Former Haas Formula 1 team principal Guenther Steiner has labelled Williams’s complaints regarding capital expenditure limits “crocodile tears”, questioning team boss James Vowles for continually moving the timeline for the Grove outfit’s recovery.
Since taking over Williams in 2023, the Briton has repeatedly pointed to the team’s outdated infrastructure as a primary limiting factor in its bid to move up the F1 grid. He has actively fought for regulatory allowances outside the cost cap to modernise the facilities.
But, speaking on The Red Flags Podcast, Steiner argued that Williams cannot blame the current financial regulations for a historical lack of investment by its ownership.
“Some of them made mistakes not to invest in the team. It’s bull**** saying, ‘Oh, we cannot win races because we don’t have 75 five-axis machines. We have only 65,'” Steiner said before clarifying he was referring to Williams.
“Williams, in my opinion, they’ve been saying the same thing for five years. And I would like to go through their budget cap numbers. Have they always spent to the maximum? If, in five years, you don’t spend to the maximum. Who have you got to blame? Yourself.
“You can’t say, ‘Oh I was not allowed to spend.’ You cannot because you didn’t have the money five years ago.
“You cannot blame the system now. I think a way out of this because I always want to get a way out of it, if you go to the other teams, to the FIA and say, ‘Hey we would like to upgrade the factory and invest this and this money.’ You get the dispensation.
Carlos Sainz, Williams
Photo by: Joe Portlock / Getty Images
“It was the same with Aston Martin when Lawrence Stroll came in and said, ‘I want to build a new factory because this old Jordan factory is out of date and everything is old.’
“He said, ‘I want to build a new wind tunnel.’ They said, ‘You can build a new wind tunnel outside of the budget cap, but it cannot be better than the best wind tunnel existing in Formula 1.’ You see?
“You always need to negotiate. It’s saying, ‘Oh, they don’t let me do it.’ Because they don’t let you do it shouldn’t stop you from trying to find a way. But the first thing to have is to show that you’re actually not having the same facilities and show that and be sure that you’ve got the money to do what you’re saying.
“It’s crocodile tears because last year Williams’s prediction was, ‘We focus on ’26, and we will be good.’ But did James not realise last year that he doesn’t have the facility to do it? He had to wait a year to find out that his facility actually was not invested in for five years.”
Williams currently sits ninth in the constructors’ championship with 11 points.
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