Williams Deputy Team Principal CLAIRE WILLIAMS still feels like a "little girl" during talks with the "male-dominated titans of Formula One" and she has set herself a "mission for the new season: Be braver and fight more for her team," according to Rob Harris of the AP. She is "preparing for her fourth season as deputy team principal of Williams." She said, "Our sport is very male dominated and sometimes I am the only girl in the room. I sit in a room with the likes of (F1 CEO) BERNIE ECCLESTONE, (FIA President) JEAN TODT, (Red Bull's) CHRISTIAN HORNER, (Mercedes') TOTO WOLFF. All these amazingly big names in our sport. I sometimes feel like I'm the little girl in the room ... Sometimes I wish, when I'm responsible for fighting for my team and my team's position within our sport, (I'm) perhaps sometimes braver." Williams reflected late Wednesday on inheriting a team on the "way out" but one she "did not want to see die." The Mercedes-powered team has gone on to finish third in the constructors' championship for the last two years, "despite having the fifth-biggest budget in the series" at around $150M. Williams: "I hate the expression 'underdog' -- we have always been regarded as that. I don't think you can call a team that's won 16 world championships an underdog" (AP, 1/28).
