Analysis: One Vacancy or Two at Williams?

Doors open for Formula One champions - usually with 'Exit' written on them if they happen to drive for Williams.

Just think back to Briton Nigel Mansell in 1992 or compatriot Damon Hill in 1996, both ushered out at the end of their title seasons, and remember the words of Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone.

"It seems Frank Williams does not like World Champions in the team," he said after Hill had put his coat on. "He makes them and then gets rid of them."

History could repeat itself this season if either Juan Pablo Montoya or Ralf Schumacher wins the championship for the BMW-powered team. Colombian Montoya already knows that he is leaving, a contract with rivals McLaren signed and announced before the end of last year following a serious bust-up at last year's French Grand Prix.

Ralf, younger brother of Ferrari's six times World Champion Michael, is in the last year of his contract and talks on extending it have been put on hold. Continuity is important and there is bound to be plenty of bargaining still to come but it is not too hard to imagine Williams starting 2005 as champions with two new drivers.

Williams says it is all about money and is 'playing hardball'. Ralf disagrees and last weekend spoke out to express his disappointment in the team boss and raise the possibility of a move elsewhere.

'Greedy Schumacher'

"Frank Williams is portraying me as greedy but I can only laugh about that," he told Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

Whatever the truth, the evidence suggests that Ralf will not get very far if he tries to use Montoya's departure as leverage to get a better deal - either in financial terms or as a recognised number one.

Frank Williams drives a hard bargain. A man who once ran his business from a public telephone box to stay in the game, he is short on sentiment when it comes to drivers and their wage demands. As technical director Patrick Head likes to remind people, Williams do not do cuddles or provide a touchy-feely environment.

"Frank's always been very firm about limits beyond which he will not go," Head said this month. "It's partly because of that that we are still here as opposed to being a statistic in the history of Formula One."

Williams may not exactly echo former McLaren boss Teddy Meyer, who compared his drivers to light bulbs - "you plug them in and they do the job" - but the team comes first. It always has done, always will.

Germany's Michael Schumacher has won four Drivers' Championships with Ferrari while Brazilian Ayrton Senna won three with McLaren. Williams have never had anyone win more than one.

"I would be thrilled to bits to win the Constructors' Championship," Williams said when Hill was on top in 1996. "That is always what has been the most important to me. It is a team business and I am not here for the benefit of the drivers. Drivers come and go, but the team is here forever."

Winning Philosophy

It has been a winning philosophy and history has shown that winning teams rarely have a problem in securing drivers.

"It's an inconvenience," Williams said of Montoya's departure. "He's gone but we'll live with the decision."

Montoya and Ralf might want to consider a couple of Williams facts and figures as they gear up for a season that promises to offer both their best shot yet at the title. They will doubtless both shrug their shoulders at the statistic revealing that, since 1978, Williams have yet to see a driver leave them and go on to win the World Championship with a rival team.

Montoya or Ralf, who has been increasingly linked in media speculation to big-budget Toyota, could of course be the exceptions that break the rule. But while 'Follow the money' may have become something of a Formula One mantra, for both teams and drivers, it cannot guarantee success.

Mansell left for Ferrari in 1989 but it was only after 'Il Leone' returned to the Williams fold in 1991 that he won his long overdue crown. And then he left again.