Key points:
- Claire Williams explores the parallels of the Formula 1 and iGaming industries
- The interview explores regulation, high-pressure environments, innovation and attention to detail
- Her Q&A opens the Pulse Theatre stage at day one of iGB Live 2025
Introduced by Michael Caselli, Clarion’s Non-Executive Chairman - Claire Williams OBE steps onto the stage, commenting on how many times she has been to the ExCel, and has never seen a set up “quite like this.”
Briefly, Williams comments on her Father’s legacy setting up the Williams F1 team and how she began her career at Silverstone - and moved over to Williams as a Junior Press Officer after building up her career in a move that had “nothing to do with nepotism!”
From 2012, she helped to run the Williams F1 team as Team Principal for eight years.
Interviewer Nadine Dereza opens the Q&A by quizzing Williams on the biggest challenges in her career, to which she replies that during the 2019-2020 period, a contracted sponsor for the team never paid the £20m funding for the upcoming 2020 season.
After managing to plug the financial hole, she was told that their Australian GP was to be called off due to Covid-19, resulting in severe losses that multiplied over the course of the season.
Williams reflects on the “incredibly hard” decision to sell her family business - as they could no longer afford to run the team. She additionally reflects on the trials of trying to negotiate a sale during a time when people were unable to physically meet or go into the office.
Dereza moves on to draw comparisons between the constant high performance required in both the iGaming and F1 industries.
Williams states that she has come here and immediately been struck by the high-pressure and large-scale feel of the industry - as well as how she knows, from working in F1, that no matter how glamorous things may appear, the work behind the final result cannot be underestimated.
Recognition of the effort put in behind putting on these events, Williams states, is absolutely key. She explains that the first thing every driver does after a race is shake hands with the individuals on their mechanics team - a gesture which is absolutely key to maintaining a positive working environment and competitive, team spirit.
Investing in new technologies and optimising performance is the next comparative area of focus touched on by Dereza, to which Williams clarifies that business, at its core, is always about continuous innovation.
Constant tweaking over the course of a F1 seasons is required for an optimised performance. But, similarly to the industry, these innovations have to be achieved within the marginal territories of regulation. Indeed, fine-tuning the smallest details to make up the equivalent to a “tenth of a second” here-and-there will help you to leapfrog your competition.
Formula 1 is nothing without innovation
Williams talks about the 2 seconds required to pit-stop a car, explaining how the physical build of each mechanic - alongside dozens of additional specific details, are assessed every day by F1 teams to ensure optimisation. She states that, during her time at Williams, her team managed to achieve a 1.8 second stop.
Dereza asks a key question to Williams about the most transformational revolutions she has seen in the sport. In response, Williams states that, when she came into F1, there was a lot of money in the sport, and it was estimated to be the second-most watched sport in the world.
Since numbers began to drop off during the 2010s, Williams explains that the Netflix series Drive to Survive has been transformational for recovering the sport’s engagement figures. She states that the power of the programme has changed the approach of all F1 teams with regard to allowing camera crews behind the scenes - as well as now seeing Brad Pitt lead an F1 film!
Comparing the succession story of bet365’s Denise Coates from her Father to Williams’ story, Dereza asks about the challenge of female executive representation.
Williams states: “All I can say is diversity and inclusion in this day and age, to me, is a non-negotiable.”
She explains that when she entered the industry, women were limited to press jobs and related fields - and were never seen in areas such as the engineering teams. Further, she underscores that - even as a Team Principal - the noise around being a women in that position, particularly pertaining to sexist journalism, drove her to want to implement change within the industry. Williams highlights that diversity should just be a ‘nice to have’ but a top-to-bottom priority that is accepted company-wide.
Wrapping up, the topic of AI (unsurprisingly) is touched on, with Williams posed the question of what excites and concerns her about the technology entering F1.
She explains how the technology within the industry has been revolutionised by computer technology already. Being an F1 purist, Williams explains how the drivers are some of the most supreme athletes in the world, and the machines that they drive are extraordinary machines, made of 20,000 parts, being some of the most advanced man-made machines ever made. Conclusively, she states that she would hate to see the computer take over the sport: “We all want to see the spirit of human performance; there is a place for AI and a balance to be achieved within our industries and, more broadly, human life for this technology.”
