Formula 1 Events

Williams could have signed driver Lewis Hamilton in 2004 but its former engine partner, BMW, passed up the chance.

The Formula 1 team’s co-founder Patrick Head told reporters Hamilton and his father Anthony had visited the team’s factory that year after falling out with McLaren while he was racing in Formula 3 Euroseries.

"They rang up and said ‘can we come and see you?’," he recalled, "and they came in and said ‘(McLaren boss) Ron Dennis has dropped us’.

"We were with BMW at the time and I think Frank rang (BMW’s then-motorsport director) Mario Theissen and said ‘look, this guy looks as if he could be pretty good and whatever and he has come to us saying can we help him’," Head continued

"They rang up and said ‘can we come and see you?’" - Patrick Head
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"I think Mario said BMW wasn’t prepared to provide any support and we weren’t in a position to finance his racing. So, much to Frank’s annoyance (now), he could have had Lewis in a Williams."

Head is now a co-owner of the former champion team which now has Toyota engines.

Hamilton is now one of the hottest properties in motorsport, has won four F1 races and was joint Drivers’ championship runner-up in 2007 after the most sensational debut by a rookie driver.

McLaren announced earlier in 2008 that it had agreed to a new five-year deal that will keep the now 23-year-old with them to the end of the 2012 season. - Reuters