Williams Planning To Compete For Championship In 'Two, Three, Four Years'

Thursday, 30 November 2023 at 12:00

William's new Chief Technical Officer, Pat Fry, recently talked about projections for his team moving forward in Formula One.

Pat Fry is a British motorsport engineer with a long and rich history of experience in Formula One. Fry previously worked with teams such as Alpine, McLaren, Ferrari, Manor Racing, and Benetton teams.

Starting the 2023 season, the British engineer was working as a CFO at Alpine, but it was announced ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix that Fry would be leaving Alpine to join Williams in the same position.

Williams F1 team has been struggling quite a lot, running at the back of the pack for the past six seasons, so it is an enormous task that awaits Fry if he wants to bring the team back to the top. As quoted by Gpblog, the CFO said:

"The thing that excites me about this opportunity is that the board is fully on board with what it's going to take to move this place forward. They're willing to invest in what it takes to support us in building a team. It's a nice thing to rebuild an old British icon."

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Williams team is one of the oldest ones on the grid. The team has been part of F1 since 1977 and has achieved nine Constructors' and seven Drivers' Championship titles.

However, as the team has been struggling over the past couple of years, it will be challenging to turn things around. Fry explained he has to look five years ahead:

"I have to look at what technology we need in five years' time. I've already been having those conversations with the various managers of departments to get a good idea of where we are and where we need to get to."

The chief technical officer revealed the plan is to compete for the championship again in just a few seasons. Fry concluded by saying it will be challenging, but it is possible.

"The ultimate goal is to be a championship competitor. In two, three, four years, we need to be getting in the fight and breaking into the top three. That's a tough ask when you're building from where we are, but I think it's all possible."