Williams launches £1m legal action after historic F1 car goes missing
Williams has found itself in a curious legal battle after one of its historic F1 cars vanished without a trace.
Williams has found itself embroiled in a bizarre legal battle after one of the team’s historic Formula 1 cars vanished from a garage without explanation.
The British team is suing a garage owner for £1million after the FW23 - driven by Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya during the 2001 F1 season - went missing from a garage in Telford.
Williams loaned the FW23 F1 car to Autotech Performance Ltd in 2015 to become a showpiece at the firm’s garage. But when the team requested it to be returned six years later, it had no response.
Autotech has since gone into liquidation and been dissolved. But Williams has launched legal against local garage owner and former Autotech director Peter Thorpe.
Williams claims that that Thorpe wrongly informed his company’s liquidators that he personally owns the car, and had it removed from the garage in question.
Thorpe is challenging the claim, but Williams has demanded the immediate return of the FW43, or financial compensation exceeding £1million to cover the loss.
The former director insists he never claimed personal ownership of the FW23 and argues that the car was still at the garage in the summer of 2021, which was the last time Thorpe was on site before the company was dissolved.
Thorpe’s legal representatives also state that Thorpe suffers from poor memory after having a stroke in 2018.
In written submissions to the court, Richard Clegg, a barrister representing Williams, said: “On a date unknown after the commencement of Autotech’s voluntary liquidation, or thereabouts, the car was removed from the premises", adding that Thorpe maintained at the time that he had “moved abroad to work and would refer the matter to his legal representatives in the UK”.
The FW23 is an incredibly rare car, with only nine manufacturered. Williams values the car at £750,000.
It won four races and took 19 podiums, four pole positions and set eight fastest laps in 17 grands prix in 2001.
Williams last won an F1 world championship in 1997, when it claimed both the constructors’ and drivers’ titles.
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