17.30 Monaco Paddock. Down at the Williams motorhome members of the media are listening to chief race engineer Xevi Pujolar talking about the team’s adventures in qualifying. Very quietly, Niki Lauda (chairman of Mercedes AMG Petronas), Andy Cowell (managing director of Mercedes High Performance Powertrains) and Prof. Dr. Thomas Weber (the Daimler AG board member for Research & Development), all in Mercedes gear, sidle as casually as possible into the motorhome and disappear into the offices… They emerge a few moments later.
The team’s new engine supply deal for 2014, 2015 and 2016 is done.
joeblogsf1 
what about Enstone?? or you have no idea about it??
I think they will stay with Renault.
Well you don’t get much more “Hot off the presses than that!” Well done
Joe actually reported this on Friday!
Great reportage Joe, first to the punch on this one!
So that’s how deals in F1 are done. Brilliant
Good news for Williams, but does this make them the biggest engine tarts in F1? Has any other team in F1 history raced with so many different engines?
McLaren have had more – 9 different suppliers. This will be Williams 8th, unless you count Mecachrome as being different from Renault and not just a rebadge.
Let’s hope the Mercedes-AMG engines will bring about the long awaited revival for Team Williams.
Joe, does the deal include the transmission and the KERS?
For the time being I would think that Williams will acquire their transmission and perhaps KERS or maybe not. Williams may bolster their own KERS unit onto that powerplant. I say this for the simple reason that it is a turbo engine and with that one has to take into consideration the amount of torque that this new powerplant will make and transfer it to the wheels. I think that Williams have no idea, I could be wrong though, about the necessary requirements of a transmission to work with this unknown engine’s power delivery. Once they get a grasp of it, an idea of its performance, they may start making their own transmissions again to their likings.
Niki” Nothing to do with that its just that we were told it was a shortcut to zee buffet, zats why we were walking casually but rapidly through here, “
Interesting game of musical chairs going in with F1 engine suppliers, isn’t it?
So Renault have now, allegedly, lost Williams, but at the same time seem likely to gain the ‘other’ Red Bull tem, Torro Rosso next season who I gather are no longer to use Ferrari.
Ferrari, meanwhile, I gather, are now expected to be supplying Marussia from next year, who are the sole remaining team to be using Cosworth who I gather are quitting the sport at the end of this season.
But does this affect the situation regarding Force India, who, I thought I read somewhere, will effectively replace McLaren as the second Mercedes ‘works’ team with McLaren’s switch to Honda for the 2015 season.
It sounds like an MI5 mission. Can we have all the reports like this please ? 🙂
Just having fun…
Please have more fun! This is why I come to your blog!
where is the contract Joe?
this information which you present is highly speculative in my opinion.
are you trading on inside information?
people who are addicted to gambling perhaps would be wise to dismiss this entire blog for liability reasons.
just in case, by acknowledging receipt of this message you ( I ) admit to being over the age of eighteen ( 18 ) meaning that we were born in 1995 at least.
Go read someone else if you don’t believe what you get here! Just stop whining. Time will tell, won’t it?
I’m telling you what is happening and I don’t give a damn whether you think it is speculative or not.
I find it mind-boggling that you think that you know better.
You don’t.
thank you for your response sir.
” mind-boggling” is what Bizarrr Productions is all about monsieur Saward.
be well and enjoy your continuing adventures in F1.
Are you satisfied now? It is odd how one always hear people yapping on when they think something is wrong, but they go very silent when they find out that they were wrong…
A “touché” is appropriate, no?
Another wonderful example of why I don’t bother with many other sources of F1.
Thank you.
What an inflammatory and ill-advised comment (I’d put it harsher) but as Joe says if you don’t like this reporting then don’t visit. I for one quite enjoy Joe’s reporting (yes it may not always be correct – however even I can’t pin that to a particular statement…) Go and enjoy the conservative mainstream sites…
please just stop, would you? you’re terribly boring and your comments add nothing and just serve to irritate one of the few people on the internet worth reading.
I think most people who read this blog accept the fact that alot of it’s speculative; or do you expect all the teams to allow Joe into their meetings, take minutes and photocopy any and all contracts?
I don’t understand this whole sense of entitlement people have, demanding evidence for opnions or behind-the-scenes info – if it turns out he’s wrong, who cares? It’s a free blog.
