Adam Parr becomes Williams chairman, team confirm Cosworths again in 2011

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Frank Williams is to hand over day-to-day responsibility of the team he founded to chief executive officer Adam Parr. Williams will remain team principal and the majority shareholder in his team.

Williams have also confirmed they will continue using Cosworth engines in 2011.

Williams said:

Adam joined Williams in 2006 as Chief Executive Officer. He has taken the lead in putting the team on a stronger financial footing, developing new businesses and building our social responsibility programme. These initiatives have seen us partnering with such outstanding organisations as Porsche and Cambridge University Press respectively in hybrid technology and education.

I have now asked him to step up to Chairman in my place to give him both the responsibility and the authority to ensure the good running of all aspects of the team and the company.
Frank Williams

Former chief operating officer Alex Burns has been promoted to chief executive officer in Parr’s place.

Read more: Williams team information

Image (C) Williams/LAT

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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18 comments on “Adam Parr becomes Williams chairman, team confirm Cosworths again in 2011”

  1. I think Adam Parr has been acting in this role anyway since March so this seems just like the next step that won’t change much. I can’t blame Frank Williams for wanting to do less when he’s in his late 60s.

    1. I just hope this is part of a succesfull move by Williams to give the team some drive to get to the front.

      They have not been going anywhere for years now. With the team management realigned, a solid driver pairing, a good engine partner (they do with cosworth what Ferarri did for Bridgestone, only with less testing) and interesting technical perspectives i hope they can make it work again

  2. Interesting move.

    Bernie commented earlier in the year when asked about Williams’ fall from grace “This sport is all about people. You can’t use the same people year after year and expect different results, I don’t know why they don’t see that.”

    Parr and Michaels have essentially had the reins of the team for a few years now. The results haven’t shown through, though.

    1. Well, they also lost BMW right around then. IIRC their competitiveness dropped through the floor as soon as “BMW POWER” dropped off the rear wings…

  3. I agree with most of the comment, Vettel should be 5th, maybe he was unlucky but he still made mistakes, and to be honest getting pole position in a Red Bull wasn’t that hard.

    I would put my top 10 like this.
    1. Hamilton
    2. Kubica
    3. Webber
    4. Button
    5. Vettel
    6. Alonso
    7. Sutil
    8. Kovalainen
    9. Rosberg
    10. Massa

    Kovalainen because he has been the best driver for the new teams, they might be finishing virtually last but he is driving that car forward putting it two-tenths off an established team, and considering that same car scored a 7th place finish at the next race, given a bit of luck Kovalainen could get that valuable point.

    1. miguelF1O (@)
      9th July 2010, 0:28

      you posted on the wrong post you anti ferrari

  4. HounslowBusGarage
    8th July 2010, 21:09

    A couple of year ago, Patrick Head said “both Frank and I are passed our sell-by dates . . .” So let’s hope Parr can afford to bring in new blood to revivify the fortunes of this once-glorious team.

    1. WidowFactory
      9th July 2010, 10:06

      Yes, it doesn’t seem to be a coincidence that Williams as a team have declined at the same rate that Frank Williams has become more and more frail over the years. I have immense respect for FW but i think it’s time he packed it in completely and let someone else take the post of team principle.

  5. UneedAFinn2Win
    8th July 2010, 21:10

    Damn, i was hoping for the return of that classic williams-renault in the yellow and blue. I still have a model i built of the fw14(b), the Mansell WDC one.

  6. Mike "the bike" Schumacher
    8th July 2010, 21:44

    Frank :( and Parr :)

  7. So basically nothing has changed- Parr was already in day to day charge of Williams. Sorry, but until they shake things up radically then Williams will continue to float aimlessly around in the midfield. Unfortunately, I’m finding it very difficult to care about the team these days

    1. I suppose the danger in shaking things up is if it all goes wrong, which of course it could, just look at McLaren and Ferrari last year to see how things can go bad.

      But unlike many other teams. Williams doesn’t have a fall back outside of the sport.

  8. I’ve always admired the Williams F1 team over the years, and they are certainly the last of the true F1 privateers. His company was formed, and still exists today, only to race … no other agenda, no other product to sell. Sir Frank is an icon in this sport, and his team’s participation and contributions over the last 30 plus years are invaluable. Williams F1 haven’t been accomplishing much at the pointy end of the grid for some seasons now, but I’ll always be pulling for them.

  9. Yeah well its always more rewarding to back a winner isn’t it…I’ve always assumed their lack of performance was mostly down to budget and engine constraints. If you can’t afford an Adrian Newey then you’re less likely to produce a series contender. My allegiances may have gradually switched to McLaren over the years but that’s not to say I don’t spend each race “wishing” the FW cars a little closer to the front!

  10. It is a little strange, I expected Frank to have moved up to Chairman of the whole Williams group before now, much in the way that Big Ron did at McLaren, and give the ‘Team Principle’ job to somebody else. As it stands the only progress they will see is whatever Cosworth can give them – although this is also a strange announcement, since if KERS comes back, won’t the team want to stand by their alliance with Porsche and use it again, or are they suddenly so poor they will have to rely on any ‘off-the-shelf’ system if its agreed for next year?

    1. Williams already confirmed, that they will build their own batterie powered KERS for next year. The flywheel one would take to much space to combine with the large fuel tank.
      Actually it seems they are happy to work with Cosworth, as they are currently their top team at the front of new developments. Better than having a large manufacturer pushing you around. It might still be, that Williams will sell their KERS as a package to go with the Cosworth engine for other teams as well.

  11. I think I saw something somewhere where one of the guys from Williams was saying that their flywheel KERS system is now that massive it would need a “double decker” F1 car to fit it in. Shame though, I was hoping they were going to at least test it in the F1 car last year.

    1. It isn’t that the size of their flywheel KERS has increased just that as the cars now have bigger fuel tanks due to no refuelling there isn’t the space on the car now to put the flywheel KERS, as I think the potential locations of a flywheel KERS are more limited than that of a battery KERS.

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