WILLIAMS F1 SUES GARAGE OWNER OVER MISSING RACE CAR

Williams Racing has launched High Court action against Peter Thorpe, a former director of Shropshire-based Autotech Performance Ltd, over a historic Formula One car that went missing after being loaned to the firm's Telford garage. The Formula One team says the FW23 car, one of only nine built by Williams and driven by Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya during the 2001 World Championship, formed part of its heritage car collection before it was lent to Autotech in 2015 as a showpiece. Williams says it received no response when it asked for the car's return in 2021, and that Autotech later entered liquidation and was dissolved. Williams is seeking either the return of the roughly £750,000 car or a payment exceeding £1m. Lawyers for the team allege Thorpe had the car removed from the garage after wrongly telling Autotech's liquidators that he personally owned it.

Thorpe, 58, is contesting the claim, saying in his defence that he never told anyone he owned the car because he knew that to be untrue. He says he does not know the car's current location, citing a poor memory following a stroke, and that he cannot recall speaking to the liquidators. He maintains the car was still at the site when he last visited in summer 2021, before the company was dissolved. Williams' barrister, Richard Clegg, told the court the car had been loaned under a "Historic Car Loan Agreement" whose terms Autotech had agreed to.

Williams says it strictly controls the use and sale of its heritage fleet to preserve the cars, and that it wrote to Autotech in October 2021 seeking to inspect the vehicle and terminate the loan arrangement. The case remains before the High Court, with Thorpe disputing Williams' account of events.