Frank Williams: Webber’s ‘heart was elsewhere’
Frank Williams has revealed that Mark Webber chose not to re-sign with the Grove-based team because he had the prospect of a better offer elsewhere.
Williams caused surprise on Wednesday when it announced that test driver Alex Wurz will partner Nico Rosberg in its 2007 line-up.
The team had been expected to keep its current pairing of Webber and Rosberg.
Its option to keep Webber for ’07 expired on Monday, and Williams explained that it was not taken up because the Australian was holding out for an opportunity with another team and would not commit to his current employers.
“We were surprised along with the rest of the world,” Williams told ITV Sport’s Ted Kravitz in Hungary on Thursday.
“We were confident Mark was staying, but he told us that he had been given an opportunity – not a certain one, but certainly one that would in principle I think move him further up the grid at this time – and he felt he had to take it.”
Williams’ comments give further credence to speculation that Webber is chasing the vacant seat alongside Giancarlo Fisichella at Renault, the team run by Flavio Briatore, who, along with GP2 series boss Bruno Michel, is part of Webber’s management team.
Williams would not disclose whether he could have forced Webber to stay put under the terms of his existing contract, but said the 29-year-old’s “heart was elsewhere”.
“I wish to make no comment about contracts that were or weren’t in place – it’s irrelevant,” he said.
“We decided quickly that Mark was gone, it’s what he wanted very much and his heart was elsewhere.”
Webber’s no-nonsense, apolitical approach chimed perfectly with that of Williams and his co-owner Patrick Head, and the partnership, which began in 2005, seemed destined to bring success.
But Williams admitted it had foundered because the team had been unable to give Webber a sufficiently competitive car.
“We had hoped to have given him better than we have done so far and we have certainly not done anything like the job he expected nor we expected,” he said.
“But that’s how it was – he has made his decision and we have made another decision consequently. There is no looking back.”
Williams stressed that Webber and the team remain on good terms.
“There is no doubt about that and we intend to part on even better terms, we hope with lots more points for both of us by the end of the season,” he said.
“We are certain that we shall give him and the team every opportunity to improve throughout the remaining six races of the year.”