Former Williams team principal and daughter of the late Sir Frank Williams, Claire Williams has returned to her role in the Netflix docuseries, Drive to Survive.
Five years after she left the Williams F1 team, the former team chief returns to the sport as an analyst on the popular series. Reacting to her return, Williams shared with F1.com that it was “a very strange experience for me.”
Building her career to Deputy Team Principal, Williams has more than enough experience to be a credible part of the Drive to Survive analyst panel. Under her control, the Grove team achieved 15 podiums, navigated a £65 million sponsorship deal with Unilever and a £50 million sponsorship from Martini, and successfully lobbied for the 2021 cost cap, allowing smaller teams to survive on the F1 grid.
In August 2020, she sold her family’s team to Dorilton Capital for £136million, and her father died a year later under her care.
“I managed his care team,” she told PA News in 2023. “I made sure he was happy and comfortable in his new home and we went off and did some nice stuff together. He would pick up my little one, Nate, from nursery.
“But then he got sicker, greater care was required to look after him and he passed away. But for the next six months, we organised this wonderful memorial service. We then decided to move house, renovating our old house in Ascot and our new home in South Downs.
“So, I am the master of distraction. Life carries on. And as much as I miss Williams, and I miss Formula 1 dreadfully, there is a whole other world out there. You have to go and find happy elsewhere. That is what I have done.”
Claire Williams, Williams Deputy Team Principal
Photo by: XPB Images
Returning to the sport, therefore, is a big moment for the former boss, who has now started her own consultancy firm.
“I’m very mindful of what a privilege it is to be asked to do it. It’s one of the biggest sporting reality programmes on television and it’s beautifully made. I do however find it strange as I was once on the other side of the fence. Before, I would be on the show and people would be judging me.
“Now one of my responsibilities sat in the chair as a talking head is to comment on what people in the sport are now doing.
“When I was in the sport, it was one of the things I liked the least about it – that you’re so exposed and people have so many opinions. So, when I agreed to do it, as much as it was a privilege, for me it was about how am I going balance being able to analyse and comment on people whose shoes I have walked in – and do it in a fair and positive way. It’s not easy.”
Drive to Survive Season 7 is now available to stream on Netflix.
Leave feedback about this