Williams team principal James Vowles has made it unequivocally clear that the British outfit is “very strongly” against F1 adding an eleventh team to its field of competitors.
Last week, the FIA confirmed that Andretti Cadillac’s application to become an entrant in F1 had bene accepted, with the American outfit the only candidature out of four applications deemed worthy by the governing body of joining the grid.
Andretti’s process now enters ‘phase 3’, the most difficult and controversial stage as it entails demonstrating to Formula One and to its 10 franchises that its presence among motorsport’s elite will add value to the sport.
However, for many teams, Andretti is fighting a losing battle. Their opposition stems from their refusal to accept a dilution of F1’s prize fund.
In Qatar this weekend, Vowles explained why Williams is entrenched in that camp.
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"My thoughts are very clear. Williams is against the addition of an 11th team and very strongly against," he said.
"My responsibility is to 900 employees within my company. You'll see that we're [losing money]."
Indeed, while Williams significantly increased its revenue in 2022 according to accounts recently filed with Companies House, the team posted a loss of £17.9m for the year.
"The reason why is we're investing in the sport to become better. We believe in where the sport is going, we believe in the direction of travel of the sport.
"The reason why is we actually have, I think, a sustainable entity for once. Teams are actually working more and more together; we have close racing as a result of things.
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"But it should be known that this isn't just us that are not financially stable. I would say probably half the grid aren't.
"I think the addition of an 11th team is a sensible thing but only at the point where the 10th team on the grid is financially stable.
"Everyone says we're in a good place. We are in some regards but now… hundreds of millions [are] being invested to make the sport better.
"It becomes therefore clear why we're very careful about diluting what we've already got because it's just more losses on the table."
While Vowles is opposed to an expansion of the grid, the Williams team boss would welcome Andretti’s partner General Motors – the parent company of Cadillac – with “open arms”.
"We've been clear from the beginning, more than happy to bring in new entities but the pie has to grow as a result of it, not shrink. So far, it's just shrinking,” he said.
"For clarity on that, that's not against either Andretti or GM. Quite the opposite.
"I welcome GM open armed… and I hope to forge a relationship with them should things not work out. They are an incredible entity that I think will make the sport better."
Vowles made clear however that he wasn’t courting GM as a potential engine partner for the future.
"No… My point is more that an organisation, an OEM like GM, absolutely would be welcome in our sport,” he said.
"We would welcome them at this stage. But they're clearly linked to Andretti - it's not a question of that and we're not in talks with them at the moment."
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