Sir Frank Williams said this year he plans to retire only when the family-run racing marque he founded in 1977 is once more “a world-class team and not a load of junk surrounded by out-of-date antiquated people”.
Such has been the team’s resurrection this season, the venerated team owner with the cheeky glint in his eye might have to say goodbye to the Formula One paddock sooner than he expected.
Williams are the second-most-successful team in F1 history, behind Ferrari, but for much of the past decade they have struggled and are without a world championship since 1997.
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A surprise victory at the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix – the team’s first race win since 2004 – proved a false dawn. Last year, they endured their worst start in more than 30 years, failing to score a point in any of the first nine races.
At the start of this year, with the seasoned Pat Symonds having joined as chief technical officer, the British racing marque adapted to new regulations quicker than most.
Williams claimed points at every race between the opener in Australia and last week in Brazil, while drivers Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa took five podiums in six races during the summer.
In Austria, in June, the team claimed their first front-row lockout in qualifying since France 2003 as Massa took pole from Bottas, the only time all season anyone other than a Mercedes-GP car has topped the times in a qualifying session.
Massa, the veteran Brazilian who was forced to play second fiddle for so long at Ferrari, moved to Williams in the off-season, yet it is Bottas, 25, who has performed like the established, experienced pro. The quiet Finn, reassuringly unremarkable off-track, has been at the forefront of the long-awaited Williams resurgence.
His purple patch came after scoring his first podium in Austria with third place. In the following four races, he finished second in Britain and Germany, eighth in Hungary and third in Belgium.
The strong run of results put Bottas as high as fourth in the drivers’ championship and Williams in contention for third in the constructors’ competition, a gigantic step forward from last season’s ninth place finish, with only five points to their credit.
Finally, after a rookie season to forget, the young Finn, who had arrived at the team amid great expectations, was living up to his reputation.
“For sure, 2013 was a tough year, but I think I learnt a lot,” Bottas said. “Obviously, you would prefer to be fighting at the front, but normally from the bad races you learn more because you need to analyse what went wrong so you don’t repeat it. There were a lot of bad races last year, so in that sense I learnt a lot of good stuff.”
Even before the lessons of last year were taken on board, people had spoken highly of Bottas, the 2011 GP3 champion. Williams, in awarding him a race seat in late 2012, had to let go of Bruno Senna and the £10 million (Dh58.7m) in sponsorship money the Brazilian brought with him.
For Bottas, it was a show of faith, but he struggled in an underperforming car and whispered doubts crept into the paddock.
“When you are fighting for podiums it is much more enjoyable,” Bottas said. “Last year, you might feel like you had a really good race and got everything you could possibly get out of the car and yet you would finish 15th and nobody would see what you are doing.
“This season has allowed me to prove – not only to myself, but also to many others – what I can do.”
Some of the credit for the turnaround has been directed towards Symonds.
During a career that spans nearly 30 years, the English engineer has worked with Ayrton Senna, helped guide Michael Schumacher to two championships and worked with Fernando Alonso when the Spaniard won the world title twice with Renault.
He knows a talent when he sees one and has clearly been impressed by Bottas.
“I’m never quite sure before a guy gets into Formula One how good he’s going to be,” Symonds told The Economic Times this year.
“But when he’s in F1 and you see him work, you get an idea of their speed and their ability to cope with things when it’s difficult. I will be very, very surprised if [Bottas] doesn’t become a world champion and my ambition is to make him a world champion at Williams.”
Massa, who was teammates with both Schumacher and Alonso during his eight years at Ferrari, also holds his new teammate in high regard.
“He’s shown since the beginning of the season that he’s quick, that he’s competitive, that he’s intelligent and working very hard,” Massa said of Bottas. “It’s clear he’s doing everything correct. People need to see him as a great driver.”
For Bottas and Williams, though, this season marks only the start. If they can build on the progress of this year, then 2015 could be very special – and Sir Frank Williams might finally feel ready to say goodbye to the paddock.
gmeenaghan@thenational.ae
Follow us on Twitter @SprtNationalUAE
Confirmed bouts (more to be added)
Cory Sandhagen v Umar Nurmagomedov
Nick Diaz v Vicente Luque
Michael Chiesa v Tony Ferguson
Deiveson Figueiredo v Marlon Vera
Mackenzie Dern v Loopy Godinez
Tickets for the August 3 Fight Night, held in partnership with the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi, went on sale earlier this month, through www.etihadarena.ae and www.ticketmaster.ae.
Squads
Sri Lanka Tharanga (c), Mathews, Dickwella (wk), Gunathilaka, Mendis, Kapugedera, Siriwardana, Pushpakumara, Dananjaya, Sandakan, Perera, Hasaranga, Malinga, Chameera, Fernando.
India Kohli (c), Dhawan, Rohit, Rahul, Pandey, Rahane, Jadhav, Dhoni (wk), Pandya, Axar, Kuldeep, Chahal, Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar, Thakur.
