We expect to have at least a 5% reduction in our footprint from the factory this year. On a broader level, we are actively involved in developing the next generation of hybrid technology for use in our race cars from 2009 and this work will have spin-off benefits in other industries in the future.”
Despite past successes, recent seasons haven’t brought a huge amount of success for Williams F1 and, at the time of writing, their current drivers Wurz and Rosberg are only 9th and 11th in the standings, with the team fifth in the drivers’ championship. Alex confidently optimistic about the future though: “As racing purists we have learned that – as in any sport – it is impossible to stay at the top for ever. But we know that with the right people, the right ethic and a determination born of our innate desire to win, Williams will be back towards the front of the grid very soon.”
