Ronnie Williams

Engineer for Lotus Cars (formerly)

**Ronnie Williams** (born 25 December 1992) is the Team Principal and Owner of the Williams Racing team, taking over the duties from sister Claire Williams and father Sir Frank Williams. He is also the head engineer for the Williams ENA road car division, and a former engineer for Lotus.

## Early life

Ronnie Williams was born in 1992 in Windsor, Berkshire, England. He is the son of Sir Frank Williams and Virginia Williams, and the younger brother of Claire Williams. Growing up, he was a big fan of Formula 1, and would regularly join his father and sister in races. He graduated from Oxford University in 2013 with a degree in Engineering Science.

## Career

#### **Early start at Lotus**

Immediately after graduating from Oxford, he was hired by Lotus Cars, where he would work as an engineer for their road cars. Among the road cars he has worked on is a performance version of the Lotus Elise called the Cup 220. In a Question and Answer video uploaded to the Williams Racing YouTube channel, he mentions that he would push the prototype cars hard during testing to ensure that "the suspension wouldn't get damaged by some madman driving it." Ronnie Williams would stay at Lotus for the next 7 years, with the last car he had worked on is a successor to the Lotus Elise.

#### **Taking over Williams Racing**

In early August 2020, Ronnie Williams had a conversation with his father Sir Frank regarding the sale of the Williams Racing team to an American investment firm due to the team's failing performance and overbearing debt. Sir Frank then agreed to abort the sale to the investment firm and give Ronnie full reign over the team, stating that he trusts him because of his engineering background. Ronnie Williams became the team's Principal and Owner on August 21, 2020.

The first project taken by Ronnie was the development of the FW43B, which had serious flaws during testing, especially on the aero side. Ronnie and the other engineers at Williams would then fix the car in time for the 2020 season, with incremental upgrades being done throughout the rest of the season. Soon, the team saw two shock podiums and gained better sponsors, which became fundamental to the development of the successor car, the FW44.

Ronnie also became well known for his vlogging series uploaded on the Williams Racing YouTube channel called On The Pit Lane. Initially done as a way to get more fans to engage with the team, the series became popular for it's similarity to Netflix's Drive to Survive series and Ronnie's almost down to earth commentary and friendship with his drivers.

#### **Williams ENA**

Following the success of the team in 2021, Ronnie Williams would then go on to found Williams ENA with Jacques Villeneuve sometime in August 2021. Initially starting out as a development project of the engineering department to sell an affordable hybrid system for smaller car companies, Williams ENA eventually became its own car brand after Ronnie realized the project's potential. The first model released by Williams ENA is the ENA W supercar.

## Personal Life

Ronnie Williams has adopted a cat sometime during the Portuguese Grand Prix, named Frank, and has accompanied him for the rest of the 2021 and 2022 seasons. He has also stated to have a psychiatrist on call with the team at all times due to an undisclosed mental condition.