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre, six-cylinder
Transmission: six-speed manual
Power: 395bhp
Torque: 420Nm
Price: from Dh321,200
On sale: now
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League, last 16, first leg
Ajax v Real Madrid, midnight (Thursday), BeIN Sports
Meydan card
6.30pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-1 (PA) Group 1 US$65,000 (Dirt) 1,600m
7.05pm: Conditions (TB) $100,000 (Turf) 1,400m
7.40pm: UAE 2000 Guineas Trial (TB) $100,000 (D) 1,600m
8.15pm: Handicap (TB) $175,000 (T) 1,200m
8.50pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-1 (TB) Group 2 $350,000 (D) 1,600m
9.25pm: Handicap (TB) $175,000 (D) 1,900m
10pm: Handicap (TB) $135,000 (T) 1,600m
Brief scores:
Day 2
England: 277 & 19-0
West Indies: 154
Other acts on the Jazz Garden bill
Sharrie Williams
The American singer is hugely respected in blues circles due to her passionate vocals and songwriting. Born and raised in Michigan, Williams began recording and touring as a teenage gospel singer. Her career took off with the blues band The Wiseguys. Such was the acclaim of their live shows that they toured throughout Europe and in Africa. As a solo artist, Williams has also collaborated with the likes of the late Dizzy Gillespie, Van Morrison and Mavis Staples.
Lin Rountree
An accomplished smooth jazz artist who blends his chilled approach with R‘n’B. Trained at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC, Rountree formed his own band in 2004. He has also recorded with the likes of Kem, Dwele and Conya Doss. He comes to Dubai on the back of his new single Pass The Groove, from his forthcoming 2018 album Stronger Still, which may follow his five previous solo albums in cracking the top 10 of the US jazz charts.
Anita Williams
Dubai-based singer Anita Williams will open the night with a set of covers and swing, jazz and blues standards that made her an in-demand singer across the emirate. The Irish singer has been performing in Dubai since 2008 at venues such as MusicHall and Voda Bar. Her Jazz Garden appearance is career highlight as she will use the event to perform the original song Big Blue Eyes, the single from her debut solo album, due for release soon.
Sheer grandeur
The Owo building is 14 storeys high, seven of which are below ground, with the 30,000 square feet of amenities located subterranean, including a 16-seat private cinema, seven lounges, a gym, games room, treatment suites and bicycle storage.
A clear distinction between the residences and the Raffles hotel with the amenities operated separately.
MATCH INFO
Manchester United 1 (Rashford 36')
Liverpool 1 (Lallana 84')
Man of the match: Marcus Rashford (Manchester United)
Company profile
Company name:+Dharma
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Founders:+Charaf El Mansouri, Nisma Benani, Leah Howe
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Funding stage:+Pre-series A
Investors:+Convivialite Ventures, BY Partners, Shorooq Partners, L& Ventures, Flat6Labs
The Case For Trump
By Victor Davis Hanson
TWISTERS
Director:+Lee+Isaac+Chung
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COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Klipit
Started: 2022
Founders: Venkat Reddy, Mohammed Al Bulooki, Bilal Merchant, Asif Ahmed, Ovais Merchant
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Digital receipts, finance, blockchain
Funding: $4 million
Investors: Privately/self-funded
How to donate
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
2289 – Dh10
2252 – Dh 50
6025 – Dh20
6027 – Dh 100
6026 – Dh 200
The specs
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 502hp at 7,600rpm
Torque: 637Nm at 5,150rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch auto
Price: from Dh317,671
On sale: now
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
Bayern Munich v Real Madrid
When: April 25, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Allianz Arena, Munich
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 1, Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid
Off-roading in the UAE: How to checklist
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Almouneer
Started: 2017
Founders: Dr Noha Khater and Rania Kadry
Based: Egypt
Number of staff: 120
Investment: Bootstrapped, with support from Insead and Egyptian government, seed round of
$3.6 million led by Global Ventures
KEY DATES IN AMAZON'S HISTORY
July 5, 1994: Jeff Bezos founds Cadabra Inc, which would later be renamed to Amazon.com, because his lawyer misheard the name as 'cadaver'. In its earliest days, the bookstore operated out of a rented garage in Bellevue, Washington
July 16, 1995: Amazon formally opens as an online bookseller. Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought becomes the first item sold on Amazon
1997: Amazon goes public at $18 a share, which has grown about 1,000 per cent at present. Its highest closing price was $197.85 on June 27, 2024
1998: Amazon acquires IMDb, its first major acquisition. It also starts selling CDs and DVDs
2000: Amazon Marketplace opens, allowing people to sell items on the website
2002: Amazon forms what would become Amazon Web Services, opening the Amazon.com platform to all developers. The cloud unit would follow in 2006
2003: Amazon turns in an annual profit of $75 million, the first time it ended a year in the black
2005: Amazon Prime is introduced, its first-ever subscription service that offered US customers free two-day shipping for $79 a year
2006: Amazon Unbox is unveiled, the company's video service that would later morph into Amazon Instant Video and, ultimately, Amazon Video
2007: Amazon's first hardware product, the Kindle e-reader, is introduced; the Fire TV and Fire Phone would come in 2014. Grocery service Amazon Fresh is also started
2009: Amazon introduces Amazon Basics, its in-house label for a variety of products
2010: The foundations for Amazon Studios were laid. Its first original streaming content debuted in 2013
2011: The Amazon Appstore for Google's Android is launched. It is still unavailable on Apple's iOS
2014: The Amazon Echo is launched, a speaker that acts as a personal digital assistant powered by Alexa
2017: Amazon acquires Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, its biggest acquisition
2018: Amazon's market cap briefly crosses the $1 trillion mark, making it, at the time, only the third company to achieve that milestone