If you were paying for GP+ and the factually reported stuff was false you’d have every right to gripe, but it’s not. It’s a blog. It’s the equivalent of having a banter with your mates about what’s going on in F1, except one of them happens to be involved with F1. Don’t know about you, but when I’m discussing F1 and I give my opinion, or I share anything I may have heard going on, I don’t constantly get hassled to back it up with documentary evidence; kind of ironic that I get an easier ride than someone that someone whose opinion is actually worth something…
I was just wondering Joe that what influenced Williams to have Mercedes engines rather than continue with Renault for the next three years?
Price I’d assume? Aren’t Renault asking more for their new power trains than everyone else?
I guess it is what happens when you base a company is France and have to pay all the social charges and higher supplier fees… This (and the ridiculous Evin’s Law) is why F1 in France is now virtually dead…
I would like to see a new blog entry on this sometime please Joe.
When it is confirmed it will be news again.
for me, this is as good news as we could have hoped for at this time, this at least gives a steady platform for the team in the next few years.
i fear that with their current level of competitiveness, they’ll have a hard time attracting new sponsorship and i’ve some concerns whether Maldonado would want to stay with the team next year, combined wth all the exodus recently (Toto Wolfe, Mark Gallan etc) all these pointed to quite a bleak future for the team from my point of view.
can they turn it around? none of their recent developments seem to be working/helping.
So why do it when the press are there?
Only you Joe can lay out a plot comprising some of the sport’s protagonists with such acerbic style. Quality journalism indeed.
It would be wonderful to see Wiliams once again among the top teams. Who else, aside from McLaren and Ferrari, have so much continuous history in the sport?
Joe is this contract purely due to the deal Toto has made for them or can it offer them the step forward they have been looking for? For example do Merc offer better support than Renault?
Given Renault powered Red Bull are triple world champions it doesn’t suggest Mercedes are the game changer over Renault but you expect they’ll be cheaper – which would likely help Williams budget.
Joe,
This is the fourth engine supplier Williams has in recent years : Toyota, Cosworth, Renault and now Mercedes. You’ll probably tell me next year engine’s new rules will erase anything from the past and I do understand money is key for Williams (and this is the reason why they have Maldonado). But I cannot understand how they believe they are going to establish themselves as a strong team – which is key to the sucess in every business – with such massives changes over the years. I don’t get it. Only logical answer is either surviving and having a budget is their only target at the moment or they know they can’t be anthing else from a midfield tems (at best). It’s a shame for such a glorious team. What do you think?
That would make more than 10 yrs since the last works deal, I wonder when it will regain that status, if ever.
Williams Mercedes… wow. I just hope they can build a car around that new power train and afford to get rid of donkonado.
Maldonado has won more championships in lower categories than Mark Webber.
The one thing no-one can accuse Pastor of being is slow. He is a very quick peddler and Williams have worked hard to reign him in.
Maldonado isn’t slow. He’s just stupid and dangerous and inconsistent. He was banned from WSbR as early as 2005 for half a season for brainless, dangerous driving that led to a marshal serious injury, and he never learned the lesson. It’s also never his fault He also took 4 years to win the GP2 title and the only other title he won was the Italian FRenault. Comparing his junior career with that of MW is like comparing apples and oranges especially because MW got to formula 1 based on speed while PM got there half on speed and half on Venezuelan dictator’s money. He is unworthy of a Williams seat, which is a team with a proud, honest heritage, and IMO he’s unworthy of an F1 seat at all
And nobody notices these things but you. Thanks. It must be wonderful to be there every race! Enjoy the extra time in the apartment! Can you post some pics of behind the scenes?
I love this. Thanks (again) for your continued insights. I still check your blog everyday and the comments are always entertaining too!
I’m not sure what they’ll gain over Renault in performance really. Must be just a money thing?
Finally, Mercedes-Benz is very active in 2014. I would not have believed it.
Renault will announce soon Catheram and Toro Rosso. Meanwhile at Ferrari …
Absolute gem: George Smiley lives.
Perhaps they get 1000k mid-season Pirelli tyre testing at Barcelona thrown in as well… 😉
Read the latest story
“Just having fun…”
me too
Joe, what are you hearing about tires; I read an article this a.m. stating that Hankook was likely to supply the 2014 rubber.
That will never happen
Thank goodness!
Joe – is there any possibility (when combined with Chavez’s passing) that the engine deal will see Pastor leave at the end of the season?
No idea.
Fascinating, thanks.