The German press has been busy with rumours in recent days with the latest being that there are conversations going on between Williams and Opel about working together on a development programme for DTM. The team has a good record working with manufacturers in sports and touring cars, notably with BMW at Le Mans with Renault in the British Touring Car Championship. In both cases, however, the deals were related to relationships in Formula 1. It is obviously the goal of the team to find a new manufacturer partner. The team split with BMW five years ago and since then has been using customer engines. This has been one of the primary reasons for the team’s failure to win races and the resulting loss of income that poor results tend to bring. Williams is constantly talking to manufacturers about the future but at the moment is it fairly clear that car makers are not going to get involved in the sport before the new engine formula is introduced in 2013. However, with the engine rules being finalised before the end of this year, now is good time to be sounding out possible newcomers and the rumours of an Opel link are therefore interesting. There have similar rumours linking the team with Volkswagen and Porsche (although these will soon be one company).
Opel is the European subsidiary of General Motors, and has been for more than 80 years. In recent times Opel has been in trouble with GM trying to sell the offshoot until last November when it was decided that the European operations were needed to support the new GM’s global strategies. GM is now pushing ahead with its restructuring and last week President Barack Obama visited Detroit to claim some of the success that has resulted from the US government’s bail-out of GM and Chrysler last year. The upheavals of 2009 resulted in a new management at Opel in Russelheim, in Germany. The new chief executive officer is Welshman Nick Reilly, a longtime GM executive, who has been with the company since 1975. He has been in charge of GM International Operations since July 2009, but was head of Vauxhall for 1996 until 2002, during which time Vauxhall became a big player in the British Touring Car Championship.
Williams has said that there were some talks with Opel a while ago but denied they were to do with the sport. This is not surprising given that the team is also selling its KERS system to automobile companies. Nonetheless, Williams is not going to say no if GM asks it to organise a Formula 1 programme at some point in the future. In the interim, Opel is looking seriously at DTM, in order to go head-to-head with Mercedes, Audi and BMW in the future. The series will introduce new technical regulations in 2012 and this obviously presents an opportunity for all newcomers.
It is worth noting that Williams F1 partner Toto Wolff is a big cheese in DTM circles. He owns half of HWA AG, which prepares all the Mercedes cars at the moment. His partner in that business is Hans Werner Aufrecht, the boss of DTM.
joeblogsf1 
Sure it would be great to have Williams with a big budget again. Even with little money, they seem to do an honest work. I’m still waiting for a podium finish with Rubens this year!
It would be great to see Williams F1 link up with a manufacturer again, particularly VW, as they have so many great brands to choose from.
I have never really considered that any of the GM companies would get involved in F1. VW/Porsche/Audi seems a far beter fit with F1.
The only connection I can think of between Williams, Opel and DTM is Keke Rosberg. When Opel were previously in that series he ran and drove for his own team using Opel cars.
Opel have put out a tender for a DTM project, and at least one other UK racing firm are in the hunt for the deal. The new DTM rules are going to be quite interesting…
One of things I really like about your blog is that you often present info from a completely different perspective than everyone else.
Great work.
Post like this make your blog a must read. Just skip your track updates and give us the scoop on what’s going on behind the scenes. Keep it up.
DTM?
Went to a race at Brands a couple of years ago.
Apart from the spectacular noise at the start it was very boring.
It’s also not the place to be if you don’t like team orders.
I agree with JOdum5 Joe.
You have no need to make the track updates, this is the kind of stuff we expect from your blog. In any case, it is not as if you don’t have enough to do during the race weekends and we do get the race data from other sources.
Thanks again though,
Livo
I can’t see Opel/Vauxhall coming into F1, especially as they are still essentially in a pickle financially. VW is a different matter though. A Williams-Skoda would be awesome, wouldn’t it!?!?!?
The other interesting aspect and possible confusion is that Hans Werner Aufrecht is the A of AMG – i.e Mercedes tuning arm…
Aufrecht is also the co-founder of AMG (aka the “A”)
… but AMG (founded 1967 by Hans Werner Aufrecht & Erhard Melcher) was fully (100%) acquired by DaimlerChrysler AG in 2005. Since then, Aufrecht has no shares in the company.
Well if Williams is going to make a few quid in 2011 then great. God knows it’s needed.
Opel in DTM? Hardly a success story. Last time out with the Calibra, Opel spent more money on journalists than the car. As a result everyone wrote ‘gearbox’ next to ‘DNF’ when the engine blew up because they got a nice skiing trip each year. Winners, however, were few and far between.
But really, can we let go of this Porsche/VW Formula One thing? It’s just not going to happen.
Would be great to see Opel back and giving it a shot, and who knows, this time might even win. Not to say they didn’t before as if you remember the 1996 DTM/ITC was won by the great Manuel Reuter in a Calibra.
F1 is not the be all and end all of motorsport and neither is VW group….(not exactly a great number of wins for them either). Stranger things have happened than GM getting into F1 but maybe one of their other marques…maybe a Cadillac or even a Holden might be ready with a better system/setup???
Just my opinion though.
I think that if Opel come back in DTM will be great.Its a very powerful brand, with a lot of sport models, even i think its better than wv.Astra DTM is very powerful machine, Calibra made a great triumph in 1996, and i think Opel can make it again.An ally between Williams and Opel,will be a great success in F1 as well.A brand like opel in ally with Williams will be very powerful mechanism.